The Strongest Link

Is Compassion the strongest link?

My current employment is in the voluntary sector working on the Community Innovations Team, a Hampshire County-wide initiative aiming through early intervention and prevention to reduce the number and severity of hospital admissions for elderly people, and to assist them to retain their independence for longer.

My role has been to identify and map the existing services and activities for older people in the area and to communicate with the Social Worker, Occupational Therapist and Community Support Worker to ensure they are able to signpost their clients appropriately.

I share an office with the Dial-a-Ride drivers and their co-ordinator.  Today one of the Dial-a-Ride drivers asked if anyone happened to have a spare shopping trolley - one of his regular passengers, an elderly lady, had recently had a fall and broken her arm and was now struggling to carry her shopping. I suggested we might find one for her through the Freecycle website, and promptly posted a 'Wanted' ad.  Towards the end of the day, I checked my mail and discovered a Freecycler had responded, offering a shopping trolley his parents no longer needed.  I picked it up on my way home from work and dropped it off at a colleague's home - I'm not going into the office tomorrow, and she had agreed to take it in and give it to the Dial-a-Ride driver who would deliver it to the passenger.

This evening I was watching the quiz show, "The Weakest Link", and the contestants banked a nice pot of money with an unbroken chain of 9 correct answers.  (In fact they could have banked even more as the next two answers were also correct).

It occurred to me that the story of the shopping trolley was a little similar - a chain of people each putting their small willingness and ability into the pot in order to bring a little joy into an elderly lady's life when she receives a timely gift  from the friendly Dial-a-Ride drivers who treat their customers like extended family.

Postscript:  After writing this blog post, I read the 'Word for Today' which concluded:

Leon Nacson says, 'Always anticipate the best outcome for yourself and others, because when what you expect is just more of the same, that's what you get!' Remember, '...Faith is being sure of what... we do not see' (Hebrews 11:1 NIV). So even when you can't 'see' it, trust God to work on your behalf, to arrange for you to be in the right place at the right time, and for others to go out of their way to help you - and watch God work.

"Go ahead, inconvenience me"

What is it that prompts us to do something different spontaneously? I have my own theory. Recently I read a blog post by Mark Landreth-Smith. (Follow the link if you'd like to read it yourself). Called 'The 15 Revolution' after a book by Paul Scanlon, Mark's post informed me the book has a motto: "Go ahead, inconvenience me".

Normally when I drive home, I come up College Ride. Today on impulse I used the A30 route. As I was approaching the traffic lights at Caesar’s Camp Road, I noticed on the opposite pavement a cyclist sitting down with the bike lying nearby. It was obvious at first glance the cyclist had come off, with large dark stains all down one side. This much I took in as I sped by. I wanted to get home quick because I needed to use the bathroom (having ignored the inner prompting to use the loo at work before I came away). Then Mark's blog post came to mind – the motto from the book, “Go ahead, inconvenience me”. As a result, I turned around and went back, pulling up alongside the cyclist. I’d thought it was a teenage boy, in fact it was a Slovakian lady in her 50’s cycling home from work. It was clear she had had a nasty fall and was badly bruised and shaken up. Together we managed to load the bike in the back of the car (it’s what estate cars are for) and set off for Blackwater where she was able to direct me to her home. She was very grateful (and I was very grateful to be able to use her bathroom before I came home). Seems the book’s influence is wider than its readership, thanks to the power of the internet!

Concert, favours, synchronicity

Last night I went to see Suzanne Vega in concert at The Anvil in Basingstoke. It was my friend's choice - my knowledge of the music scene isn't as extensive as his and I didn't recognise any of her work. Very talented lyricist with a pretty voice. Suzanne told the story behind many of the songs, which made it more interesting. One about New York being a woman led to a conversation with the audience, explaining that at the previous gig in London, she had asked the audience if London was male or female, and been told 'female' ... then asked how that female would be characterised. Someone retorted that if New York was a woman, London was a whore! She put the same question to Basingstoke - would people of Basingstoke characterise the town as male or female. It seemed the majority agreed 'male' and one lady in the front stalls suggested Basingstoke is a 'conservative pig', which had the audience laughing. Suzanne pretended to find inspiration for a whole new song in this.

Today was a nice day. It began with my accustomed reading/meditation on a lesson from 'A Course in Miracles' on the theme of being led by the Voice for Truth: "I will step back and let Him lead the way". I had an early morning phone call from a friend asking if I could do her a favour, and happily I was already planning to visit the place where she was asking me to go as I had an appointment there, so that was an easy favour to grant.

