Shalom

lightness

A couple of images of light to illustrate my post. The first is my now somewhat burned down Advent candles. The second shot is really a sunset taken from the balcony outside my room looking west. It was beautiful and unusual.

DIL and I have been back to my former home and have collected everything that was on my list except my childhood oak desk which we could not manage between us. It's in the attic and needs my sons to get it down the steep access ladder.

My clothes had been thrown into bags, a fact which made me angry, until DIL pointed out it reduced the time we had to spend there. I have spent a long time going in through them.

This has had a surprising result to me. I have thrown out a lot of stuff. I've sorted what can really be used by others and this will go to Reverse Garbage or Vinnies or similar. The rest I have thrown. It was not really good for anything much at all.

As I went through things I remembered many events. Some good, some bad, happy and sad. At the end I felt relief. I felt a lightness as I freed myself from some of the memories by stuffing the clothing into rubbish bags. Some things should have been replaced long ago, but I always felt guilty about spending money on myself. Perhaps, it was not that I felt guilt, but had guilt laid on me and I accepted it as being easier to cope with than the scenes I knew could follow.

I do feel "lighter." It's something I should have done ages ago. I know I'll be looked after, I always have been. It's hard to put aside the thought that perhaps something should be kept "just in case." A heavy weight has been lifted from my mind by freeing myself of those physical things and I definitely feel a lightness in my spirit. Yes, this can be knocked around by an email etc, but there is a light to follow and walk in.

weekend away

Like many other Sydneysiders, I spent the weekend out of town. It was a pleasant change to see no papers or news at all, so I saw no mention of the APEC conference. Didn't even turn on the TV in my motel room.

This weekend was booked last year,well before there was any mention of the fuss and disruption done to our city by this conference. A public holiday was declared by the government for the Sydney metropolitan area.

I attended a conference on the Friday and Saturday organised by New Creation Teaching Ministry. This one was titled "Spirit of God, Spirit of Glory." I thoroughly enjoyed it and was both challenged and encouraged by the speakers. It was held in the old Anglican church, St Stephens, in the Southern Highlands town of Mittagong.

It was fairly wet and quite cold, 6° at 6:00pm on saturday evening, but the church has a marvellous new heating system and the temperature was great. Which was more than the pews were. My back is stil complaining aftr the conference sessions. Too short on the bench part and I don't have long legs, and too upright in the back rest. And very hard, no cushioning at all. I wriggled and squirmed and ended up shoving my Bible as a back rest between me and the pew.

My friend and I had booked rooms in one of the local motels. Clean and basic, but all we needed was a bed and bathroom. Meals were provided by the conference and we ate breakfast at a good local café instead of paying for packet cereal and juice at the motel. After the conference on Saturday night, we sat in my room with some port and chocolate and talked.

We played truant from church on Sunday and went sightseeing in Bowral. The tulip festival is only a couple of weeks off and we looked at the park and the Don Bradman oval.

Then we drove to Berrima, home of a maximum security prison built in the nineteenth century. The town is now very touristy, but we stayed away from that area and went walking around some of the beautiful old houses. I bought some alpaca yarn to make a hat. We sat and talked and then explored the Historical Society's museum which was very good. Cheap too, $3 entry and we were there well over an hour. Too many country museums are not well set out or documented. This was a good one. Too many have lots and lots of identical pieces, all on show. I wondered if this was so no donor could be offended. This museum is different. The lady on the door explained that in many exhibits they had actually cut down on the display so it could be seen well.

The surviors of the Emden were interned there in the disused gaol in World War I. They made dug out canoes to sail on the river, did exquisite wood carving, beautiful drawings, built huts and made thriving vegetable gardens. When repatriation was offered at the end of the war, some remained, having married into the community. I had had no idea of the extent of all this and it was fascinating to see some of the craft and to read how they filled in the time.

We called at Berkelouw's Books on the way back and had lunch at our favourite café again.

All in all a good weekend. Good teaching and fellowship and a great day Sunday with some indepth discussions and lighthearted conversation with my friend. One of the best weekends I've had for a very long time.

ancient christian devotional

My friend gave me an interesting book and I'll mention it here as I know some who read are interested in that sort of thing.

I've been using the lectionary as a guide to devotional readings. It give me a skeleton to work from and I can add to it.

My friend gave this to me as a birthday present, knowing I would appreciate it. He was right, I'm enjoying it.
It's Ancient Christian Devotional; a Year of Weekly Readings.. It's published by IVP which surprised me, under the formatio imprint.

The book takes the lectionary readings and starts with the church's new year, Advent. A very short commentary from an ancient writer is given , two or three for each reading. At the end, an ancient prayer has been printed. Many of the writers I recognised, but there were many from the fourth and fifth centuries that I had never heard of. There is an index with a few, very brief notes on each source cited.

I've had the book for only a couple of days but am enjoying using it. Another link to Christians before me, the communion of saints.