Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

  • Home
  • My Books
  • Essays
  • Contact
  • About Me

Archives for August 2010

Bayeux Cathedral, The Bayeaux Tapestry, Visiting Bayeux, Normandy

By Anita Mathias

I had a perfect day. I loved Bayeux Cathedral–a fantastic mish-mash of flying buttresses and gargoyles from the outside, inside, a chaste Gothic cathedrals with the most amazing stained glass.

I just love Gothic cathedrals. Nothing prepares you for the moment of sheer awe and wonder when you enter from the dusty exterior, frequently covered with scaffolding to the chaste, pure, magnificent interiors, illuminated by stained glass.

It’s sad that architectural fashions changed, but I suppose as Tennyson put it,“God fulfils himself in many ways, let one good custom should corrupt the world.”

I loved walking by the canals in Bayeux, not as celebrated as Bruges or Ghent or Amsterdam, but lovely.

And I loved the Moules Marinieres for dinner, though the bowls were enormous, far more than one person could eat.

We enjoyed the Bayeux Tapestry, though have bought an illustrated book to go through it slowly. I was particularly charmed by the mythical animals, and the medieval clothes & armour–well, I guess they were modern and up-to-date when the tapestry was embroidered.

Now on our way to the D-Day beaches.

D-Day is still remembered here. Everywhere. The Churchill Hotel. Operation Overlord Hotel. Signs in bistros saying “Welcome to our Liberators!!”  An ironic copy of a sign from the British cemetery in the Bayeux tapestry museum read (well, in Latin), We whom William Conquered are now happy to return as Liberators. What an ironic turning of the other cheek.

The Normans were initially the Norseman, the Northman. The far-reaching Viking influence which we noticed in Ireland earlier this month, and which is evident everywhere in the North of England was evident again.

Filed Under: In which I Travel and Dream Tagged With: Bayeux, Bayeux Cathedral, Bayeux Normandy, Bayeux Tapestry, Normandy

Like a fish out of water, I gasp for you, Lord

By Anita Mathias

Like a fish,

That pants and thrashes,

Out of its salty oceans,
I gasp for you, Lord.

I am no amphibian.

Though I may flap
in a flourish of activity,

I gain nothing by it

when I am out of your world,

when your oxygen does not flood my gills.
You are the sea in which I must swim.
Your words the salt I need for happiness.

Without you,
I slowly die,
inside.

Filed Under: In which I play in the fields of poetry Tagged With: Poetry

A Christian in Business, II

By Anita Mathias

Frederick Buechner had this description of a vocation, “The vocation God calls you to is where your deep joy and the world’s deep need intersect.” 


I think the same can be said of a good and successful business idea. Find out how your skills, talents, and interests, what you could have fun doing, can somehow intersect with and serve the world’s deep need. No one can meet all the world’s needs. So discover people’s real needs in an niche which interests you and turns you on. Meet that need. Earn your living–plus–in that area.


So a business, ideally, should be an exchange of blessings. The business owner blesses the customer with his or her skills or products. The customer, in return, leaves cash–and good will.


When I seek God’s direction in our business, one thing I always seem to hear him say, is “Think bigger.” I think of how he told Abraham to look up, and count the stars…

Filed Under: random

Prayer is powerful in every domain of life, even business

By Anita Mathias

I own a business, a small publishing company, and since I got into business 4 years ago, in my forties, with no previous training or experience, I need to run it by prayer. Which I do. Successfully when I remember to pray, stressfully when I do not.

And here’s an example which is pretty amazing. We have published nearly 400 books over the last 3 years, with the help of 7 of our friends who are working with us. We’ve entered 40 of them into various wholesaler’s networks, and they have sold almost as much as the remaining 350 which we sell through retail outlets. So we’ve wanted to get all our books into wholesale channels and get out of retail.

But, though we have wanted to do this ALL YEAR, and were in agreement on it, setting up the titles with images, description and details to fit the wholesaler’s specifications is time-consuming. And somehow, much to our frustration, things kept coming up which seemed to be a higher priority. It was becoming like Mr. Holland’s Opus (remember that heart-breaking film?) and Roy was getting most irritated and frustrated by it, as was I, to a lesser degree.

Last Friday, it struck me: Gosh, I haven’t prayed for time. And so I did. “Lord, please provide time for us to undertake this massive project.”