After the phone call, I took some stuff down the municipal dump and went from there to (son) Dave's house. He wasn't at home, but whilst I was parked outside his house a delivery van arrived with something he'd ordered. I unlocked the garage and the delivery man carefully unloaded the large item, delighted that he wouldn't have to come back again some other time. The timing couldn't have been better. I sent Dave a text letting him know and he phoned back equally delighted.

Later still I went to the allotment and picked a handful of ripe strawberries, then back home I had a super text from (daughter) Vicky letting me know she has been offered the job she interviewed for on Monday and asking if I could help her out with something which again was very easy to grant. We arranged that as she's coming up this way at the weekend to attend an old school friend's party, she'll come to visit on Sunday.

Tooth Fairy & Letters to Juliet

Monday night's treat was a trip to Woking to see The Tooth Fairy which had me laughing out loud. It was an early screening and we had a tasty meal at the Auberge afterwards. Then Thursday night my gallant escort suggested another trip to the cinema, this time for the romantic Letters to Juliet. Given the later start I had time to get home from work and prepare us a simple meal before we went. It was an enjoyable end to a good day - earlier in the day I'd visited a couple of community activities (in my role as a Community Development Worker) and felt a sense of things going ok. I notice I'm dialling back my positivity a notch - I want to say things went well - not sure what that's about unless perhaps a fear that being overly positive could adversely affect outcomes.

The message of The Tooth Fairy is the value of dreams, and interestingly enough, synchronistically enough, the Word For Today has also been exploring the value of dreams and dreamers. As it's now 10 pm, perhaps it's time for me to sign off here and go and dream a little ...

Through a glass darkly

I'll come back to the title shortly. First I want to talk about synchronicity. I had an email from (son) Dave about my last blog post. Seems on the day I was writing about Douglas Adams and the quantum computer of life, he'd been thinking on the exact same topic. I love it when that happens.

On Thursday evening I went to a Quaker Study Session based on Rex Ambler's work considering the origins of the Quaker movement. We looked at Words of Sarah Jones (as published in "Light's Appearance in the Truth", 1650). Sarah advises that we rest in 'the eternal word', rather than in any manifestations proceeding from the word; to live in the purity and simplicity of truth which has power rather than holding onto the 'form'.

This teaching fits very well with the other works I'm reading: "The Miracle of Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hanh and "A Course in Miracles", both of which encourage he who seeks peace on earth to recognise that the peace dwells within and when we seek that inner peace, we can look beyond the world manifested by ego and see reality... which leads me to the title of this article. 'Through a glass darkly' comes from a biblical quote: 1 Corinthians 13 (King James Version), 'For now we see through a glass, darkly'. The Message version suggests 'We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist'. "A Course in Miracles" teaches that my grievances obscure the light; obscure the miracles that the world would offer if set free (through my forgiveness) to do so. In other words, when I look at the world through the distorting lens of my perception, I'm not seeing the true picture, but something akin to Plato's shadows on a cave wall. Recently I read Betty Eadie's book, 'Embraced by the Light' which also speaks of the earthly world as reflecting our thoughts, and the freedom to see the full and true beauty of reality once released from the prison of the body.

At the study evening, one of the questions for discussion was: are there pros and cons of using words, internally or as vocal ministry? We happened to have three physicists in the room, all of them familiar with Stephen Hawking's book, "A Brief History of Time" (in a room of 9 people - how unrepresentative is that of the population?). One of these worthy gentlemen likened the structure of 'self' to the structure of a black hole as described by Hawking: the majority of our being is non-verbal and highly responsive to all that surrounds it, this response mediated by the 'crust' of our 'chattering verbal self - the ego', thus words effectively forming the 'event horizon' of self (if I've understood correctly).

The study evening included this quote (from Quaker writings, 1659):

Let us in the simplicity of truth abide and dwell... that we be not again led back into the errors of those who went before us, who left the power and got into the form ... but that all they (the ones who come after) may be directed and left to the truth, in it to live and walk, and by it guided ... Wherefore, in love and tenderness ... may (we) all in the unity of the Spirit dwell in the pure wisdom, that none may exercise lordship or dominion over another, nor the person of any be set apart, but as they continue in the power of truth, that truth itself in the body may reign, not persons nor forms ... that our path may be as the way of a ship in the sea, which no deceit can follow or imitate.

Further synchronicity: with that image of the ship in my mind, the next morning I came to the reading from 'The Word for Today': When men first learned to navigate the seas by using the stars, a whole new world opened up to them. A common saying in those days was, 'He who is a slave to the compass enjoys the freedom of the open sea.' The devotional went on to encourage readers to let Christ be our compass in life.

Synchronicity abounds

Coincidence 1) Yesterday I received in email an explanation of the Christmas Carol The First Day of Christmas, and a few minutes after receiving it, a neighbour put a card illustrating the Carol through the door - see below. (If you would like the explanation, feel free to use the comments box to request it, or email me).

