I had a sweet Kenyan lady come & catch me up with housework & house chores today. She worked for 5 hours, left everything gleaming, & adamantly refused a lift to Oxford from our village, insisting she’d walk. I pointed out a lovely quiet country path with flowering hedges outside our house, a short cut. She refused, saying she did not walk alone in “bush-land.” First time I’ve heard Oxford compared to the bush!!
Archives for 2010
Salman Rushdie–Wandering between Two Worlds
Rushdie–The Courter
I became a British citizen that year. And the passport did, in many ways, set me free. It allowed me to come and go, to make choices. But I too have ropes around my neck, I have them to this day, pulling me this way and that, East and West, the nooses tightening, commanding, choose, choose.
I buck, I snort, I whinny, I rear, I kick. Ropes, I do not choose between you. Lassoes, lariats, I choose neither of you, and both. Do you hear? I refuse to choose.
Rainer Maria Rilke on a really good sentence!
Rilke on a really good sentence
“Alas, those verse one writes in youth aren’t much. One should wait and gather meaning and sweetness all his life, a long one if possible, and then maybe at the end he might write ten good lines. For poetry isn’t, as people imagine, merely feelings (these come soon enough); it is experiences. To write one line, a man ought to see many cities, people, and things; he must learn to know animals and the way of birds in the air, and should be aware of the gesture with which little flowers open in the morning. One must be able to think back the way to unknown places, to unexpected encounters and to partings long foreseen, to days of childhood…and to parents whom one had to hurt when they brought us joy (it was joy for another), to days on the sea, yes to the sea, to nights of travel that flew with the stars, and one must have memories of many nights of love, no two alike…and the screams of women in childbed…one must have sat by the dying, one must have sat by the dead in a room with open windows and intermittent noises…But it is not enough to have memories. One must be able to forget them and have much patience until they come again, and memories as such are not enough:only when they become blood within us, and glances and gestures nameless and no longer differentiated from us, only then it can happen that in a rare hour the first word of a verse may arise and come forth…”
Malte Laurids Brigge
A sure comfort in times of depression, stress, or confusion: “Do the Next Thing,”
From an old English parsonage, down by the sea
There came in the twilight a message to me;
Its quaint Saxon legend, deeply engraven,
Hath, as it seems to me, teaching from Heaven.
And on through the hours the quiet words ring
Like a low inspiration–“DO THE NEXT THING.”
Many a question, many of fear,
Many a doubt, hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from Heaven,
Time, opportunity, guidance, are given.
Fear not tomorrows, Child of the King,
Trust them with Jesus, “DO THE NEXT THING.”
Do it immediately; do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care;
Do it with reverence, tracing His Hand
Who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,
Leave all resultings, “DO THE NEXT THING.”
Looking to Jesus, ever serener,
(Working or suffering) be thy demeanor,
In His dear presence, the rest of His calm,
The light of His countenance be thy psalm,
Strong in His faithfulness, praise and sing,
Then, as He beckons thee, “DO THE NEXT THING.”
Thomas Carlyle said, “Do the duty which lies nearest thee. Thy second duty will have become clearer.”
“Don’t object that your duties are so insignificant; they are to be reckoned of infinite significance and alone important to you. Were it that the more perfect regulation of your rooms, the sorting away of your clothes and trinkets, the arranging of your papers–whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it, with all thy might. Much more, if your duties are evidently higher, wider scope; if you have brothers, sisters, father, a mother, weigh earnestly what claim does lie upon you on behalf of each of them, and consider it as the one thing needful.
What matter how miserable one is, if one can do that? In doing the duty which lies nearest to thee is a sure and steady disconnection and extinction of whatever miseries one has in this world. Remember Jesus’ words to the disciples there by the well, ‘My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work.'”
Rainer Maria Rilke on a really good sentence!
Rilke on a really good sentence
“Alas, those verse one writes in youth aren’t much. One should wait and gather meaning and sweetness all his life, a long one if possible, and then maybe at the end he might write ten good lines. For poetry isn’t, as people imagine, merely feelings (these come soon enough); it is experiences. To write one line, a man ought to see many cities, people, and things; he must learn to know animals and the way of birds in the air, and should be aware of the gesture with which little flowers open in the morning. One must be able to think back the way to unknown places, to unexpected encounters and to partings long foreseen, to days of childhood…and to parents whom one had to hurt when they brought us joy (it was joy for another), to days on the sea, yes to the sea, to nights of travel that flew with the stars, and one must have memories of many nights of love, no two alike…and the screams of women in childbed…one must have sat by the dying, one must have sat by the dead in a room with open windows and intermittent noises…But it is not enough to have memories. One must be able to forget them and have much patience until they come again, and memories as such are not enough:only when they become blood within us, and glances and gestures nameless and no longer differentiated from us, only then it can happen that in a rare hour the first word of a verse may arise and come forth…”
Malte Laurids Brigge
Miracles in the Tsunami: a remarkable story from CNN.
