Monday, December 31, 2018

Grateful for the journey 2018

Many reflections this fine night... and I come up grateful.

"I am forced outside myself to
mount the light and ride joined with Hope."   ~ Maya Angelou




Thursday, November 29, 2018

Long walk and a small piece of cake


It's raining today. We therefore decided it was cake day as the raindrops hit the windows and the thought of a warm stove beckoned.  Mary Berry's cakes are a doodle. Flop-proof and delish.  Now it's time to button up and attempt a walk (to walk off the cake - but will probably just end up having another slice later ha) as its starting to clear.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Yes, she is sunshine on a rainy day


I went to see Fantastic Beasts 2 with this one... which I really enjoyed, especially swooning over the sets of 1920's Paris, cobblestones, antiques and Newt amazing basement. Sublime.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Christmas shopping, without a mall


For the first time we are Christmas shopping and getting cheerful and comforting things ready for our new nest, in the cold!! This is very different from our southern hemisphere sun-blistered Christmas.
Shopping outdoors in the freezing cold didn't sound appealing to me but when we got to the nearby town is was so lovely and festive.  Carol singers and the brightly decorated stalls of pastries, brutwurst rolls, roasted chestnuts, hot chocolate and on and on, line the squares and streets.

And our favourite - 'Churrrrrros', I exclaimed through chattering teeth.
It might be blustery but its also merry and carnivalesque.

Thursday, November 22, 2018

Monday, November 19, 2018

Happiness is...

a pretty nook for a bit of contemplation.


Thursday, November 15, 2018

Armistice Day

Armistice Day is celebrated on the 11th of November, and this year was the 100th year memorial.
1918-2018

There was a free exhibition in town and one day last week after a run, I walked in there not  expecting to get emotional.  But the sacrifice and stories of the soldiers, letters home, the horror of war, family and friends lost and friendships forged, as well as the strength of the family at home were very moving.  I had walked past the homes of some of these families many times... I reflected on what must have gone on behind those windows 1914-1918.  At church before the two minutes of silence, a war veteran paid tribute to the soldiers of WW1 and the service men today. It was all very honouring and real this past week... not just a section in my history textbook.

And all week people everywhere wore their poppies on their lapel with pride, and the cathedral tower was lit in red at night and poppies were attached to everything... it was truly beautiful and highly affecting.  Lest we forget.





In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below  ~  John McCrae

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Autumn hues and more

Autumn is such a beautiful time in England.  Harvest festivals, bonfire nights, cider, spiced drinks and cakes of every kind... and the trees are gorgeous.  The falling of the leaves and the changing colour of the landscape is breathtaking.


Beautiful fireworks at the bonfire, set to The Greatest Showman
(could just never exactly capture the fantastical moments)


Fields of leaves crackling under your feet



So the favourite teatime treat at the moment is Pumpkin cinnamon latte with Apple spice cake (it also being apple harvest season), preferabley by a fireplace, with a good view out of the window, in order to enjoy the leaves cavorting about.



And lots of baking is taking place in the chilly weather, treats that remind me of my SA home, like Crunchies



Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Country air

One of the best parts of my day is my daily walk or run... I can't think that I will ever tire of the wide open fields or the little paths through the woods.  Regardless of what I may be reflecting on or wrestling with on the inside, it always lifts my heart.  Something about drinking in gulps of fresh fragrant air, open skies and beauty for miles... as I take in the view, so my point of view is altered.  



All the tractors have been going back and forth for the last two months with the hay stacks, wood and more.  Now its time to store for the winter months.  Beautiful.


Indeed, the earth does rejoice and declare his faithfulness! 

Monday, October 29, 2018

The next book

So after looking at what to read next, from this pile by my bed, I chose instead to pick up 'River, cross my heart',  a book that I bought more than a decade ago.  It was hidden somewhere on the bookshelf.  And I'm loving it.



Sunday, October 28, 2018

Same but different

We are a family, we live in a house, there are neighbours, shops, church, walks in the sunshine, delicious food to eat.  In some ways it's the same but it's so different.

Today I read a blog about someone that moved from New Zealand to the UK.  She said that she loves her life (and what she is doing is pretty amazing) but that a part of her heart will always long for her home and her people… reading those words made my heart sink.   For the most part I am happy (there is honestly much to love) but there are moments of intense longing. Before I read her blog, I thought that this would be a temporary condition as I adjust to a new life on a new continent with new everything.

Each day is the almost fragile opportunity to have joy or lamenting the different. I am an optimist by nature so I endeavor to live out the words of Marcus Aurelius
'Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so will your heart'  - with all my heart I am trying to embrace the differences with gladness


A gate of joy on my walk


Embracing the new... I call it Gumboots, they call it Wellies


Our sweet neighbor welcomed us with homemade bread.



Friday, June 15, 2018

Special things

This makes my morning time all the sweeter.  My mother made a new cover (and may I say rather pretty) for my oldest bible, given to me by my mother-in-law before I was married to her son.




Wednesday, June 6, 2018

The little white horse

This is a great read... beautiful writing. Lovely and old fashioned.

“Nothing is ever finished and done with in this world. You may think a seed was finished and done with when it falls like a dead thing into the earth; but when it puts forth leaves and flowers next spring you see your mistake”

― Elizabeth GoudgeThe Little White Horse

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Exam prep


Cronuts make the studious minutes better

Monday, May 28, 2018

Taking time

There is always one more thing that needs doing, a call to make, email to reply to, dinner to cook, clothes to wash, and on it goes.