Coincidence 2) Vic and I went late night shopping and as we stood in front of the range of sauces such as Tabasco, Reggae Reggae etc, an American guy wearing a back to front baseball cap picked up several bottles of something and put them in his trolley, then came over to us and handed us a bottle, suggesting that if we were looking for something a bit different, we try it, (apparently it’s a bit like Tabasco sauce, not as hot but slightly more flavourful). He explained it was American (like him). He reminded me strongly of John, our friend from Texas who came to visit last year from whom I hadn’t heard for a while. As I thought of John, I predicted to Vic that I would receive an email from him today – sure enough I did.

Coincidence 3) This morning I read today’s Word for Today which speaks of freedom, and then turned to lesson 332 in ‘A Course in Miracles’ where again I read of freedom.

This card is by Cancer Research UK http://www.cancerresearch.org/

Friendly Overtures

Went swimming lunchtime. Met Jill L_ (wife of one of Vic’s former colleagues when he worked for Newbury Data). Jill and I were friends back then, but haven’t seen each other for years and took the opportunity to catch up with each other’s news.

After the swim I picked up a couple of friendly text messages – one from a church friend and one from a friend I made in hospital – plus an email via the FriendsReunited site from someone I shared a house with when we were at Hatfield together.

I reflected on the coincidence of Mark preaching on friendship* on Sunday, encouraging us to move towards others and to deepen our friendships, and the number of friendly overtures suggesting get-togethers I’ve received this week.

*to read about this, click on link – you can use back button on your browser to return to this page.

Blue Eye Shadow

I’d arranged to join a friend (J_) in town for coffee this morning. As I was walking, a memory from my early teen years suddenly came back to me:

The 14 year-old me had put some bright blue eye shadow on and walked across the commons to see a school friend who lived on the other side. Unexpectedly as I had emerged onto the pavement my father was just driving past. He took one look at me, stopped and insisted I get in the car to go home and ‘wash that muck’ off my face, and that I looked like a trollop.

As I thought about this memory, I was thinking how often I have been told I don’t need make-up, and how that reassuring message has set me free to choose. I’d watched a TV programme recently where one mother castigated another for bringing up her girls with the belief that they needed to paint a mask on their faces in order to have confidence to face the world.

Such was the trend of my thoughts as I arrived at the meeting point and waited for J_. When I saw her coming towards me, the first thing I noticed with surprise was her bright blue eye shadow! I made no comment, and we fell into conversation then after a while J_ brought the subject up and explained that she had been upset because Zoom Airline going bankrupt leaves her out of pocket (she had a Zoom return flight to Bermuda booked and paid for). A former work colleague had once told her she needed to brighten herself up a bit by wearing make up – recalling that memory this morning had led to her putting rouge on her cheeks and the blue eye shadow to try and make herself feel brighter.

At the time I made space and listened, trying not to crowd her with my own thoughts and feelings, but later on I was thinking about the synchronicity of the recollection coming to me just before I met her wearing blue eye shadow. That kind of synchronicity seems like a powerful affirmation to me of the concept of Universal Consciousness, of us all being connected. Thinking about how reassuring it has been to me to be told I don’t need make up, I sent J_ an email in which I wrote:

What [former work colleague] told you wasn’t true – you don’t ‘need’ to put on make up to ‘brighten yourself up’. You have a beauty that shines from 'your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight' to quote from 1 Peter chapter 3. I've been reading a book by Eckhart Tolle: 'A New Earth', where he explains the difference between the ego within us and what he terms 'Presence'. It seems that [former work colleague] may have been speaking from Ego rather than from 'Presence' (or holiness/love). It's not to say you can't wear make up if you want to - that choice is yours to make - but to affirm to you that there is a natural beauty within that wants to shine out of you, to be the natural radiance in your face and eyes and life.

If you’re a woman with low self-esteem reading this today, these words are for you, too.

