Domenica, 29/05/2005
The night of the stag
Account of the 20-21/05/2005 Adventure of the brave lads
The journey started from our well-known place of meeting, at the edge of Canterbury. There we met and prepared for what was ahead of us, all our equipment and food; we tore sackcloth into garments for us to wear, in order not to be noticed as any more than poor travellers, but memorised a password that only we would understand (“Marriage Ahoy!”). The long and arduous walk started around the seventh hour after noon, slightly later than planned, due to the difficulty found by some in being punctual.
Leaving Canterbury through a secret passage in the bushes, we went up and down hills on a rarely trodden path. For a short stretch the band of brothers walked through the village of Rough Common and their walk then brought itself onto the road which goes through Blean Woods. This lonely road was very long and it seemed as though the track would never end. I felt the need to move off it as soon as possible, preferring to face the dangers of the woods rather than the uncertain perils of meeting enemies on the road, which might have jeopardized our quest. Halfway through the that walk, Michael left us, saying he would catch up with us later, but we doubted whether we would ever see him again.
Andrew (McPoo) finally decided it was time for us to get off the road, much to my delight, sensing the danger of staying on was indeed great. The place where we left the path was not easily going to leave marks of our passage.
We got into the thick of the woods immediately, this was already quite deep in the woods, we had crossed many parts of the woods as we walked on the road. The trees were very low and spread over the floor of the woods were purple flowers. This enchanting sight lasted for a while, then we started following the river. We had to keep crouching, moving branches, jumping over the river, while staying together. What followed was a series of places where logs on the floor were wet and weak and crumbled under our weight almost getting us stuck in the ground at times. This forest was old, some trees were entwined together, something mystic about it made my heart beat faster.
The excitement of the journey was increasing in my heart as we went, while the morale of some of the brave’uns was getting lower. As we arrived at the end of that thick part of the woods, the river took a turn and passed in front of us. We needed to get to the other side where the sky reappeared. There was only high grass and bush for a while, then the scene cleared…
In front of us, was an astounding scene. The trees were tall. The ground was soft. A lake on the left, with an island in its center, moon above. We were at the heart of the forest and it was beautiful. Elves must have lived there until some hundred years ago, but it was a place no one had seen. We were ready to set up camp and let the trials begin.
This adventure was the result of young Jim being called out into the wild in order to receive the bestowing of his masculinity - in the light of his wedding to Becca (-Roo) coming up soon – which our society had been slowly robbing us of. We, his friends, had decided we would go through the same trials, understanding this danger concerned us all. Jim knew he had to go and we knew we had to follow him.
The trials involved hunting with bow and arrow to feed ourselves, axe (boot) throwing, for many important reasons which I cannot think of right now. The power inside of us was being unleashed, the heavenly power given unto us by God himself and indeed it was being unleashed from within Jim, who had to battle us all at once, and overcame. The final trial made us climb a cliff and jump into emptiness across a gorge, hanging from a rope (zip-line). After that, we believed the challenges were finished and that we could let our guard down. Two us the group, Aaron and Ife, left us then.
At that time, the sun went down. Out of the darkness came an experienced warrior, he had managed to track us down with the intention to kill Jim, vanquish him, in order to remove the greatest obstacle to him getting Jim’s future wife Becca and taking her to with him back to Japan. The great skill of the warrior in unarmed combat and twin (towel) nunchaku was ultimately no match for Jim’s passion for Becca. In a final attempt to execute a deadly attack, Jim saw the assassin’s weak spot and slew him (with his towel). The warrior vanished and at that moment, the bestowing of masculinity came upon us, in the form of a talking stag carrying a cauldron of mulled wine in between his antlers. He congratulated Jim for his victory and told him he was indeed worthy of marrying Becca, then invited us to drink the mulled wine. Once each of us had drunk from the cup, we were in complete harmony with nature and the stag had left us.
We went back to camp and fellowshipped with each other and nature, drinking and dining around the fire, while we sang joyful songs and puffed on cigars. Eventually, it was time to go to our other home; we packed up and left that place, resolving to see it again one day soon. The walk back through the wood was of joy and contemplation, and laughter for some, through the utter darkness of the night and the woods, but with the moon and stars shining down on us as we went.
As we arrived back into civilization, the people who crossed us were speechless, as we were beaming with the joy of the Lord, knowing we were right then what we were meant to be.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Projectvm Poesiam
So, to start with posting my little creations, I think I should post the old stuff I have not really done anything about until now.
This first poem was actually the ideas I threw on paper to write a proper nice and big poem, then I forgot about it, and came across it in some bunch of papers a while back, looked at it and thought it actually looked great like that, no need to change it, the moment had gone, but it was still very nice:
February 2004
A Ray of Sun cuts my page
Today the Sky is free
Winter blossom amongst the dead
An Arrow shoots across the sky,
piercing target through target,
gaining momentum rather than relenting
marking its way like a pen marks its path
across the full emptiness of this deep,
until it reaches the edge of the firmament
and dissapears in this endless world above us...
