TED: Susan Cain - The power of introverts

From the brilliant TED Talks:  Susan Cain makes an introverted call to action. When I first listened to this, I just had to cheer! (In a suitably restrained kind of way, of course).

Counting the Cost - On return from a Far Country

 Another Lent blogger: Andrew Proud, Bishop of Reading reflects on Facebook about life in Ethiopia.

On return from a Far Country 12
Sunday 4th March. Lent 2.
Mark 8: 31-end
Verses

36 and 37 catch my eye. The average life expectancy in Ethiopia is 46 for a woman, 47 for a man. More than half the population live more than a days walk from the nearest asphalt road and only 35.5% percent of the adult population is literate. We probably live 30 years longer on average and most of us can read and write. But of course, the truth is that all life hangs by a thread. Yours and mine as well as theirs. We’re just so protected we forget it much of the time. We have a fantastic NHS, an education system that is the envy of many and we can insure ourselves up-to-the-hilt if we wish. But it doesn’t change anything. Our life still hangs by a thread, but it is pure gift from God. Give thanks for being alive today and use the day to be a blessing to others.

 - more from On Return from a Far Country here

Counting the Cost

Quick now, here, now, always–
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well …

T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding” in Four Quartets

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

 - Matthew 16:24

Puffin' along

 - credit: digitalart at freedigitalphotos.net

There're times you  have to smile. And today that smile just  got bigger and bigger when I opened my reader to find Robin C's contribution to today's Picturing God - Puffins - real puffins on the Island of Staffa!

Those of you who've read my old Greenpatches blog will know all about my childhood ambition to meet the puffins and my infamous trip to Staffa last year.  I've always  had a soft spot for those cheery chappies and was pretty cheesed off to have missed them then. So near but yet so far...

But they simply don't give up it seems; they even managed to play a starring role in my retreat at St Beunos.

As I said, my smile just grew and grew...  A million thanks to Picturing God, Robin C, and, as one of the original children's Puffin Club members 45 years ago, can I just say...There's Nuffin' like a Puffin!

To be a pilgrim...

                                                        Teddy goes exploring on the Southern Uplands Way: Durham-Iona pilgrimage Spring 2011

...needn't involve endangering life and limb, either; there are plenty of opportunities much nearer to home, even at home, as the Diocese of Oxford points out in 'Pilgrimage - A Simple Guide.' 

Picking up on the scent theme I blogged about yesterday, Ann Memmott, who's an Autism Advisor to the C of E, has pubished a brilliant example of how to make a sensory pilgrimage which could easily  be adapted to your own church setting.

heaven scent

Alium by Susie B freedigitalphotos.net

No, we're not talking the 1970's perfume here. How did the ad go? A [something or other] full of rain-washed breezes. A poem waiting to be written... At 17 years old I fell for the cutesy gold cherub embossed on the packaging and the tiny booklet of poetry that came with it; generally something like Rabbie Burn's My Love is like a Red, Red, Rose. The height of romance and sophistication  or so it seemed to me at the time, even if the actual perfume was a bit on the cloying side.

That so, I'm sure just a whiff of it now would send me back over 40 years in an instant. Strange how smells have such a power over our minds;  potent keys to the past.

This morning on my way to church, it was the definitely unromantic pong of allium that transported me back, not too far this time, but to the grounds of  the place where I first began to go on retreat about eight years ago. Heaven scent it may not be, yet the smell of alium leaves crushed underfoot takes me back to those special times at Compton Durville.

 I often find nowadays that recalling such times when I've felt so held and close to God,  far from being self-indulgent,  often help me focus myself during those leaner, bleaker periods when I'm struggling.

Like last Spring, on  our  pilgrimage to the Western Highlands. During an scaringly hairy section of Loch Lomond in horrible weather conditions,  when it seemed we'd never reach our destination without emulating the old song and leaving ourselves on the 'low road,' it was that familiar, faintly oniony scent that helped me 'hold on.' I'd love to say that I was aware of God upholding me every step of the way but that would be fibbing When it's all you can do to put one foot in front of the other without slipping over on to the rocks below, your focus needs to be on survival first, prayer second. But, that ordinary, workaday, familiar smell  - well...I'm sure it was truly 'heaven sent.'

Blogging as a spiritual discipline

Just popping by before dashing off to Things Lenten to flag up two bloggers who're blogging through Lent: Jen, with Lenten Positivity and, on the wibsite, Balaam with  Forty Blogs of Lent. Enjoy...

Got to run...