And almost instantly, He did. Our clever daughter, Zoe, almost 16, who like Irene, 11, has a solid understanding of our business, having  seen it grow from nothing and been involved in all our deliberations about it over the supper table, came up with a solution. The printer had all the data. Get the printer to send us his spreadsheets. Upload those to the distribution networks. We did that, and in a few hours, the mammoth task was done.

Lesson 1. Automate everything you can.

Lesson 2. Never ever forget to pray!!

Filed Under: random

Smilla’s Sense of Snow

By Anita Mathias

I hardly ever watch thrillers, since I get emotionally over-involved in them, and hence nervous. However, I was fascinated by the premise of this novel when I first read a review of it–Smilla who can read snow. I remember studying in linguistics that people find words for what is important to them. The Eskimos, for instance, are supposed to have 17 words to describe snow.

(The Handbook of North American Indians (1911) by linguist and anthropologist Franz Boas. …just as English uses derived terms for a variety of forms of water (liquid, lake, river, brook, rain, dew, wave, foam) that might be formed by derivational morphology from a single root meaning ‘water’ in some other language, so Eskimo uses the apparently distinct roots aput ‘snow on the ground’, gana ‘falling snow’, piqsirpoq ‘drifting snow’, and qimuqsuq ‘a snow drift.)

I wanted to read this book about this woman who could read snow. But time being the finite element that is, I watched the film instead.

It has the rarefied unsmiling quality of most Scandinavian films, but it also a totally gripping story of the conflict between big business whose money reaches up and down the corridors of power and society, and an individual determined to find the murderer of a six year old boy, even if it kills her. I particularly liked the portrayal of the six year old doomed boy, Isaiah, and his relationship with Smilla.

We watched it on a lethargic Sunday when we couldn’t find the energy to do anything else. I can think of worse ways of spending an evening.

Filed Under: random

Our Pet House Rabbits

By Anita Mathias

The other joy of our summer, Irene’s in particular, was the three young baby rabbits. One of them is going to the Mitchells, but Irene has it for the summer, and has walked around cradling and kissing them, and got them so tame. Rabbits are the most loving animals ever, and are capable of multiple attachments, like a good dog, and so they are wonderful family pets if you take the time to love them, as Irene does. Our grown bunnies are Empress (black and white)  and Bandit and the babies are called Sunshine (brown) and Lightning (black with a white stripe).

Filed Under: random

A Waterfall Cascading Down Upon Me

By Anita Mathias

I have a friend, who believes she has ME, who, perhaps because of her physical limitations, is forced into closer communion with God. She is very prophetic. We prayed together just before I went to Ireland, and she said that she had an image of a waterfall cascading down on me during my travels.

Well, it did. I woke up with a dream image, and wrote a short book based on it,”The Church Which Had Too Much.”

Holidays are very creative periods for me. I pray a lot. I reconnect with God. I get his direction for the next term. I tweak my life. I allow God to tweak my spirit. I come back, full of ideas and focus.
I am travelling again very soon. What I really need is the waterfall to cascade down on me again, not just on my mind, creativity and imagination, those shadowy realms in which our spirit and God’s spirit meet and intersect, but also on my heart and spirit, for I need healing, I need wisdom, and, most of all, I need God to pour his Spirit into my spirit, so that I have some of his love for people–for, in and of myself, I have little.

 

Filed Under: random

In your anger, do not sin. Psalm 4.

By Anita Mathias

I have reached Psalm 4 in my daily rotational Bible reading of Psalms.
And here is what stood out
“In your anger, do not sin;
When you are on your beds,
Search your hearts and be silent.”
Hmm. Not do not be angry (impossible, when you are a woman of unclean lips, living amidst a people of unclean lips), but do not sin.
How? Turn your focus away from the occasion of anger. Examine yourself. Have I ever, ever done what is making me fume, or done something like it? Why? Search your heart. Repent. Be quiet until you have perspective.

All this requires so much more self-control than venting, but it is more productive, and positive. Venting our anger is highly unlikely to change the other person (though praying for both of you might well do so). But searching our hearts, trying to understand the hidden motives and fears of our own hearts, and what makes us tick, may well produce lasting change.

It’s useful to use our annoyance with another person as a trigger to examine our own hearts, and repent. In Jesus’ metaphor, when the temptation to remove specks becomes overwhelming, first clear your own log-pile.

