Much happening around Churches recently: Going to the building last week that was being violently re-organised, and yesterday walking a silent meditation in the old church that I used always to go to: bliss ! . It's good that there are different churches for different people. I always walk there from home, like a sort of ritual walking to a sacred shrine. Then I get back on the buss!  I think my daily walking in the woods is my most sacred action.

More on Rubbish

 My daily walk thru the ruff parts of the Common had echoes of the 3rd October blog: "Rubbish". Walking in any path where there are people you see it on the ground. If it's trivial I pick it up and carry it until I pass a bin: it there, if it it's too much I'm afraid it leave there, unless I'm feeling very good.

My computer messed things out a few days ago. First I just randomly collapsed for a couple of days, then my wife helped me to pull myself up (and showed me what to do, including walking through the trees in the Common) .
Random action, which I do too often,  reminds me of the time when, in the Common, I saw an elderly woman (well, probably my age!)  walking in the Common and, on each tree, cutting the ivy from it's rings - which could also destroy crucial parts of the tree. She thought that the iv killed the tree. For this and, for many other spontaneous actions, the action is "let it be".  

 15/10  Our churches have been re-organised and when I was there the main speaker focused only on my "closeness to Jesus". I'm worried that these may only be words. Along with many other people I've encountered, I have tried to follow Jesus's precepts, and once I had a hallucination of a person which at the time a thought was Jesus. I don't that sort of thing is helpful!        

16 / 10  There was a soft mist over everything today as I went to the Common, becoming clearer as I walked.  No other people, no visible animals . ..  Just a walking.  Even  as I write now, the mist has gone.

16 / 10 There was a soft mist over everything today as I went to the Common, becoming clearer as I walked.  No other people, no visible animals . ..  Just a waking. 

Even  as I write now, the mist has gone.

The leading dog

My regular walk on Southampton Common yesterday was pleasant, with a large portion of  dogs taking their human for a walk! I've never had a dog and would  never want one (far two much work and less of freedom). But I do appreciate them when they come to me to say a (doggy) "Hello". Some time ago I learnt dogism: behaving like the ancient wild dogs from which they came, when every dog obeyed the leading, tallest dog. In this case, I am the leader and I hold out a my regal back-of-hand to be licked.        

The light

For a ling time I have been fascinated by the "light surah" in the Quran (Surah 24:33). Here is  a translation (I don't know any Arabic!).
"God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of his light is, as it were that of a niche contained in glass, the glass like a radiant star."
  I am the niche and God offers light from his being, if I am willing and able.
As a reminder, in a our room there is a large glass, shining with a gentle blue.   

Rubbish

Almost every day I walk at random in the woods in the common near us. And usually, in some places, I wonder at the rubbish around me - usually bear-cans, spoiling it's beauty. Today there was so much in one glade that I could not carry it all away. I suppose that chatting with friends with a bottle is more worthy than my solitary wondering?

Yesterday we went to the church where we used to take part in a traditional christian service. Now, however, it had been turned into a very different place. The previous traditional service had  prayed for  the work of many Christians working for good in Southampton and beyond; the songs opened opened the depth of God; the ritual of the "The lords Supper", though the the presence of us all, connected us through Jesus to God.
Here, how ever, was nothing but a stream of assertions to every single person that they could be "healed by Jesus."