Archives for 2011

Why people continue to live where they live

Getty Images, Fire in Natori City, Japan today

Natori

If I were Japanese, would I continue to live there given the high probability of earthquakes, tsunamis and maybe consequent nuclear distasters? No, I think I would emigrate, if I could.

On the other hand, would I continue to live in Oxford, England, where I have spent a total 9.5 happy years if an earthquake struck us?

Yes, because I love it so much.

And that’s probably why people continue to live in Japan, or Christ Church or San Francisco despite the risks.

Quest for Joy–9. Hellebores

By Anita Mathias

I love hellebores

which bloom in winter,

sticking their brave heads above dead leaves,

stubborn emblems of hope

Images from other people’s gardens, sadly, though I when I learn to download from my phone, I’ll upload mine.

A Super-Generous God, Parable of the Vineyard, Matthew 20 1-16

By Anita Mathias

Daniel Gabriel Rossetti

Matthew 20

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

¹ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

³ “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴ He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. ⁶ About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

⁷ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
The workday ended at 6. It was divided into 4 3-hour increments from 6 to 6. The workers were desperate enough to continue waiting for work near the end of the workday.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

⁹ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰ So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ¹² ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

¹³ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

A parable of the Kingdom. Everyone who turns to Jesus gets Jesus, whether they work much, or work little.

Their reward rests upon the mercy of the King, not their deserts.

The sinner who humbly repents at the eleventh hour, on the cross, gets the same reward as the one who followed Christ from his youth.

Why?

Because the King is generous.

But as David said, “You are indeed just, Lord, if I contend with thee.” Those who have followed Christ for longer have known him for longer. And Christ is the reward.

It was not the fault of the workmen who have stood around all day that they were not hired. Perhaps they were older, weaker, less pushy, less attractive. They were however willing to work, and so they were rewarded for their willingness.

Those who come to faith later are rewarded just as much as those who have followed Christ from their youth.

NIV The main point is the sovereign graciousness and generosity of God extended to latecomers (the poor and the outcasts) into God’s kingdom. It is addressed to the grumblers who just cannot handle this amazing expression of God’s grace. They almost certainly represent the religious leaders who opposed Jesus.

Jesus is affirming that God’s generosity is more abundant than anyone would expect. All the workers except the first got more than they deserved.

A Super-Generous God, Parable of the Vineyard, Matthew 20 1-16

By Anita Mathias

Daniel Gabriel Rossetti

Matthew 20

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

A parable of the Kingdom. Everyone who turns to Jesus gets Jesus, whether they work much, or work little.

Their reward rests upon the mercy of the King, not their deserts.

The sinner who humbly repents at the eleventh hour, on the cross, gets the same reward as the one who followed Christ from his youth.

Why?

Because the King is generous.

But as David said, “You are indeed just, Lord, if I contend with thee.” Those who have followed Christ for longer have known him for longer. And Christ is the reward.

Wealth and the Spiritual Life, Matthew 19 16-30

By Anita Mathias

H/t Asbo Jesus

Matthew 19 16-30

The Rich and the Kingdom of God

¹⁶ Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

He has the longing for spiritual things that many good people have.

¹⁷ “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸ “Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, ¹⁹ honor your father and mother,’^c]”>[c] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

For starters, the moral code of basic decency with the addition of Love Your Neighbour as yourself, an obscure directive from Lev 19:18.

²⁰ “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

²¹ Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

An idol is something which, in practice, means more to us that God does. Though we may not realize that we love it more, in effect it absorbs our thoughts and our attention more than God does. And how does one deal with this?

Sometimes, surgery, giving it up all together. God may take the idol from us in mercy, or we may give it up.

At other times, we need to constantly repent and surrender the idol to God, and make sure that we are doing it in God’s way. (That, for instance, is what I need to do with my blog.)

Jesus did not ask everyone to sell their possessions and give them to the poor. However, his diagnosis of this young man’s heart was correct, because that was the one thing he could not do.

He could not deal with the resultant transformation of identity if he lost his possessions. He could not part with something he had probably nurtured and brooded over over many hours and years.

²² When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

And this is what happens when we say No to God. We go away sad.

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Wealth brings with it a sense of security, prestige, power, an easier life, the respect of men, “friends” some of whom might become real friends, social acceptance, the power to fulfill fantasies, to gratify desire, to affect the lives of your children, family, and friends in positive ways. “Men praise you when you prosper.” Psalm 49:18.