Filed Under: In which I play in the fields of Scripture Tagged With: anger

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 8
  • Next Page »

Sign Up and Get a Free eBook!

Sign up to be emailed my blog posts (one a week) and get the ebook of "Holy Ground," my account of working with Mother Teresa.

Join 642 Other Readers

Follow me on Twitter

Follow @anitamathias1

Anita Mathias: About Me

Anita Mathias

Read my blog on Facebook

My Books

Wandering Between Two Worlds: Essays on Faith and Art

Wandering Between Two Worlds - Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Francesco, Artist of Florence: The Man Who Gave Too Much

Francesco, Artist of Florence - Amazom.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

The Story of Dirk Willems

The Story of Dirk Willems - Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk
Premier Digital Awards 2015 - Finalist - Blogger of the year
Runner Up Christian Media Awards 2014 - Tweeter of the year

Recent Posts

  •  On Not Wasting a Desert Experience
  • A Mind of Life and Peace in the Middle of a Global Pandemic
  • On Yoga and Following Jesus
  • Silver and Gold Linings in the Storm Clouds of Coronavirus
  • Trust: A Message of Christmas
  • Life- Changing Journaling: A Gratitude Journal, and Habit-Tracker, with Food and Exercise Logs, Time Sheets, a Bullet Journal, Goal Sheets and a Planner
  • On Loving That Which Love You Back
  • “An Autobiography in Five Chapters” and Avoiding Habitual Holes  
  • Shining Faith in Action: Dirk Willems on the Ice
  • The Story of Dirk Willems: The Man who Died to Save His Enemy

Categories

What I’m Reading

Childhood, Youth, Dependency: The Copenhagen Trilogy
Tove Ditlevsen

  The Copenhagen Trilogy  - Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazing Faith: The Authorized Biography of Bill Bright
Michael Richardson

Amazing Faith -- Bill Bright -- Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Stephen King

On Writing --  Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life
Kathleen Norris

KATHLEEN NORRIS --  Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk


Andrew Marr


A History of the World
Amazon.com
https://amzn.to/3cC2uSl

Amazon.co.uk

Opened Ground: Poems, 1966-96
Seamus Heaney


Opened Ground: Poems, 1966-96 
Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Archive by month

INSTAGRAM

anita.mathias

Writer, Blogger, Reader, Mum. Christian. Instaing Oxford, travel, gardens and healthy meals. Oxford English alum. Writing memoir. Lives in Oxford, UK

Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford # Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford #walking #tranquility #naturephotography #nature
So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And h So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And here we are at one of the world’s most famous and easily recognisable sites.
#stonehenge #travel #england #prehistoric England #family #druids
And I’ve blogged https://anitamathias.com/2020/09/13/on-not-wasting-a-desert-experience/
So, after Paul the Apostle's lightning bolt encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he went into the desert, he tells us...
And there, he received revelation, visions, and had divine encounters. The same Judean desert, where Jesus fasted for forty days before starting his active ministry. Where Moses encountered God. Where David turned from a shepherd to a leader and a King, and more, a man after God’s own heart.  Where Elijah in the throes of a nervous breakdown hears God in a gentle whisper. 
England, where I live, like most of the world is going through a desert experience of continuing partial lockdowns. Covid-19 spreads through human contact and social life, and so we must refrain from those great pleasures. We are invited to the desert, a harsh place where pruning can occur, and spiritual fruitfulness.
A plague like this has not been known for a hundred years... John Piper, after his cancer diagnosis, exhorted people, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”—since this was the experience God permitted you to have, and He can bring gold from it. Pandemics and plagues are permitted (though not willed or desired) by a Sovereign God, and he can bring life-change out of them. 
Let us not waste this unwanted, unchosen pandemic, this opportunity for silence, solitude and reflection. Let’s not squander on endless Zoom calls—or on the internet, which, if not used wisely, will only raise anxiety levels. Let’s instead accept the invitation to increased silence and reflection
Let's use the extra free time that many of us have long coveted and which has now been given us by Covid-19 restrictions to seek the face of God. To seek revelation. To pray. 
And to work on those projects of our hearts which have been smothered by noise, busyness, and the tumult of people and parties. To nurture the fragile dreams still alive in our hearts. The long-deferred duty or vocation
So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I have totally sunk into the rhythm of it, and have got quiet, very quiet, the quietest spell of time I have had as an adult.
I like it. I will find going back to the sometimes frenetic merry-go-round of my old life rather hard. Well, I doubt I will go back to it. I will prune some activities, and generally live more intentionally and mindfully.
I have started blocking internet of my phone and laptop for longer periods of time, and that has brought a lot of internal quiet and peace.
Some of the things I have enjoyed during lockdown have been my daily long walks, and gardening. Well, and reading and working on a longer piece of work.
Here are some images from my walks.
And if you missed it, a blog about maintaining peace in the middle of the storm of a global pandemic
https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/  #walking #contemplating #beauty #oxford #pandemic
A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine. A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine.  We can maintain a mind of life and peace during this period of lockdown by being mindful of our minds, and regulating them through meditation; being mindful of our bodies and keeping them happy by exercise and yoga; and being mindful of our emotions in this uncertain time, and trusting God who remains in charge. A new blog on maintaining a mind of life and peace during lockdown https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/
In the days when one could still travel, i.e. Janu In the days when one could still travel, i.e. January 2020, which seems like another life, all four of us spent 10 days in Malta. I unplugged, and logged off social media, so here are some belated iphone photos of a day in Valetta.
Today, of course, there’s a lockdown, and the country’s leader is in intensive care.
When the world is too much with us, and the news stresses us, moving one’s body, as in yoga or walking, calms the mind. I am doing some Yoga with Adriene, and again seeing the similarities between the practice of Yoga and the practice of following Christ.
https://anitamathias.com/2020/04/06/on-yoga-and-following-jesus/
#valleta #valletamalta #travel #travelgram #uncagedbird
Images from some recent walks in Oxford. I am copi Images from some recent walks in Oxford.
I am coping with lockdown by really, really enjoying my daily 4 mile walk. By savouring the peace of wild things. By trusting that God will bring good out of this. With a bit of yoga, and weights. And by working a fair amount in my garden. And reading.
How are you doing?
#oxford #oxfordinlockdown #lockdown #walk #lockdownwalks #peace #beauty #happiness #joy #thepeaceofwildthings
Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social d Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social distancing. The first two are my own garden.  And I’ve https://anitamathias.com/2020/03/28/silver-and-gold-linings-in-the-storm-clouds-of-coronavirus/ #corona #socialdistancing #silverlinings #silence #solitude #peace
Trust: A Message of Christmas He came to earth in Trust: A Message of Christmas  He came to earth in a  splash of energy
And gentleness and humility.
That homeless baby in the barn
Would be the lynchpin on which history would ever after turn
Who would have thought it?
But perhaps those attuned to God’s way of surprises would not be surprised.
He was already at the centre of all things, connecting all things. * * *
Augustus Caesar issued a decree which brought him to Bethlehem,
The oppressions of colonialism and conquest brought the Messiah exactly where he was meant to be, the place prophesied eight hundred years before his birth by the Prophet Micah.
And he was already redeeming all things. The shame of unwed motherhood; the powerlessness of poverty.
He was born among animals in a barn, animals enjoying the sweetness of life, animals he created, animals precious to him.
For he created all things, and in him all things hold together
Including stars in the sky, of which a new one heralded his birth
Drawing astronomers to him.
And drawing him to the attention of an angry King
As angelic song drew shepherds to him.
An Emperor, a King, scholars, shepherds, angels, animals, stars, an unwed mother
All things in heaven and earth connected
By a homeless baby
The still point on which the world still turns. The powerful centre. The only true power.
The One who makes connections. * * *
And there is no end to the wisdom, the crystal glints of the Message that birth brings.
To me, today, it says, “Fear not, trust me, I will make a way.” The baby lay gentle in the barn
And God arranges for new stars, angelic song, wise visitors with needed finances for his sustenance in the swiftly-coming exile, shepherds to underline the anointing and reassure his parents. “Trust me in your dilemmas,” the baby still says, “I will make a way. I will show it to you.” Happy Christmas everyone.  https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/24/trust-a-message-of-christmas/ #christmas #gemalderieberlin #trust #godwillmakeaway
Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Gratitude journal, habit tracker, food and exercise journal, bullet journal, with time sheets, goal sheets and a Planner. Everything you’d like to track.  Here’s a post about it with ISBNs https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/23/life-changing-journalling/. Check it out. I hope you and your kids like it!
Load More… Follow on Instagram

© 2021 Dreaming Beneath the Spires · All Rights Reserved. · Cookie Policy · Privacy Policy