We can be busy burning out.  Our souls can be weary.  I am definitely someone who likes the whole list ticked off but over the last few years I realized that there is always another item to add anyway and the 'big' business of life is loving well, really listening, kindness, time for others.  This can get lost in the need to do the 'smaller' things that can usually wait another half hour and won't even be remembered in a week. 
It is important to do our work well but we know that our priorities and time must be in godly order  What good does it do to gain the whole world and lose your soul? 
So have coffee with a loved one and do it slowly.  Have a long play date with your child. This time is never wasted.




Monday, May 7, 2018

Lunch with my favourite 15 year old



This beauty is almost 16 years old... what a privilege motherhood is!  It makes you want to be the best version of yourself.  She is my constant inspiration to come up higher and holier by the grace of God.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Weekend togeeetherr


Together again!! We have enjoyed a long weekend of family time... it's been so relaxing and fun.  Wayne was away for a few weeks and it's just bliss to be face to face with my people.






Sunday, April 22, 2018

My favourite apologist

What a special morning! I heard Ravi Zacharias in the flesh, with my daughter, no less.  I woke her up early and it felt a bit like Christmas morning.  I have listened to so many of his messages over the last 20 years and today really special.  This morning was profound.  A honour indeed.


"Every other person who is at the heart of any religion has had his or her beginning either in fancy or in fact.  But nevertheless, there is a beginning.  Jesus' birth in Bethlehem was a moment preceded by eternity.  His being neither originated in time nor came about by the will of humanity.  The author of time, who lived in the eternal, was made incarnate in time that we might live with the eternal in view.  In that sense, the message of Christ was not the introduction of a religion, but an introduction to truth about reality as God alone knows it.  To deny Jesus' message while pursuing spirituality is to conjure an imaginary religion in an attempt to see heaven while sight is confined to the earth.

That is precisely what Jesus challenged when he said, "I have come that you may have life" (John 10.10)
His life spells living.  Your life or my life, apart from Him, spells death"

~ Ravi Zacharias   'Jesus among other Gods'



Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Sunday thoughts



Sunday bowls... sweet morning time with my girl. 
Food for the body and food for the soul.



"Lift your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord" Ps 134.2
What a beautiful, profound night at church.

Monday, April 9, 2018

A school dance and a little more growing

Just before Easter was her first senior dance.  She did her make up and I did her hair.  The minutes flew... she was radiant.  And I keep thinking that we were again crossing over a threshold.  A little letting go.  And also a distinct emerging of something new.



The baby becomes a noisy toddler... the winnie-the-pooh cot gives way to the proud first night in a bed.  Pre-school is charged with all the zeal she can muster. Then she looks adorable in her school uniform and the baby things are boxed in the garage... then all the playing on the floor with endless families of Sylvanians comes to a slow end and so on it goes.  This beautiful cycle of growing up.

Every precious day is full of wonder, of growing and becoming...

and it is all a privilege, witnessing the gentle unfurling of each new phase.

Friday, April 6, 2018

Pieta

Michelangelo's Pieta makes you stop.  I stood in awe.  Mary holding the body of Jesus after the wrath of man has been poured on her innocent son.  It's graceful and breathtaking.  Which is probably just like Mary was.  How else do explain the response 'Behold I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.'  Oh the faith.  And humble acceptance.  That alone is a lesson for daily living.  Not my will, my plan, but yours.

The Pieta is also sad and stirring.  Mary, who was there at the joyous beginning, is also there at the end.  Her beloved son.  Her heart unlike the marble Pieta was broken.  All she had is all we have.


The promise of being fully alive, of resurrection life as we too are numbered among the crucified. 'Our old self was crucified with him... and we might no longer be enslaved to sin... reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus'  ~  Romans 6.6.

Our hard hearts transformed by a continued willingness to trust that His ways are better.  And they are.

John Piper said 'Never let the cross lose its crucifying power in your life. Never let it slip into the dim and misty past.'

His crucifixion.  It is finished.

His crucifixion.  It is not forgotten.

The Pieta is magnificent but the God-man exceeds all magnificence.  This astonishing masterpiece cannot compare to the masterpiece of the sacrifice that changed history.  Trust Him when it doesn't add up.  He is unafraid of our mess.

Grace cannot leave you where it found you... surely goodness and mercy will always come hard after us.


Wednesday, April 4, 2018

The Easter people

The minutes were all-consuming and they turned into days and days to weeks and so forth.  And in the end I was spent.  And so the last few months flew by with many days too heavy to hold.

There were electronic meltdowns, personal meltdowns, sad goodbyes and adapting to a new pace and narrow road.  There were beautiful moments saturated with love and there were hard-to-swallow moments that tasted of despair.

But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know its worth
and its not found in the land of the living...

God understands the way to it,
and He knows its place.




And we cannot surrender to the whisper to lay down with apathy.  We have One who knows the way through. The way out.  His place of suffering is our place of freedom and peace.  Who doesn't long for a place of peace?  Is it a moments work, usually not... and I for one am tired of glib, thin slogans of supposed faith. But this I know.  Quick is not necessary, but true is.  Peace is a true person... come to Me all you who are bone-weary and bent by heavy loads, and I will give you rest.  And this is the only hope that our marred humanity has.

This Lenten time of year brings sharp clarity.  Resurrection brings hope. And new life.  As Pope John Paul said, we do not abandon ourselves to despair but we abandon ourselves to the One who holds us and walks us into the light and whose mercies are new every morning.

"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song."        Pope John Paul II

Hallelujah and Amen.