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Friday, 13 December 2019
Deleting Facebook
https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-mark-zuckerberg-video-congress-facebook-questioning-2019-10?r=US&IR=T C:
Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Stream Of Unconsciousness
Unusually for me, I have been unable to sleep.
I observe this phenomenon with a certain degree of antagonism. I am a gold star sleeper. I believe I inherited this gift from my father, God rest his soul, and it is priceless. Waking at 3 am is not unusual, necessitated by an ageing bladder, but I am usually able fall back into the arms of Morpheus in an instant.
Not this week.
There seems to be no reason for my wakefulness. There are no pressing issues, no anxieties, nothing disturbing my conscience. I know this because night after night, I lay awake interrogating my wakefulness with a grudging curiosity, drawing a blank.
I am a little slow on the uptake, by day four I realised there was a work to do here. Pray.
Of course! My sleep deprivation episodes began immediately following a bible study on the Lord's Prayer, where I retold the story of Penny and the Vacuum Cleaner to explain for sure that I have absolutely no idea what prayer is, or how it, "works".
Penny and I often sat together in what we grandly called, The Prayer Room at the Mission Hall, but was in fact, a tiny space en route to the toilet. Our role was to pray for the Mission workers and our friends who had dropped in for coffee and a snack in a warm and hospitable environment.
Penny prayed with fervour, with deep faith and with profound intent. I said Amen. My contribution, was to vocalise the mystery by praying in tongues, don't ask me to go there, you either believe it, or you don't, let's leave it at that.
Do I 'believe" in Prayer? I do. But I have no ides what I'm believing in. Back to Penny. She became very sick, "I'm praying for a miracle," she told me, and I prayed that she would know what her miracle was before she died. You hear the difference? She died in peace, so I am sure that she did.
I held the notion of a miracle open as an option, I know that amazing healings are possible having received one. I held out real hope for my friend.
So yes, I prayed, and when Penny died, I cried.
Two weeks before Penny's death, I am cleaning the Church Office feeling very virtuous about it, when I hit a snag. The dust canister of the top-of-the-range cordless vacuum cleaner wouldn't budge. 'OK, I said to the Cosmos,I'm here doing a good deed, so show up and fix this thing!"
To be absolutely clear, I am venting frustration, this is not a conscious prayer. Someone calls my name. It's Mary, asking for a key. I look up from the trash can where my struggle with the Dyson was playing out. The guy with her says, "I've got one of those, do you need help with it?'
Look, there are coincidences, and there's this.
You might think I'm grateful. I'm not, I'm furious.
"My friend is dying of cancer, and You fix the bloody vacuum cleaner?! I just don't get it."
I don't. I think that's the point. "Not my will, but Thine be done."
Now that I've worked that out, I expect to sleep soundly tonight. I'll let you know.
Tuesday, 15 October 2019
Friday, 4 October 2019
Catch-Up
It's been a while.
The electric blanket went on last night, and I fished out a bed-jacket for in-bed tv watching. These are small steps towards averting climate disaster, ie by delaying the putting on the central heating, that with buying into a refillable washing-up liquid service, reverting to soap, and worrying a bit about flying, fool me into thinking I'm becoming more green.
I joined the Climate Strike a couple of weeks ago, there's a photo. Spot the granny in the middle. Disaster will hit me late, but I doubt I'll outlive it. Outliving it, appears to the plan for most of my generation, I'm ashamed to say.
Last week, I attended the Labour Party Conference. I am pleased to be a member of the Labour Party:I am reluctant to offend you, dear reader, but I cannot fathom for the life of me, how giving yet another tax-cut to very rich people is going to stop very poor people from dying of hunger. Poor people being thrown out on the streets and hungry children eating toilet paper, matters to me. Sorry.
I do my bit. I apologise to the next generation for how inadequate that bit is.
Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Getting An Education
Saturday, 3 August 2019
Valley of The Shadow of Death
For her miracle.
