Year: 2020

Superstition

Posted on by Olaf

Perhaps you don’t think of yourself as superstitious but take another look! Do you try not to count the number of magpies in a ‘parliament’ (those troublesome birds), avoid walking under ladders (surely that’s just common-sense), wonder if things really do come in threes or stop yourself thinking if it’s good or bad luck to see that black cat?! Such things may seem innocent and are often handed down from one generation to another. How many coins lie at the bottom of this ‘wishing well’?  Would it be harmful to lob one in or doesn’t it matter?  The child of God probably knows the answer or will instinctively have a ‘feel’ for whether it’s right to have the palm read or throw salt over the shoulder.  Are there any past or present practices in your life that have passive or active power over you?

  •  ‘Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing’ – Helen Keller
  • ‘Superstition is the religion of feeble minds’ – Edmund Burke

Legacy issues

Posted on by Olaf

When many hear the word ‘legacy’, their minds run to what they stand to gain.  Where does it lead you?  The person who built this stile might have hoped his or her legacy would have lasted somewhat better than this broken down remnant.  By definition, a legacy is what we leave behind for those who follow.  Mostly, the legacy is a bequest of physical possessions and assets to family members, friends or others who we may want to bless.  Sometimes there may be legacy issues leading to a squabble over a Will.  Perhaps a dispute may arise from an aggrieved person who feels left out or hard done by.  However, the truth is that we all give legacies in life and in death to all those who are part of our lives.  The abandoned footpath sign accompanying this broken stile is a poor legacy.  Contrast that with the better legacy given by the person who taught you to read a map and use a compass.   Now is a good time then to consider the legacy you give to others each day.

  • ‘Legacy is not what I did for myself. It's what I'm doing for the next generation’ – Vitor Belfort

Jubilee

Posted on by Olaf

In April 2012, an estimated £1.3 billion was spent celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth ll.  This is somewhat ironic as the word ‘jubilee’ is a biblical term associated with the cancelling of debts – a time of emancipation and restoration, supposed to be kept every fifty years.  It can be applied to any big anniversary for a reigning monarch and is to be a time of jubilation.  What is it that makes you jubilant?  Is it the same thing that makes God jubilant? There are many indications that you will find this ‘Jubilee’ in the heart of God as will be explored in this Booster. To understand freedom you must first understand captivity and oppression.  With the pandemic of 2020 came an oppression of people as rich and poor alike had to wear face masks, endure lockdowns and long for release.  When a vaccine was discovered and lockdowns ended, people discarded their masks – a bizarre symbol of jubilee.

  • ‘Life is one long jubilee’ – Ira Gershwin

APPETITE

Posted on by Olaf

It was the American Chef Sherry Yard who said, ‘The appetite starts with the eye’.   As a famous TV judge and cookbook author, she would know a lot about presentation and the importance of the visual but she could equally have said that appetite starts with the nose, the mind or with the tummy rumbles.  However, we all know that whilst appetite is usually taken to mean a desire for food, it can apply to things besides food such as money, sex, possessions and power.  Have you noticed that the more a person craves for something the more they crave?!  Then what happens is that the thing that is desired for consumption turns to become the predator and consumes the person.  Healthy appetites are a good thing but cravings lead to loss of control and a farewell to satisfaction.  A person should be well-satisfied with this plate of food but this would not be true for everyone.

  • ‘Appetite, craving for food, is a constant and powerful stimulator of the gastric glands’ – Ivan Pavlov

The Whisper of God

Posted on by Olaf

How are your ossicles today?!  These three tiny bones in your middle ear are known as the malleus, incus, and stapes.  More commonly they are referred respectively to as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup.  Although these are the smallest bones in your body, each play a vital role in your hearing.  'Shell-like' has been used to mean a person's ear since the late 19th century. Clearly this refers to the ear's shape with its opening and possibly the fact that shells were used as the earliest form of hearing aids! The earliest citation of the phrase ‘shell-like’ is Thomas Hood's romantic poem Bianca's Dream, 1827: ‘This, with more tender logic of the kind, He poured into her small and shell-like ear’.  What do you hear in your shell-like? It all rather depends on how close you are to the one speaking and how much noise is going on around you.  This applies to the two types of hearing – natural and supernatural.

