23 Sept 2011

Lesson from a little bird



A welcomed distraction interrupted my ignoble thoughts (the poor me types.). from the window, a clear tweeting sounded. A little brown bird was sitting near the highest tree branch, looking around and letting out her beautiful, soul-lifting intones.

Bird sounds have always lifted me. As I took in her music and sense of equananimity, i recalled how as a young girl i would have said that God sent the bird to cheer me up. Did i believe that now? I hesitated – and then I asked why.

I did not hesitate because i doubted God’s love for me. Indeed, over the years and through many vales, my view and experience of God has widened and deepened. He is greater today than He was when I was twelve. Yet at the same time, I would not describe God and everything as if it revolved around me. I am content for the bird to be where it was simply because it was. I do not feel the need to explain it and lead the conclusion to my paltry self.

God no doubt made the bird and gave it its song. I am grateful for what the bird – one of God’s creatures – did for me, another of God’s creature. But there was no need for me to hack a fine trail insisting God sent the bird or something. In a sense then, i have matured. Children are the ones who see everything from the standpoint of self. It all begins and ends with self. But maturity means we accept that other people, and other dynamics count in a real and amazing way. 

The bird, me, and whatever else is bound up in God’s love and it is far greater and more beautiful that I can perceive. For me to narrow it down to myself – no matter how sweet and faith-filled it sounds – is a lesser vision of biblical glory.

St Francis of Assissi, once a rich young man, disavowed all his earthly inheritance and took vows of poverty and traveled sharing God’s love is famous for his song that praises the created world. He found such a huge and wondrous gift in God’s creation that he called the sun and moon his brother and sister!

Our modern take on life is really to use and discard things. Often what is not useful to us doesn’t receive our attention (and that includes humans alas). We have the ‘delete’ or ‘trash’ icon on our computers and ipads to help reinforce that.

With this mindset, we insist that things are good or useful or God-sent because it served us in some way. We have lost the sense of wonder that comes when we remember we are created beings and that God is going to restore the world.

The birds are still singing out there as I write. If they are grateful and excited about the world, i think i should take a leaf from them and be content and expect good things this day from my Father.

8 Sept 2011

travel notes: Ubud, Bali

We wanted a getaway ie. to get away from what we have come to associate as 'life". So it must be somewhere different and will demand something different from us.
I settled on Ubud, Bali - a largely rural, highly traditional network of villages slightly north of all the more usual beach-tourist-city spots. The omnipresent expressions of folk Hinduism: carvings, flower offerings, small temples in homes and along the streets, were pretty overwhelming. It's like stepping into a whole reality.




The Balinese were gentle and nice...like many of their Asian coutnerparts who have not been pressed into the modern city mould.
We stayed in Tegal Sari which meant the vale of rice fields. We have a one room tiered ground floor apartment that opened to padi fields. It's a totally unSingaporean view!

Our four short days filled up with enough adventures...
watching piranhas tear away at a chicken
a moment with the wood carver
a driver who pretty much explained everything Bali to us
Dad & daughter climbing up a volcano hill to catch the sunrise
Keith making his own kite Balinese style..and boy does it fly!
Being harrassed by monkey at the monkey forest
Mucking around a black sand beach
& fending off 'can we have the ipad?' moments & those sibling spats ---

-- well...some things you cannot get away from...!






3 Sept 2011

dreamers


i keep returning to this.
we are dreamers
of an impossible dream
today
i read about missions
youths, adults, children - 
scattered like salt grains in large plates of rice, wheat, millet..
flvouring 
and preserving?

do you see the young man with his guitar
that young gal walking with the darker skinned sister
the streets mill
with people who don't see them or hear their message

but they stand, sing, speak
and do what they must and what they want
for they are dreaming
that impossible dream

made not
imagined not
attained not
by their sacrifice
tears, fears and weariness...

Yet Someone takes all of it
and mingles it to form miracles

and so, we dream
and 
dream
and dream
on..