Sacred Season

I was reading a bedside book which a friend gave me,(Earth Prayers, from around the world) this morning and came across a poem which has an essence of what I was trying to say with the previous blog. So I thought I would share it.
.......

O sacred season of Autumn, be my teacher
for I wish to learn the virtue of contentment
As I gaze upon your full-colored beauty,
I sense all about you
an at-homeness with your amber riches.

You are the season of retirement,
of full barns and harvested fields.
The cycle of growth has ceased,
and the busy work of giving life
is now completed
I sense in you no regrets:
you’ve lived a full life.

I live in a society that is ever-restless,
always eager for more mountains to climb,
seeking happiness through more and more possessions.
As a child of my culture,
I am seldom truly at peace with what I have.
Teach me to take stock of what I have given and received;
may I know that it’s enough,
that my striving can cease
in the abundance of God’s grace.
May I know the contentment
that allows the totality of my energies
to come full flower.
May I know that like you I am rich beyond measure.


As you, O Autumn, take pleasure in your great bounty,
let me also take delight
in the abundance of the simple things in life
which are the true source of joy.
With the golden glow of peaceful contentment
may I truly appreciate this autumn day

~Edward Hays

A forgotten harvest

Soon my children will be having their harvest festival at school. They will sing songs about the bounty of the earth, tell us to think of those who do not have enough to eat and read poems about Autumn. Parents used to be encouraged to bring food into the school which was collected up and taken to a local old peoples home, but this is no longer the case.
A couple of years ago we collected all the food but the care home didn't want it because it contained fresh veg from some of the parents gardens. I presume this was some sort of health and safety thing, either that or they just didn't know what to do with fresh vegetables.
Any harvest festivals I attend now, seem to consist of lots of tins of baked beans and spaghetti hoops.

It makes me sad that this country just doesn't 'harvest' anymore.
The children sing about the Earths gifts but how many accept (or even understand)them? Harvest is solely for farmers now, and is done from the back of huge machines.
Fewer and fewer people collect apples from the tree's, pick brambles from the wayside, know the fungi to eat or grow their own small harvests.

Something has been lost.
The apples sit and rot under the tree's.

It's not the food, we all have plenty of that, it is the recognition of the Earths seasonal gifts to us all and it is the thankfulness to creation for caring for us in this way.

I wonder how many other 'harvests' we have forgotten?
What else are we forgetting to bring home and be thankful for?
Our health? our friends and loved ones? our gifts in life?

I hope that each of you has a Harvest of your own this Autumn and that it sustains you and you are thankful.


...and if you want some of my apples, I have tons. (this is one basket of three from a single tree, there is only so much apple pie I can make!)

Ouch!

Apologies to my second life friends if my typing is even slower than normal in the next week or so, but I have had a bit of an accident.
Making dinner tonight and slicing through our lovely home grown beetroot, I forgot the golden rule 'keep you fingers out the way when slicing beetroot'. Consequently I have just come back for the minor injuries clinic with a bandaged finger, having cut halfway through the top of it, nail an all. Doh!
They have bandaged the two middle fingers on my left hand together and I am back to one handed typing.
Boo!

Silence

When I was at college, there was someone in the year above me who wrote poems. Many of his poems still toss around in my head. I have no idea if he ever published them, or even what his full name was, but I thought I would share one with you.

Silence

A thousand stuttering words
Could never match
The eloquence
of a silence
and the library of context
in which it is heard

.

Childish?

I was shopping today in a large supermarket, and watching the other people as they walked around the shop.
I was thinking about my Second Life, full of dragons and dwarves, orcs and fairies, and wondering if any of the people passing me also had this kind of other identity.

We all look like fairly normal, everyday grown-ups, going about our grown up business. Planning dinner parties, packed lunches, picnics and midnight snacks, but some of us play 'childish' games as well.

When we are kids we play games pretty much non-stop, my children spend hours and hours in fantasy worlds of their own making, in make believe, and wild abandon. As we get older we are taught that its not appropriate to run down the street laughing, or dress up as a princess, wonderwoman or a tiger called Twinkletoes, or to make sandcastles and get muddy just for fun.
But do we really lose the urge to do these things?

Many of us seem now to turn to computers to give us the play we want, either on our PlayStation's, Xboxes, Wii's or in Second Life. This seems to be the acceptable face of adult playtime. Tucked away in our studies, or in front of the sitting room TV, private and hidden from disapproving stares.