Monday, 1 July 2019
Expanding My Consciousness
It's 10:53 and my right leg is considerably better, which I put down to my last-ditch prayer, "Jesus, help me!" It's my thing. I don't use it too often, I really do like to make it on my own, and I don't like to keep asking. This is crap theology, by the way, the Divine One, however you choose to name them, is boundless in love and generosity.
I love it ALL! Near Death Experiences, Jesus was a Yogi, The Aliens Are Already Here, The Turin Shroud. I've immersed myself in every conspiracy theory and wild hope you can imagine.
Am I changed? In that I have my own way of defining reality, my own wild hope, no. I am healthily sceptical of even my own beliefs.
This is my conclusion. The Being within whom, " We live and move and have our being.." Is incredibly relaxed about our own mind-creations, in a sense they are 'his' too. It's not what you believe that brings enlightenment, but the extent to which you care. Sometimes, I care a lot. Some days I just say, "Sod it!" And stay in bed.
Everything belongs.
:)
Monday, 3 June 2019
Socialism For Dummies
I know from experience that trying to explain socialism to people who are convinced by some means or other, that the current world order is the only way to go, will not be swayed by me, so save yourself an apoplectic fit, and skip this post.
I was born in 1950. I survived childhood illnesses, and a brain injury, because of that great socialist achievement in the U.K: the National Healtn Service, paid for by the contributions of every working adult through National Insurance. I had a decent home to live in, at a rent my parents could afford, because of a massive post-war housing programme, initiated by a Labour Government. I was educated for free to University level, thanks to the socialist principle that education is a right, not a privilege, so, yeah, I'm a socialist, because if nobody had been, I wouldn't be here. Reason enough?
Sometimes I am asked to defend Communism, being called to account for Stalin's purges. I am easy with that, because calling a Socialist, a Stalinist, is like equating a mild-mannered member of the Conservative Party with a member of the SS in Nazi Germany. I could do it at a push, but there would be no truth to it.
I could list those things that are anathema to we socialists, who are internationalists by default: empire-building, war-mongering , asset-stripping, despotic regimes. vulture capitalism, environmental destruction and climate-change- denial ... and that's just a beginning. These are problems that free-market capitalism and neoliberal dogma will exacerbate not solve. But here's a guy who can better explain why socialism will save a world that is otherwise hurtling towards destruction. Take a bow, Jeremy Corbyn:
Sunday, 2 June 2019
The Eagle and the Butterfly
Thursday, 4 April 2019
NaPoWriMo Day 4: Dying Of Duty
Sarah Morley
Wednesday, 3 April 2019
The Cherry Tree NaPoWriMo Day Three
In the beginning,
Yesterday,
The sun gazed somewhat magnificently, from a bright blue sky, and
My gaze fixed tightly on the cherry tree in the garden next door.
I am certain, as I gaze in wonder, that the day is perfect.
There have been warmer days. Oh yes. On those, I would not leave the coolcave
That is the thick inner room of my English cottage, until the sun had passed over.
There have been days in more exotic places. Forgive me.
If I am, right now, standing besides a cascade in a rain forest, near Oahu
Or leaning over the Tsitsa Falls, near Mtata, with my Xhosa friends.
I am moving now to the school house in Talkeetna, Alaska, listening to the
Shrill Klaxon of the lumber train, from the security of the town library.
Oh yes, I have other lives to bring, and have lived them in superb gratitude.
But yesterday, I spoke God's language, on a frighteningly warm March Day when the sun shone brazenly from a bright sky.
And in that moment, the cherry tree was perfection, and my Self rose, delighted, in thanksgiving.
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Sort of Sonnet
Embark
Shakespeare
Plutarch
Bemused
Imposed
Refused
Disposed
Berate
Pursue
I'll-fate
Undo
Defied
Died
23:15 on Day Two of the, 'Poem A Day' challenge. And I got desperate ...
Monday, 1 April 2019
First You Take A ...
First you take a twinkle in God's eye.
I don't know, perhaps being the Only One was
Too lonely, even for a Deity. So ...
In an explosion of imagination, it all kicked off.
Did She have to think about , for, like,
Eons? Imagining the juxtaposition of quarks
The spin of electrons and
The mass of a boson?
I doubt it.