  • ‘You never really learn much from hearing yourself talk’ – George Clooney

Faithfulness

Posted on by Olaf

Is this a modern or old-fashioned word would you say?  Can you remember the last time you heard it used?  Does it belong to fairy tales of the past and the world of the gramophone?  Peter Rabbit might have chewed carrots like they were going out of fashion but let us chew on the relevance or otherwise of ‘faithfulness’ for our society today and for our own lives.  True enough, the word may belong to a relatively small circle, but the concept is still very much needed.  You may struggle to find many examples of this beautiful and most precious attribute lauded in the public arena but you will find many relationships that would have thrived if it was applauded in our private lives.  In this era of Tweets, faithfulness is perhaps seen as being a little ‘twee’.  How would you value it or quantify it?

  • ‘Indeed, this life is a test. It is a test of many things – of our convictions and priorities, our faith and our faithfulness, our patience and our resilience, and in the end, our ultimate desires’ – Sheri L Dew

Revealing all

Posted on by Olaf

What do you see in this picture?  How might you associate it with the title?  Which way are you already thinking? Your answers to those three questions could be revealing your inner thoughts, perceptions and prejudices! Some things lurk in the alleyways of our minds that we wish did not so we keep them locked up as we do not want others to know they live in our ‘zoo’!  We tend to make assessments based on limited information and on inner biases rather too quickly.  If you look again, you will be able to see five water fowl that resemble adolescent ducklings but are in fact cygnets preening themselves, not fully aware that they are in process of becoming beautiful swans.  Hans Christian Andersen wrote ‘The Ugly Duckling’ in 1843 – what do you remember about it? 

  • ‘I realized that bullying never has to do with you. It's the bully who's insecure’ – Shay Mitchell

Portals

Posted on by Olaf

Mortals love portals!  Technically speaking, on the one hand portals refer to gateways, doors and openings.  On the other, a portal specifically means a website or web page providing access or links to other sites.  It is a word that has grown in popularity and breadth of application to include video games and various secure log-in technologies. How do you understand the word?  What portals would you say that you use or rely on for your everyday life or for the deeper things? With the rapid changes, today’s technology will be yesterday’s technology tomorrow!  You need multiple connections to keep up but even those portals for mortals are soon out of date. 

  •  ‘A portal is a transitionary device of sight or sound that functions as a sort of third gravitating body between the this and the that, pulling us toward itself, allowing us to bridge into the unknown from the known’ – Roy H Williams

Always there

Posted on by Olaf

There’s a neat little thing people sometimes say to bring comfort: ‘I’m always there for you’! How does it ring true to your own life experience?  Growing up, we want to know that someone is with us and that we’re not alone.  It is only natural for a child to find the dark frightening, to be anxious on the first day at school or if becoming separated from a parent’s reassuring hand in a crowded street.  To be lost and alone is to feel helpless and hopeless. When the skies are dark and menacing, there is an inbuilt need to know that someone is truly near to bring help and a comforting presence.  The childhood comforts of a dummy to suck or a teddy to cuddle may pacify a toddler but are of no use as adulthood approaches.  Child or adult, the need to have someone always there remains despite the small comfort of substitutes, denial or just putting on a ‘brave face’.

  • ‘Loneliness is my least favourite thing about life. The thing that I'm most worried about is just being alone without anybody to care for or someone who will care for me’ – Anne Hathaway

Fake

Posted on by Olaf

So much of what we see and hear in the world today is fake!  Who can you believe in this the age of phishing, scams, hoaxes and deception?  When is it safe to click on a hyperlink or to open an email attachment? What happened to the world where people generally mean what they say and where you can turn on your computer without fear of ransomware or the need for antivirus software?  Since the dawn of time there have been half-truths, heists and frauds but it has infiltrated modern life at every level, aided, abetted and accelerated by technology. The wise person knows all that glitters is not gold but cannot always detect the counterfeit because it looks so genuine.  Back in the day, old bank notes like these shown were held up to the light to distinguish the false from the real currency.  Now it is more complicated, to the point that you can’t even be sure whether media news is true let alone the notes in your wallet, that is if you still use them.   

  • ‘Fake news and rumours thrive online because few verify what's real and always bias towards content that reinforces their own biases’ – Ryan Higa