It is not therefore surprising that it could easily become an idol to us, something which takes the place of God in our thoughts.

The general attributes of the rich are the opposite to those of the child, (Matthew 19 13-15) when it comes to the Kingdom of Heaven.

²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished

Because wealth was equated with God’s blessing and favour.

and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Even rich men and rich women can be saved!! For “with God, all things are possible.”

²⁷ Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”

No wonder Jesus loved Peter. He who said what he thought as he thought it. Him with his foot in his mouth.

²⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife^e]”>[e] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

What have you done for the sake of Jesus?

Think about it.

You will receive a hundred times as much, in this life, some of the Gospels, specify. And eternal life.

Receiving a hundred times as much for the little I have done for the love of Christ in this life–that I can testify from personal experience is true!!

³⁰ But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

A repeated theme in the Gospels. Those who are prominent here, may be the least prominent in paradise, and those who are the least prominent here may be the closest to God here, and in paradise.

The day of judgment will bring many surprises.

What is the one thing in your life which might take the place of God? Think about it. What would it take for you to either let it go, or to do it in God’s way?

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True Confessions and Other Shallow and Weighty Matters

By Anita Mathias

Irene, I and the Sphinx, Vatican Museums. O Sphinx, reveal your secrets!

My father, though shy, was a highly original character. He loved anything sweet. When we went out to a buffet, or at a wedding for instance, he first ate dessert, filling his plate with cheesecake, black forest cake, trifle, Indian sweets, ice-cream. Then, if he was still hungry, but had his taste buds satiated by sugar, he would have some meat. Vegetables, he had a fine disdain for.

If he wasn’t married, and we did not have a full-time live-in cook, he would probably have lived on sweets. Somehow, he was never plump as he walked to work, walked back home for a cooked lunch and nap, walked back to work, and home again.

All this changed when he was 58. In a funny old irony, an Australian yogi came to Jamshedpur, the small Indian town in which we lived (I, however, spent most of the year at Nainital, in the Himalayas at boarding school). This Australian taught inspirational yoga to the officers of my father’s company, and they let him get away with astonishing things. For instance, at the requisite position in Surya Namaskar, they lay on their stomach, lifted their bottoms and farted in unison!!

And so my father began to eat salads, practiced colonic cleansing, became vegetarian, and took up yoga. For the rest of his life, and he lived for 31 years after that!!, he was basically vegetarian, did an hour of yoga every day, and walked for an hour a day.

So–don’t laugh–I had a cunning life plan. I would eat what I wanted when I wanted, never exercise unless I wanted to, take up exercise at 58, and then be fit and strong for the next 30 odd years, like my father was.

Well, when I had my first child in Williamsburg, Virgina, at 32, I had a thorough physical. It had included a strength test. “Grip harder,” she said, Oh believe me, I did. We re-tried it again, and again. My strength, she said, was that of a 80 year old woman.

In my twenties, all that interested me was reading. I got an undergraduate degree in English, a Masters in Creative Writing and English, and progressed some in a Ph.D in Creative Writing and English. Dropped out to get married. And then never really entered the work world, stayed home and read books, and thought and dreamed. And scribbled.

I was sent to the gym to lift weights, my strength was confirmed by the trainer, and though it gradually improved, it’s never been age-appropriate.

And of course, I’ve suffered from the other peril of a sedentary life. I started gaining weight when I was 13, never a whole lot at a time, 2-3 pounds a year, but it has been an inexorable increase over the decades.

And, as you can calculate, enough to affect my energy levels and quality of life.

Losing weight has never been easy for me. I am awed by my friends who can shed it by will-power and minor dietary tweaks. Not me!

I broke down and worked with a personal trainer and dietician last term. I had an extensive metabolic review based on “The Metabolic Typing Diet.” It turned out that I was a protein type, the type who can metabolize protein, in particular dark meat, red meat, fatty meats, and fatty fish well, but gains weight easily with starches and sugars. Duh!

All of years of trying to lose weight with vegetarianism, and counting fat grams. Turns out, I had no problem with metabolizing fat or protein, just with starches. And sugar!

Okay, so I have lost 9 pounds, painlessly, on a rather luxurious Atkins type diet of duck, goose, lamb, beef, veggies, and no starch or sugar.

Now I’ve plateaued.

I might try the South Beach Diet, like Atkins, but less restrictive. Has anyone tried it?