But when I was a girl, I spent hours and hours playing beside the canal in Edinburgh. Riding my bike, making dens, catching newts in jam jars and staring at leeches with fascinated horror. I didn't really care what people thought of me, I was just so amazed and lost in everything.
I suspect many adults might sometimes like to do that now, but we just don't, because we might look silly and its not 'proper' for adults to behave that way.

Childishness is seen as weak, foolish and stupid.
I would rather look at it as innocent, inquisitive and fun.

When I am an old lady I hope I will still roll up my trousers and wade into rock pools looking for creatures.

A new realm

Back to work today, feeling a little more human.
Teaching 40 kids about the most amazing birds in the world. Great fun.
Last couple of weeks have been a little lost, slightly unreal.

Speaking of unreal......

On the recommendation of dear mister Hobbit, I have been spending some time in Carmarthenshire.

After Triskele it became clear to me that I need to have a roleplay place in SL. Wandering around SL randomly confirmed much of what I felt when I first joined over a year ago. So much of the virtual world is shallow , concerned with commercialism and strangely false. Yet I feel at home in a roleplay environment, where the concerns are more human (or elf, dragon ,fae). More about people, less about money

Weirdly some of the most real encounters seem to come in these doubly unreal places. Perhaps it is because I am slightly shy. Taking on a mantle of 'Wren the villager' or 'Wren the healer' helps me to feel more able to speak to people. The words are still my own and generally come from the heart, but the mask helps (most of the time) to hide any awkwardness.

It probably says a lot about me that I find other SL interactions tricky, and invariable end up on the perimeter feeling like a wallflower. I don't suppose this is a good thing, but its me I guess.

Anyway, it seems for me to 'be' in the virtual world I need roleplay. So Carmarthenshire is being scoped, and so far it's looking very interesting.

For David

For my Grandfather
6th Sept 1921 - 12th June 2008
who looked for the goodness in humanity,
and who carried so much of it within himself.
.
Imagine

.

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
.
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
.
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
.
John Lennon

Sacred Nature

My husband and I were watching a documentary the other night about the nomadic horse peoples of Mongolia.
As part of this documentary it was noted that they regarded the animals at a particular lake as sacred, the wildfowl and particularly the whooper swans which nested there.
There have been similar documentaries we have also watched recently in which certain cultures or religions hold animals in a high regard, as special or sacred to their Gods.

It occured to me that Christian belief doesn't have this connection to animals and nature.
Is this right?
Thinking back on my Bible stories I cant think of any which venerate animals or nature? (other than the Arc) and I am unaware of any animal sacred to Christians.
I am sure those of you who know your Bible better than me (I am looking at you Old Crone!) might put me right, and I welcome any stories that I don't know about.

But perhaps this is part of the reason I have always felt a little detached from the Christian tradition (that and the role of women, which OC and I were also discussing recently).
I find in my RL as well as my SL, that I gain great spiritual strength from the natural world. For me just 'being' with the world can reveal wonders and beauty which often my everyday life can block.
When I spend time outside I can almost feel the connections that bind us to each other as humans, that connect us to the rest of creation and , I believe, connect us to something greater.

Walking for breast cancer charities

My good friend and work colleague will be walking a marathon through the streets of Edinburgh in her decorated bra in the next few weeks. She is part of a local group who are doing the Moonwalk to raise money for breast cancer research.
I admire her hugely not only because she is doing this as part of the many charity things she is involved in, not just because she has found time to do this despite work and family life (she has 4 kids at home and one away from home), not just because I have a family member who has suffered from breast cancer... but because on top of all of this she has suffered from chronic back pain for a large part of her life and this 26 miles will be all the more of a challenge because of it.

She sent an email to friends that reads..

"Some of you may already know that I am taking part in the 'WALK THE WALK' MOONWALK CHALLENGE, which is a full 26 mile marathon.
This will take place on June 14th to raise funds for Breast Cancer charities. I will be walking within a team of five ladies from my village -'THE KIRKBEAN FLYERS'!.
We have one particular friend who is fighting this disease at the moment, In fact we all know someone who has been affected by Breast Cancer.
As we walk we are celebrating the lives of of the brave ladies who are winning the battle and of those whom we have lost, so I am humbly asking for your support by sponsoring our team.
You can do this by following this link to our fundraising page.
If you don't want to donate this way then cheques or cash gifts will be gratefully received. THANKYOU.
I must go and tend my blisters now!"