I'm alert to the possibility that
God thought, one day, of Me.
"Now THERE'S a thing!" He pondered, "Let's do this!"
And out it came!
The firmament -
The waters above and below -
Stars, bears, whales and flowers -
(I am especially fond of flowers)
!
I don't expect that God had to gather, chop and stir
I'm Old School. I think They said,
"Let there be Light,"
And there was light.
And at the end of it all,
There
Was
Me.
Saturday, 30 March 2019
Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Lenten Observance
Giving up chocolate or alcohol, both of which I'm not particularly addicted to, and wouldn't particularly mourn the loss off, never worked, because immediately on making the resolution to abstain, I become obsessed with eating chocolate and drinking alcohol. That ancient serpent, having landed on a great ploy around Day 9, and having no reason to change tack, hisses, "Did God say... ?" and within days, I'm toast.
I once declared to anyone willing to listen, "This year, I'm giving up being unkind to people!" This was a conversation stopper for sure. People who are familiar only with my angelic public persona, would gasp in amazement, and fall over themselves to say that they didn't believe that anyone as radiant as I am, could ever be unkind! Very flattering, Just follow me on Twitter, would be my reply these days. @meffrancis if you're interested.
To be fair to myself, I wasn't expecting too many instances of unkindness to deal with, but what a revelation! Choking back a sarcastic comeback, holding fire on the irritable retort, and repressing the urge to roll my eyes happened far my often that I anticipated. I ended Lent that year with a humbling uptick in self-awareness.
Finally, I gave up giving up stuff for Lent, and this works a treat. That would be the same year that my Resolution was to never have a never self-defeating and totally pointless Resolution. The only one I've ever kept beyond January 8th.
I've started Taking Things Up for Lent instead. A daily conscious prayer routine, weekly Catechesis, and Priority Number One: eliminating waste.
I recommend eliminating waste as a spiritual practice for several reasons. Firstly, it induces a warm-glow of virtue, secondly, it enables a ceaseless examination of conscience, and thirdly, it saves you money. Win-win-win.
Every light gets turned off. Radiators in unused rooms are switched to 'frost' my 1970's "Left Over For Tomorrow" cook book has been dusted off ... Everything I do has come under scrutiny, and this, I think, is pretty much what Lent is about.
Tuesday, 5 March 2019
A Very Funny Thing Happened ...
Hello! I'm back ...
You may have noticed, "Posted With Blogsy" at the end of my posts, and this is because I use this amazing app to write my blogs. It is totally compatible with my iPad (Paddy) which I find Blogger isn't, or anyway, not so much. This is sounding like an advertisement, isn't it? It's not, because more than a year ago the developers of Blogsy stopped updating it, and it is no longer available.
This was not so terrible. OK, I couldn't do the things I never did, like add video clips, but I could do THIS, until this creaky old iPad upped and died.
I first noticed, last December, it wasn't powering up properly, and that the on/off button wasn't offing. Within days, it stopped recharging, and I knew the game was up. I bought it secondhand, and it had served a respectable term so, after trying for a couple of days to just make sure Paddy was dead, I laid her to one side and got on with my life. Sadly, without blogging: having lost the means to do so quickly and conveniently, and having much else to do, I went quiet.
Two days ago, I decided that a respectable mourning period had passed, and the time had come to lay Paddy to rest at the great recycling centre in the city. Having a bit of a joke with my husband Ray. I said, " I believe in miracles. Before I chuck it, I'll pray over it!"
It's true, I do, believe in miracles, but to be honest, I let the Lord off the hook on this one, because I was just having a laugh. I even told Him so and asked for his indulgence.
I promise you, I hadn't given up on Paddy without a fight. I had changed recharging cables, I'd left her charging for twenty-four hours. Not a spark, not a flash, not even the faintest glimmer of an apple.
So after a throw-away ask of the Almighty, I plugged this iPad in, and let it be. Some hours later, I flipped open the case, and to my utter astonishment ... Here we are.
Of course there are all kinds of explanations, but the one I prefer is this : the Lord of All has a great sense of humour, and always has the last laugh.