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9 Websites Which Have Changed My World

By Anita Mathias


1 Youtube.
I am not musical, but sometimes a song expresses my inchoate spiritual yearnings; reorientates me towards surrender of my life to God, fills my flat spirit again with the fizz of love and devotion to Christ.

I am really grateful for Youtube’s ability to create a playlist of “favouritized” songs, which I can play while doing something else. Listening to old favourites at random helps me remember the mountain peaks of devotion when me first loved that song–and reawakens my torpid spirit. 

What have I listened to today?– “Thirsty” Kutless, (love it); “There is a Day,” Lou Fellingham; “You’re Beautiful” Phil Wickham; “Breathe on Me” (Vineyard) and Strolling with the Lamb (Vineyard). 

2 Wikipedia

I check it several times a week. It’s an amazing source of quick information. 

A great democratization of knowledge, on par with Gutenberg. I wish we had had it when I was younger. I would not have bought Encylopaedia Brittanica (our first purchase as a married couple).

3 Google

Again, a great democratization. Much of the knowledge of the world is online, and can be easily found once one has mastered Google’s Advanced Search. It is so much a part of my life that I feel a bit restless when I am away from laptop or iPhone and cannot rapidly satisfy any little questions, queries or wonderments which come up. 


It is barely a decade or so old, and has already become an indispensable part of our lives.

4 Amazing Amazon
It’s amazing to be able to get hold of pretty much any book you wish–and swiftly, and often rather cheaply.

5 Google Books
Great ways to locate the specific ideas and paragraphs in books without having to buy them.

6 Ebay
I barely use this any more, but I used to.

When I read about the extreme poverty and obsessing over pennies in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” or “A Cab at the Door” or “The Gift of the Magi,” I think, “Ah, today, they would have had an Ebay account.” Ebay allows anyone to set herself up as an entrepreneur starting with the stuff they have which they no longer need. You can set up as a trader with a few quid to buy used books from libraries or charity shops to sell on, for instance. 

Fortunes have been made on Ebay the old-fashioned way, starting with a few quid.

7 Facebook
I used this a good deal for my first year and a half on it, and am grateful to it for helping me recover my writing voice after a 4 year hiatus to establish our publishing company.

I no longer look at it for more than a few minutes a day–less than 5–because I prefer blogging, and because I don’t want to clutter my mind with TMI, and but am grateful to it for the ability to keep a lot of people on my radar screen whom I simply would not otherwise have the energy to keep up with.

With Facebook, you don’t entirely lose touch with your former friends; they are somewhere there on the edges of your cosmos and consciousness, and hopefully, you on theirs.

 It makes things like leaving a city and a church less traumatic; there is a less complete severing of relationships. Your life feels more whole and integrated, without the sadness of shedding a network every time you move from city to city, (or from country to country, in my case. I have lived in a different country in each of the last four decades!!)

You keep in closer touch with your real friends than you would otherwise be able to, and find affinities you would not have guessed at with your acquaintances.


8 Blogger. 
Has had a great impact on my mental and emotional and psychological health, and even social health, as it has led to coffees, lunches and friendships with other bloggers.

 It has helped me verbalize a lot of things, which otherwise might have remained half-formed ideas beneath the surface of consciousness, and to share and refine these ideas by bouncing them of toute le monde, and receiving their comments in return. It is a fascinating, though time-consuming enterprise.

9 The Guardian and the New York Times.
Cannot do without these. I even pay for a NYT subscription once they erected the paywall. I also read Le Monde often–because I am aiming to improve my French, a language I’m oddly in love with!

How about you? Which websites have changed the world/or your world.

Share on site of your choice … Wikio

More from my site

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  • Prayer, when in a Funk   Prayer, when in a Funk  
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Comments

  1. Anita Mathias says

    May 27, 2011 at 8:14 am

    Aww. Jen, My email's anitamathiasATbtinternet.com. Do send me your mailing address. Anita

  2. Jennifer in OR says

    May 27, 2011 at 4:03 am

    Okay, and I'll pay you back with lots of links to your awesome site! 😉

  3. Anita Mathias says

    May 25, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    Hi Jen, If you send me your address to my private email, which I think you have, I'll send you mine. I doubt I'll watch it again.
    I got it for a few quid from Amazon.co.uk, but I guess you might have to pay for overseas shipping that way.

  4. Jennifer in OR says

    May 25, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    Thanks for the link!! I really hope to get this. The cheapest on Amazon is $34, and there are only 3 sellers listed (non-Amazon shipping). Is the price any better where you are?

  5. Anita Mathias says

    May 17, 2011 at 10:08 pm

    Jen, Here's a link, http://www.amazon.com/Original-French-Version-English-Subtitles/dp/B000296E7W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1305670057&sr=8-2

  6. Jennifer in OR says

    May 14, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    Anita, how can I get that documentary?! I would love, love to watch it! I'm off to check Amazon, and if no luck, I'll be asking you again… 😉

    Have a wonderful weekend! I'm off to turn some dirt in the garden… And by the way, I'm reading a book that makes me think of you every time I pick it up: A Countrywoman's Year by Rosemary Verey.

  7. Anita Mathias says

    May 9, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    Jen, I don't think we have an Oxford Craig's List. There is a tiny equivalent called Gumtree, and of course Freecycle.
    Watched a lovely French documentary the other night, Etre et Avoir, about a one room French school. Charming!

  8. Jennifer in OR says

    May 6, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    Must say you've hit the biggies! I read FoxNews most days, as I don't take the paper anymore. I'd have to add in Craigslist, don't know if that's in the UK? We've used it to sell cars and all sorts of things, and have purchased items from cords of firewood to furniture–all locally, and the posting is free.

    I'll have to read Le Monde with you…I'm also trying to improve my French and am also oddly obsessed with the lanugage…

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Wandering Between Two Worlds: Essays on Faith and Art

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

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The Story of Dirk Willems

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

Recent Posts

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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!
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