Tag: direction

On the Compost Heap

Posted on by Olaf

There are subtle distinctions between a scrapyard and a compost heap although nobody wants to end up in either of them! Unwanted junk heads to the scrapyard to be pulled apart or for crushing. By contrast, careful thought is given to those items put on the compost heap where processes of transformation for beneficial regeneration take place and some useful habitats are created for wildlife. There are certainly some damaging things in life like bad choices and their outcomes that we are best sent to the scrap yard.

Christmas

Posted on by Olaf

When you were young, who took the lead role in master-minding your Christmas Day celebrations?  Was it your mum, dad, perhaps jointly or maybe someone else? In days of ‘yore’, people used to enjoy foraging in the countryside for mistletoe and holly with berries to ‘deck the halls’.  The Christmas tree had to be real, reach up to the ceiling and be a well-balanced shape. Nowadays there’s pressure to buy artificial ones but apparently real ones have a smaller carbon footprint and allegedly up to ten trees are planted for every one cut down. Gifts would be spread around the base of the tree with littles ones balanced on branches along with baubles, lights and tinsel making a colourful staircase to the fairy on the top. Carols would be sung, gifts given, TV watched and many calories consumed. It was God the Father who carefully oversaw the preparations for the first Christmas – he still watches to see our reactions to his most precious gift to us … often sadly obscured by the tree and by trivia.

  • ‘Christmas is the day that holds all time together’ – Alexander Smith
  • ‘He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree’ – Roy L Smith

Landmarks

Posted on by Olaf

Every locality has its landmarks and we all use them for navigating around our landscapes.  A few like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty are notable beyond their locality, but most only mean something to locals.  When a familiar old tree is taken down or a favourite shop closes, there is a sense of loss and some disorientation.  The pictured monument is probably known only to a very few readers – it is placed in heathland to mark the proximity of habitat for Wild Cranberries, the Woodlark and Nightjar.  Some have creatively also used it for geocaching so if it was moved it would be confusing for dog walkers and for those searching for their next geocache answer.  You will have some landmarks that mean a lot to you but little to others.  Come to that, in the landscape of life, you will have people or events that are significant landmarks particularly to you.  Perhaps you are a landmark for others like a cairn on a mountain walk to help them on their way.  

  • ‘The bees learn where they live by landmarks. If they're moved within their home range, they get confused’ – Gene Robinson
  • ‘All the aftermath that so frequently follows in the wake of war still confront the nation, and we now, as ever before, must hold fast to the ancient landmarks and see to it that all of these plagues that threaten so mightily shall be rendered harmless’ – Alexander Henry

Recalibration

Posted on by Olaf

There are certain big events in life that can set us back on our heels, bring us down to our knees, make us reconsider the direction of our lives or call for a complete reset. Here are a few – broken relationship, loss, accident, redundancy or retirement.  When we embark on a new relationship or obtain a new job, adjustments and calculations need to be made to the allocation of limited time, effort and finances.  A similar process happens with these ‘life turning points’.  We may need to rethink our goals, abandoning some that seem out of date, revising others or setting ourselves new aspirations. Machines and instruments need careful initial calibration as well as occasional recalibration.  Bodies and minds can sometimes need this too.  Crises don’t only come in midlife.  What was the last big event that caused you to have a recalibration and how are you doing since?  Clouds are continually forming and reforming with the changing meteorological conditions. There is even such a thing as ‘Recalibration of Neural Networks for Point Cloud Analysis’ used in research to help with the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease! What shape are your clouds and can you spot any recalibration going on?

  • ‘Sometimes in order for change to be made in a positive fashion, we must force ourselves to look unblinkingly at painful realities and re-evaluate’ – Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman

One Life, Live It!

Posted on by Olaf

There are many who will tell you how to live your life but who’s right?  The ‘global wellness market’ is said to be valued at over $4.75 trillion and growing at more than 6% a year.  It is a big business with therapists and ‘experts’ galore waiting to take people’s money and time to deal with their insecurities, hopes and dreams.  Entertainment channels massage our desires and advertisers prey on our egos as we fall victim to the exploitation of others.  Often the young want to be older whilst  the old want to be younger; the employed want to retire, the retired wish they still had purpose in work; those in the shade want sun, those in the sun want shade.  What about you now?  Do you long to be beside the sea for a long relaxing holiday that drifts into retirement or are you already living the life you dream of?

‘If I knew yesterday what I know today, where would I be tomorrow?
I won't let my soul slide away, I'd do whatever it takes
'Cause this time's only borrowed
I got one life, one life, one life and I'm gonna live it
I got one life, one life, one life and I'm gonna live it right’ – James Morrison

Boundaries

Posted on by Olaf

When it comes to boundaries, love them or loathe them, we all have them albeit at different levels. They exist all around us, helping to define us and shape how we interact within the world we live.  They can be physical, spiritual, moral and intellectual.  Some will say that they refuse to be limited by them and will press through to achievements we can admire – perhaps artists, explorers, inventers and athletes.  Others, believing themselves to be ‘free-thinkers’, might refuse to acknowledge legal and moral boundaries and are far from admirable role models.   Yet whether you call them boundaries, parameters, boarders, safety nets or limitations, we need them and rely on them.  Without them, it becomes a virtual world where nothing is real and everything is real, a world of fantasy.  How aware are you of your personal boundaries and how have they changed over time? These white cliffs look pretty fixed but even they have moved over time.  Time itself is a boundary for every human being.

  • ‘Boundaries are to protect life, not to limit pleasures’ – Edwin Louis Cole

Many are the plans

Posted on by Olaf

It has been said that our plans amuse God!   We can all certainly think of plans made at different stages of our lives that have come to nothing and perhaps seem foolish or naïve in retrospect.  Compare the innocence of lambs which have no plans to those which litter the graves of every human being!  Does that mean to say that it is wrong to plan?  Have we not been given brains to weigh up options, consider priorities and find the best solutions to problems?  It is the direction and motive behind every plan that is of greatest significance.  Is the goal solely to satisfy self, even at the expense of others or perhaps in some way to have disregard for God’s ways?  

  • ‘The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile’ – Psalm 94:11
  • ‘Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails’ – Proverbs 19:21