Published August 12, 2011 by

7. Heaven

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground – Dante Alighieri

It’s totally naff that the ‘heaven’ theme is number 7. I hate cliches.

We do walk around with our eyes on the ground. Sometimes I think that my eyes aren’t anywhere at all, so easy to get lost inside your own brain and wrapped in your own internal world.

The Word became flesh, and here then is some kind of heaven mashed with earth. It’s beautiful. It’s here yet not. My awareness is poorer than I might yearn for. Daily I hope to ask to be woken up. Daily I hope to ask. Over and over and over.

Hold on, hold on to your old ways
Or put off, put off every old face.
And I know, I know you are changed out.
And I hope, I hope you’re arranged out.
But I’m still asleep
And you woke me up again.

– Sufjan Stevens

This post is part of the 100 Theme Challenge

100 Theme Christianity Life

Published March 30, 2011 by

6: Break away

We ought not to think of building holiness upon action,
we ought to build it upon a way of being.
For it is not what we do that makes us holy,
but we ought to make holy what we do.

Meister Eckhart

This year is the first time I have ‘actioned’ Lent. I have let up with Facebook for the entireity of the time (no Sunday reprieve for me). I mostly don’t miss it, but I do catch the impulse daily where I do the ‘bah-humbug’ I can’t just go and stalk that picture of my friend’s wedding or baby. I tell you, so many significant events!

In terms of doing this whole Lent thing I am somewhat of a rookie. The whole no Facebook thing has certainly afforded me more time, oh how gloriously long the evenings! But I am terribly wonderful at filling up said time with other things: internetty things mostly, and I am not so great at using this relinquished time in perhaps more beneficial ways…

I’m not sure I fully physically understand the purpose of Lent. Self denial I can do. Here. I am doing it. But taking something else up: curating my time, priority setting, stillness. No. not so good. But trying to try.

Eugene Cho has a great post on Lent, well worth a read

This post is part of the 100 Theme Challenge

100 Theme Christianity Life

Published February 22, 2011 by

5: Solace (and Sommerset)

There is a terribly woeful lot of quotes out there about the topic of Solace. The ones on comfort belong in cheesy ‘I’m sorry for your loss cards’. So I went on a little journey and I decided to investigate a little about William Somerset Maugham, mostly because he trumped up the one half decent quote:

Writing is the supreme solace.
– W. Somerset Maugham

Sommerset had a fair need for solace it seems – he was quite prolific as a writer (1930’s author and playwright). I would hazzard that he also found solace in reading.

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
-W. Somerset Maugham, ‘Of Human Bondage’, 1915

In this he is not alone. I hope to read something of his one day.

This post is part of the 100 Theme Challenge

100 Theme

Published January 28, 2011 by

4. Dark

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”
– Terry Pratchett

In Shades of Grey colour is traded. In The Giver colour is discovered.

Black is not a colour – according to some, it is the absence of light. Black is not a colour is bollocks. Black is hexadecimal value #000 it is also the K from the CMY… and Pantone’s Process Black and then there is Rich Black. Black is a colour.

Black is dark.

Black is like grey. There is more to it than meets the eye. Dark shouldn’t always equate to evil nor is it always an opposite.

Black has layers. Like onions. If your onions are black, you should really throw them out.

This post is part of the 100 Theme Challenge

100 Theme Words

Published January 23, 2011 by

3. Light

Sunshine is my quest.
-Winston Churchill

Having just seen The Kings Speech for the second time you get the Churchill quote. I do not enjoy watching movies for a second time in close succession but this would be an exception to the rule. Firth, Rush and Bonham-Carter are brilliant. See it.

You need light to see (see, there’s the theme, hey hey). You also need good vision to see, which is not something I posses thanks to some handy genetics which trumped out in the lens arena. I do recall my shock the moment I found out trees had actual form from long distance and weren’t just a blurry green blob. I’ve gone through a few pairs of glasses since age 10. Not all grand winners, some of them quite embarrassing. I wear contacts occasionally now and I would consider laser surgery if I had the money.

It’s interesting really how glasses have the potential to influence someones identity. I’m not sure if I would exactly feel lost without them (if there were some other solution to seeing – I would definitely feel lost without them if there wasn’t!). I’m not sure if confidence levels, and esteem are wrapped up in glasses – surely there is some kind of subconscious implications there. There’s naturally the nerd/smart thing that comes with glasses but if I’m not wrong, glasses aren’t always benefactors of this assurance for everyone (And is being a nerd something to be assured of!?) for some surely glasses are another mask – like others make up or costume, hat or attitudes that are used intentionally or otherwise to cover up the truth of someone or colour the truth of someone.

See and be seen. Where is the light not getting in?

This post is part of the 100 Theme Challenge

100 Theme Life