Tag: help

Can’t take any more?

Posted on by Olaf

Sometimes it feels that it ‘never rains but it pours’. One thing comes after another and you feel beaten down by the harsh winds of life. You begin to feel that it isn’t fair as you compare your circumstances to those of others who seem to be coasting easily through life. Take this battered grass – it’s nearly over and one more strong wind might just snap it. You know the proverb about the straw that breaks the camel’s back and you wonder how much more you can take… genuinely.

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.

Empathy

Posted on by Olaf

The quaint old phrase ‘fellow feeling’ is not used much these days.  The word ‘empathy’ is more in vogue if you are trying to explain something beyond sympathy.  Those kind condolences, that sad smile or hand on a shoulder may convey sorrow that you genuinely feel for a person in grief.  Such sympathy may be shown with flowers, a baked cake or a cup of coffee but it is something less than empathy where that sorrow is deeply known and understood because it has been part of your experience too.  You’ve walked that walk along that path and in those shoes, fully engaged, feeling the slope of the hill of sorrow and the hard ground through the soles.  Comfort from a friend who truly empathises is akin to someone walking with you and carrying your backpack to ease your load.  These swaying reeds speak of God’s empathy with us.

  • ‘The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy’ – Meryl Streep
  • ‘Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It’s all through our own individual prisms’ – Sterling K Brown

DRIFT

Posted on by Olaf

Some facts of life we are taught and some we discover! Here’s one that you may not have been told but is nonetheless a reality to be observed – DRIFT.  People can seem firmly rooted in relationships, in jobs, in morals, in safety, in belief and faith until the powerful tides of life come along and drift begins.  Like a boat that is moored with apparently securely knotted ropes, the knots can be found wanting, gradually loosening until the boat floats away from its moorings. It may be more sudden as when lightning hits a riverside tree dispatching a branch to the whims of the sea. Who knows which tree this piece of driftwood came from and its story before it was found battered and washed up on a remote beach in New Zealand?

  •  ‘To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor' – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr

Enlightenment

Posted on by Olaf

What do you see in the picture?  People perceive, analyse and imagine in different ways but for this challenge there is only one right answer.  Enlightenment will come as you read on!  The very word ‘enlightenment’ can be taken in three ways – simply, it could be the process where someone is given greater knowledge and understanding about a subject or situation.  It can also refer to a spiritual opening of the eyes or to a European movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries. More of that to come but first, how much of life is shaped by conspiracy theories, shadowy speculations and secret societies, some of which were created during the ‘Age of Enlightenment’? There are those who claim to have special knowledge which can lead to cults being formed, rituals being practiced and controlling power being wielded. Human beings are drawn to these darker things.

  • ‘I think the Enlightenment is leading us into a dark hole, really’ – David Hockney

COMFORT

Posted on by Olaf

What does the word ‘comfort’ mean to you?  To some, it means a lovely handsome slice or two of cake!  For others, it’s going to be booking a holiday, getting the pay bonus, soaking in a long hot bath or perhaps resorting to the bottle.  One list of the top ten comforts taken abroad includes tea bags, slippers, tomato sauce, your own pillow, a dressing gown and a photo of a pet!  Maya Angelou had a very hard life but said this: ‘The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken’.  No doubt we all have our own lists but these are all comforts for the body which have a temporary value.  How about the comfort we need for the soul? 

  •  ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy’ – Martin Luther King

WISDOM ON THE WAY

Posted on by Olaf

Moral dilemmas and ethics have always been around and always will be whilst the earth spins – in a certain situation, what is the right thing to do, think or say?   Journalists, the media, writers of books and films know that these make good stories which sell by holding a mirror up to entertain and enthral us.  On the way through life, no doubt you’ve had some dilemmas to consider and you know there will be more to come.  How can we know what is wise?  The young should be able to look to their elders for maturity and wisdom as to the right way to take when facing a moral crossroads.  We are often confronted with professionals and experts but not often with wisdom.  What sometimes passes as worldy wisdom often falls short of God’s wisdom as revealed in the Bible.  Where are you drawing your wisdom from for your dilemmas?  Some and some – here are some carefully selected for you to sift through:

just CLINGING ON

Posted on by Olaf

Sometimes it seems that your faith is hanging on by a thread as life falls apart – a spouse deserts you, an illness is diagnosed, a loved one dies.  It can be as sudden as one of those tragedies that hits you out of the blue or it can be a sustained ‘East Wind’ prevailing against you – lack of support from church, loneliness in your faith, depression.

Despite strong roots, a tree can be bent sideways by prevailing winds – and yet, they can still hold on.  A limpet will cling on, but one sudden tap from a seagull when it’s not prepared and it’s history.  If you’re reading this, you may identify more with the tree than the limpet.  God seems to allow ‘prevailing winds’ into our lives of many sundry kinds but they do shape us.  Take Jacob – using sleight of hand to deceive he was always on the move, suffering family traumas and personal insecurity, he learnt to sleep using a rock as a pillow!  

MENTAL HEALTH

Posted on by Olaf

Sometimes life can seem like a game of mental health snakes and ladders – people going up, people going down, people passing by, people going somewhere, people going nowhere.  You can be sure that this is everyone you meet, past, present and future in this stressful world.

  • ‘Mental health is a continuum, and people may fall anywhere on the spectrum.  You certainly can’t prevent all mental health problems – factors like genetics and traumatic life events certainly play a role. But everyone can take steps to improve their mental health and prevent further mental illness’ – Amy Morin

FEAR

Posted on by Olaf

Fear paralyses – absolute fear paralyses absolutely.  It can’t always be rationalised for it is often irrational.  The face of fear has many masks but our fears must be faced if we are to be free to live a life worth living.

‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear’ – Nelson Mandela

‘We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light’ – Plato

So what fears are you facing?  Are they long-standing fears that have dogged your life from childhood or are they the dogs that began to stalk the corridors of your adult mind?