And I simply have to change my metabolism by building up significant muscle mass. How? Well, I am lifting weights three times a week. Doing some tennis, yoga, swimming and running.

But more sporadically than I should. Though I do enjoy exercise once I get going, I am somewhat addicted to reading, writing, and just plain old thinking, and to my laptop, and find it hard to close it. So I guess I have to have a schedule to make sure exercise doesn’t get done last–which might mean not at all.

Fortunately, exercise is addictive for me, and after a few days of exercising daily, I feel physically restless and uncomfortable until I have exercised.

Why is all this on my blog? Actually, for accountability of sorts.. I got the idea from Adrian Warnock’s blog–The Start of a New Era of Fitness and Well-Being. Feel free to ask me how I am doing. It might remind me and keep me on track.

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Gardening: The fountain of youth?

By Anita Mathias

Gardening was one of the biggest passions of our lives for the last seven years that we lived in America, and had a half acre garden, this . We planted thousands of bulbs (literally), a dozen fruit trees, dozens of hellebores, shade-loving plants, perennials. I used to know a lot about all sorts of plants, and hopefully still do.

And when we moved to England after 17 years in America, one of the top things in my wish list was a big garden. I was praying for an acre. We landed up buying a house with an acre and a half of garden. Though the house was charming

it was the limitless potential of the garden which got me

See what I mean?
I more or less decided to buy the house before we entered it. The salesman never had an easier sale.

However, an acre and a half has proved to be a lot more work than half an acre. Duh! And it has proved overwhelming to us, and it makes us sad that we’re always so behind, because we love beauty, we love gardening, we love plants, we love watching things grow, we love being out of doors, and we love the sound of the birds.
And because it was rapidly became overwhelming, I found myself going out to garden less and less often while it became like Sleeping Beauty’s forest.

For instance, I went out to garden this Sunday, after um… um…. more months than I care to remember.
* * *

In America, the garden was our family’s life. We would go out there as soon as the children came home from school and often spend three or even four hours there. There were dozens of little flower beds, we had a pond, fruit trees, swings, slides, a tree house, a rope ladder, a sand pit, a climbing frame, a fountain, bird houses and feeders, hummingbird feeders, a hammock, an outdoor wendy house, lots of stuff for the girls and their friends to amuse themselves with. Smiling sun shaped bird houses, little terra cotta animals, wind chimes. It was magical. I would lose track of time, pray, forget my sorrows, such as they were.

Now, when I go out, there are so many things I am behind with, so many Honey Do’s for Roy who is stronger and fitter, but who doesn’t like “being bossed,” that it all gets rather stressful. So, over the last five years we’ve gardened in fits and starts which isn’t the way to garden, or do anything else.
* * *

But this time, I am going to persevere with gardening. I am making a little trail for myself, going from bed to bed, weeding, pruning… I don’t get the bed perfect, just a whole lot better, and then, next day, have another savage bash at it. Am getting to more beds each day.

“Little and often” is the best gardening motto that I have heard.
* * *

If there is a fountain of youth, I wonder if it is gardening? It keeps you supple, slightly stronger, and it is great for mental health to rest the mind, breathe fresh air, and listen to the birds. To bend double to the ground. To notice the rhythms of the earth.

I wonder why people stop gardening as they age. Maybe, they never get themselves out after a savage winter. After all, I went out for the first time on March 6th. Maybe, they are uncertain on their feet after a fall.

I had a traumatic fall in Costa Rica in 2003, which was misdiagnosed there as a break. The doctor didn’t speak English, nor I Spanish. My leg was in a cast, and I flew back early to the States in a wheelchair. Once I got to see a doctor–the fall was on Christmas Eve– it turned out that it was a savage sprain, not a break, and putting it in a cast was the very worst thing to do.

The ankle is still weak, and I have never been quite as confident hiking up mountains with the kids, or on icy roads or slushy paths. That’s how aging works. And I am still in my forties!!
Psalm 18:36 “You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.” I pray this heart-feltly whenever I come across it. I have never broken a bone, and pray never to. I also pray never to sprain my ankle again, since my recovery was so slow and imperfect.

On the other hand, there are uses to walking with a limp. Ask Jacob!

Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot. “There is not enough silence.”

By Anita Mathias

restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem

And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

O my people, what have I done unto thee?

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice

Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks.

Listen to T.S. Eliot read, or rather chant, his whole poem here

Read the whole poem here

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