Synchronicity

One of today’s ‘Bible in a Year’ readings is Mark 16:1-8, about Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome going to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid and meeting a ‘young man dressed in a white robe’ who told them not to be alarmed, Jesus had risen. Having read this, I turned to ‘A Course in Miracles’ and discovered today’s Lesson (Lesson 163) is ‘There is no death. The Son of God is free.’ I guess a non-believer would regard this kind of coincidence as no more than the operation of the laws of probability and that it is the believer’s selective attention which seeks to make of it evidence for faith in God. Whatever, it brings joy like a shaft of sunlight penetrating a gloomy place to a believer. Even as I type this, on the radio Stuart McAllister is talking about hope, and the Christian’s hope for the time when there is no more death nor sadness, nor sickness nor pain – where all things are renewed to be as they are meant to be. The presenter’s exposition of salvation doctrine goes on to talk about the present tense: I am being saved – God is at work in my life through the power of His Holy Spirit, transforming me inwardly from the ‘orrible person I once was to one who fully accepts the atonement for myself and accepts the righteousness of Jesus so that my life reflects God’s glory. “Hope is the oxygen of the soul”, he declares. As I reflect on that phrase, a recent TV advert comes to mind for an oxygen-based cleaning product, showing bubbles releasing stubborn stains to give a deep-down clean. Talking of which, Cell group is here tonight so I need to get busy soon and do a bit of cleaning. I’ve already baked some biscuits, and I might just pick a few flowers from the garden to make the place look nice.

PS Having cleaned the bathroom this morning, I went over the allotment this afternoon and cut the grass with the strimmer, then came home and stripped off the clothes I'd been wearing ... showering the bathroom floor in fragments of cut grass! You've got to laugh, haven't you!?!



PPS As usual, I made chicken stock on Sunday (from the chicken carcase). Today I used it to make some leek and potato soup. It was so thick, it literally supported the spoon (and very tasty, might I add).

Hard Work, Synchronicity, Miracle

Bank Holiday Monday

Wet start, but it turned into a sparkling sunny day. Did some weeding over the allotment in the afternoon, and planted up some iceberg lettuce seedlings donated by another plotholder. Sowed some radish and spring onion seeds. In the evening Vic and I went over David’s and met his new bird – a Senegal parrot – and I cemented the introduction by hand-feeding him/her apple for a while. The bird is still young enough not to have moving from one perch to the next fully figured, and his/her clumsy attempts can be entertaining. Colouring-wise, he/she is green on top with a yellow/orange belly and looks like a cross between David’s previous birds, Connie the maroon-bellied conure and Billie the sun conure, but with a shorter tail. Photo may follow in due course.

Tuesday 6th May

Glorious day! Fantastic summer weather. Brian had the day off and picked me up around 10 am. We put in a couple of hours over the allotment, getting the top netting on the fruit cage and preparing the ground where I sowed some more seeds: carrots, parsnips, swede and beetroot. After lunch we put in another couple of hours weeding despite the heat.

In the evening Vic and I went over David’s where I put in another hour’s hard work cutting the knee-high grass in his back garden while the boys chopped down the trees in the front to create enough space on the drive for him to park his car off-road.

Wednesday 7th May

Synchronicity: In my ‘Quiet Time’ I’m following the UCB publication, ‘The Word for Today’, and the Foundation for Inner Peace publication, ‘A Course in Miracles’. Today’s Word for Today carried the story of an eagle egg hatched under a hen along with her other eggs, and how the eagle grew up thinking it was a chicken, engaging in chicken behaviour along with his ‘siblings’, until the day an eagle flew over the chicken yard and the eagle who thought he was a chicken looked up and realised he wanted to be like that eagle – he spread his wings and discovered the power to fly, to soar above the mountain peaks, to be his true self, the creature he was made to be.

Then I turned to Lesson 128 in 'A Course in Miracles' which spoke of soaring beyond the petty scope and little ways of the world we see, about the things which bar our awareness of our true self, of rising far above the world:W-pI.128.6. Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home. 2 It will be grateful to be free a while. 3 It knows where it belongs. 4 But free its wings, and it will fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. 5 Let it rest in its Creator, there to be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love. (from A Course in Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace)

Went back to the Ridgewood today for Doctor’s ward round. The ‘Section’ has now been lifted and I’m classed as a voluntary patient on leave. Medication has been reduced – hooray!

Back home I moved the surviving herbs from the aearogarden into the outdoor herb garden, sanitised the aerogarden and replanted it with the salad greens kit.

In the evening Vic drove me over the allotment so I could do some watering – it’s been another gorgeous summery day – and then we spent an hour over Dave’s where I finished cutting the grass in the back garden, and he and Dave finished chopping down the trees in the front.

Went on to Cell group. Folks were very emotional tonight in response to the miracle – Micky had become blind on 24th April due to a haemorrhage at the back of his ‘good’ eye (he’d previously been unable to see with one eye, but had had 20/20 vision in the other). The church had responded with prayer and fasting, and this week Micky’s daughter had driven down to lay her hands on him and pray over him. He’d felt a bit strange afterwards and rested for a while – when he got up, the healing had begun and gradually through today his sight has recovered to the point he can now recognise faces! The specialist had seen him today and conceded that ‘Nature’ had done what he had been unable to do, and begun to disperse the blood clot that had blocked Micky’s sight.