If you want to help donate to them it would be well received ,if you want to donate but not online let me know and we can work something out.(removed my email as I am already getting junk mail, the spammers are so quick to pick up on it!!grr)

I have had a couple of meetings in SL the last few weeks with a most interesting person. His SL name is Soren Ferlinghetti, and I referred briefly to his survey in a previous post.
He is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, and has been doing some research into virtual worlds, religion and AI.
I have really enjoyed discussing our world with him, he has prompted me to look closely at what I do in SL, what I believe in in RL and how these things meld together (or not), and he seems like a nice guy too.
If your interested you can take his survey here:

http://home.manhattan.edu/~robert.geraci/SLSurvey.html

it only takes a short time to do, you don't have to be religious to do it and the results could be most revealing.
I think he has missed out a few questions which I would be interested in exploring, however the idea's in it are good.

I suspect I will be blogging about some of the things he has got me thinking about soon.
I really like getting a bit of brain ache looking at all this *chuckles*

Off on holiday with the family for a few days now, see you all soon!

A public announcement

Apologies to everyone for my absence in SL recently but RL is very busy. I have been finishing my annual report for work and both my children have had their birthdays this week.
They are 8 years old (today) and 10 years old (Tues just passed), and time with them has flown. In about the same number of years they might well leave the nest and find their own place in the world.

So on that note I wish to make an announcement!


*shouts out loud*........... I LOVE MY CHILDREN!
No apologies for being sentimental, no moaning about parents being soppy over their kids, just the honest truth.

I try and tell my children everyday how much I love them.
There are too many children in the world who never hear these words.

So if you are a parent, or a carer, a daughter or a son,or just have someone you love who you haven't told for a while.
Go tell them you love them, don't be shy, don't feel its silly, just do it, its simple, easy, and can brighten up someones life.

Many Worlds?

Last night I watched a fascinating documentary called "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives". It followed the singer songwriter Mark Everett as he tried to understand his father Hugh Everett's scientific theory, and ultimately to try and understand his father better also.

Hugh Everett came up with an interpretation of quantum physics which essentially meant that every time we make a decision or choice we split, and somewhere there exists a universe in which we made the opposite choice to the one we are living now.
I am no scientist and the finer details of this theory leave me baffled, so i wont delve deeper into the science. But it certainly caught the imaginations of many writers, filmmakers and artists. The Parallel universe idea seems to appeal, I suspect because we all wonder, when we look back, what if I had done this? how different would my life be now?

It occurred to me last night that if we apply the theory to Second Life, then there are millions of other second lives also out there,where we have all made different choices.
I wonder what they are like?

On a totally different note, I read a really interesting study of Second Life religion recently, http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/02/the-soul-of-sec.html
its not finished, but it makes stimulating reading.

A creative mind....

....a blessing or not?

I had my yearly appraisal in my Real Life job yesterday. I was very nervous about it, but it turned out I needn't have been. My boss was very pleased with what I have been doing and said lots of complimentary things about my work in the last year and direction I am taking the team.
I don't take compliments very well, and am quite critical of the work I do, but I do recognise one of the skills which is valued by my boss. I am a very creative person, always have been, and I am always full of ideas. This has been good for my work, and I have been put into all sorts of creative thinking groups. Many of the ideas I have come up with have been taken up by head office, some are seen as best practice and others are now used by teachers across the country. However it can be curse as well as a blessing to have a creative mind.

I was reading Hobbits blog yesterday.. http://hobbitripley.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/stress-top-tips/ .. and Ben had written about not letting things get out of control, about planning ahead. Unfortunately my creative mind often doesn't listen to sound advice like this. When something new comes along that interests me, I invariably get excited about it, my mind kicks into gear and a million ideas come up. Then, being the active doer type of person that I am, I want to make my ideas into reality and thats where things usually start to unravel a bit.
Often the idea is a great one but I don't have the skill or expertise to actually put it into practice.
Or the idea is a rubbish one and I fail to see that until I am halfway through putting it together.
But the most common thing is that there are just too many ideas, and I try and do them all and end up burning myself out or I create lots of half done things which 'could be great'.
I am not very good at delegating either, once I have an idea I usually want to do it all myself.
If I am lucky, which sometimes I am, I will have a good idea, be able to make it happen and enjoy doing it.

I wouldn't change it, I like to be creative and a little chaotic, its who I am. But sometimes I wish I could be a little calmer in my mind.
Perhaps I should take up meditation?