When I was clearing out old bookmarks, I came across a remarkable story from CNN, 2004. Read it.
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
A Look at Tsunami Disaster; Year in Review
Aired December 31, 2004 – 19:00 ET
COOPER: It bears repeating that each night, we’ve been moved by the stories of people, people who have literally reached out and saved strangers’ lives. Daylan Sanders is a U.S. citizen who sold his townhouse near Washington D.C. 10 years ago, and moved back to his native Sri Lanka, to build an orphanage, the Samaritan Children’s Home. When the waves came on Sunday, he gathered all 28 children, put them in a boat, and raced the waves to safety.
He joins me now on the phone from Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Thanks very much for being with us, Daylan.
You know, we talked to a lot of people, and when they first saw the waves, they instantly thought to run to higher ground, but not you. What made you think your best chances were at sea in a boat?
DAYLAN SANDERS, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, SAMARITAN CHILDREN’S HOME: Because there are no words in human speech to describe what we saw. It was a 30-foot wall of sea, just bearing down on us like an angry monster. And it was coming at us at such speed, I knew that there was no place on ground where we could be safe. So I knew — there was something in me that told me that instantly, that we’ve got to get on top of this wave if — to stay safe.
COOPER: So how quickly — how quickly…
SANDERS: So I came out, I called out for the children. They all came. We rushed. We had just 10 seconds to get into the boat, and that day the outboard motor stayed hooked to the boat. Usually, we take it off every night. And we got into the boat — you know, it had rushed in. It has — it just demolished everything that stood in its path. It came with such force. It just hit both of the garages. The garages just splintered in every direction. It lifted up my Toyota pickup vehicle, my Mitsubishi L-300. We had a three-wheeler, a motor bike. Everything — it just pulverized.
And then when we got into the boat, it was just a few — I would say about 15 feet away, and we were eyeball to eyeball with the wave. And immediately, a scripture popped into my mind. It said, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against it.”
And I know from there, I got the courage. I just stood up in the small boat, and I lifted both my hands and I said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, on the strength of the scriptures, that when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him. I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to stand still. And I thought I was imagining at the time that the massive wall of water, it stood. It — I’m not one given to exaggeration. I saw, as if something holding back, some invisible force or hand. It just stood.
And — this was confirmed, because later on, when I met some of the villagers who had climbed on top of palmara (ph) trees and coconut trees and had survived this onslaught. They told me — they called me father. They said, Father, we didn’t stand a chance because the sea, when it got down to the beach and it crushed into the village, it came with the same speed and the same furry, and it just wiped us all out.
But when — ours is a four-acre complex. We have a boys section, the girls’ home, the staff section and everything. But when it got on your land, at one point, it stood still. It just slowed down. And that gave you the chance. What made it? Was it the density of the trees or the buildings? I said, there was no power on Earth that could have held it back but the power of God. I said, I called upon God, and I commanded it in the name of Jesus, who 2,000 years ago he commanded the waves, and they obeyed. He commanded the sea, and they obeyed. And this is the very same God did the same to us and gave us those precious few seconds that we needed to stop at the first yank, at the start, the engine just sputtered into life.
COOPER: And Daylan, I know your gamble paid off. You were able to take your boat really directly through the wave and rescue all the children in your orphanage.
SANDERS: By the way, they came up to us, and I told them that, you know, it’s going to catch up with us and if it caught up…
COOPER: It’s a remarkable, remarkable story, Daylan. Able to save 28 of the children in the orphanage. The orphanage itself, the buildings, the structures destroyed. But it’s a remarkable tale. Daylan Sanders, thanks for joining us.
The Gift of Listening
“Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.” David Augsburger
Yes, listening, really listening to people, without waiting to interject your two-pence is among the greatest gift we can offer people
Native English badgers to be culled. Oh no, I love them!
I am sad about the proposed badger cull. As we were driving home late last weekend from a delicious African dinner in Stanton-St. John (chicken in peanut sauce with basil) we saw a badger run across the road in front of our car. I love these unexpected encounters. Wild-life continues to startle us with its wonder, surprise, and sheer loveliness. It is to me a reminder of the grace, wildness and wonder of God!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/20/coalition-targeted-badger-culls-england
I like this rural Oxfordshire sign.
For badgers’ sake too, and rabbits, and deer.
For badgers’ sake too, and rabbits, and deer.
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