There it is, I like it, it just describes the way I interpreted with my imagination what I saw that day. That arrow was just a plane, but I could see it with my child's eye and I loved it that way.
Since end December I've gotten through a whole notebook of random stuff I've written, and more than half a notebook of my Canterbury Tale. I have also started on a new one, AND have started using the guitar tab notebook my mum got me a while back to write music into. I used to count the things I write, now I don't anymore and that's great, because it shows me I am completely into it, still not as much as I would like and still not as good as I would like, but getting there (need to read more for that one). Keeping a blog is being creative too, I don't know if you've tried, but it really spurs me on to write more and if you look at some of the stuff I have written in here you'll see what I mean. This is post number 23, contrary to what my user stats say about me! I would like to try and link my long writings to the blog for people to read them and feed back on them, that'd be very cool.
I still have things on my january list of things to write which I have not written, which is frustrating at times, because I start thinking about them and get ideas which then just get blown in the wind when I get distracted from them!... This should be a month of writing, if I can get some time on my own... Hopefully my stupid computer at home will respond to Blogger... before it crashes.
I guess what I want to do is encourage people to use their gifts. Some of the youth I work with have such a low self-esteem, because that's way they are told they should have, at school, from their teachers, schoolmates and their parents too! They do not realise they have great gifting some times. I did not either, I have been lied to and had forgotten that I used to write as a child, I only snapped out of that recently. I want to encourage my youth to do things they like, but they also need to know what there is to do out there, that's why next term I want the Christian Performing Arts Society from University to come down to our meeting and do some hip-hop dancing, some gospel choir and whatever else they do in order to inspire the youth as to what they would like to do.
I have rambled on for long enough, peace out, follow your hearts.
This first poem was actually the ideas I threw on paper to write a proper nice and big poem, then I forgot about it, and came across it in some bunch of papers a while back, looked at it and thought it actually looked great like that, no need to change it, the moment had gone, but it was still very nice:
February 2004
A Ray of Sun cuts my page
Today the Sky is free
Winter blossom amongst the dead
An Arrow shoots across the sky,
piercing target through target,
gaining momentum rather than relenting
marking its way like a pen marks its path
across the full emptiness of this deep,
until it reaches the edge of the firmament
and dissapears in this endless world above us...
There it is, I like it, it just describes the way I interpreted with my imagination what I saw that day. That arrow was just a plane, but I could see it with my child's eye and I loved it that way.
Since end December I've gotten through a whole notebook of random stuff I've written, and more than half a notebook of my Canterbury Tale. I have also started on a new one, AND have started using the guitar tab notebook my mum got me a while back to write music into. I used to count the things I write, now I don't anymore and that's great, because it shows me I am completely into it, still not as much as I would like and still not as good as I would like, but getting there (need to read more for that one). Keeping a blog is being creative too, I don't know if you've tried, but it really spurs me on to write more and if you look at some of the stuff I have written in here you'll see what I mean. This is post number 23, contrary to what my user stats say about me! I would like to try and link my long writings to the blog for people to read them and feed back on them, that'd be very cool.
I still have things on my january list of things to write which I have not written, which is frustrating at times, because I start thinking about them and get ideas which then just get blown in the wind when I get distracted from them!... This should be a month of writing, if I can get some time on my own... Hopefully my stupid computer at home will respond to Blogger... before it crashes.
I guess what I want to do is encourage people to use their gifts. Some of the youth I work with have such a low self-esteem, because that's way they are told they should have, at school, from their teachers, schoolmates and their parents too! They do not realise they have great gifting some times. I did not either, I have been lied to and had forgotten that I used to write as a child, I only snapped out of that recently. I want to encourage my youth to do things they like, but they also need to know what there is to do out there, that's why next term I want the Christian Performing Arts Society from University to come down to our meeting and do some hip-hop dancing, some gospel choir and whatever else they do in order to inspire the youth as to what they would like to do.
I have rambled on for long enough, peace out, follow your hearts.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Taking hold of life
... Not sure what to say really! My degree is over and I am a free, penniless man! It is the most amazing feeling in the world, I am free and I am completely relying on God, I'm a king!
Been finally able to write music after so long, one song and a very cool riff which will be the base for a funky rap-metal tune, very Tom Morello-like, it's really exciting. Hopefully next year I'll be able to gig a lot with the band, we just want to make music and play it, having fun and expressing ourselves at the same time. It is such a blessing from God to be able to do that.
I will also have the time to finally pick up from where I left off with all my writing projects, stories, poetry, songs, et caetera. I have so many ideas coming up in my head and so many things I need to finish, my head might just burst. I wish there were an easier way to complete my works, but there obviously is not... The thing is, writing is amazing. You can't know until you try it, it is a bit like spending time with God, you're like "Oh man, I really don't want to do this", then when you get started you remember how beautiful it is, what a feeling it gives you, how fulfilled you feel. Of course, I relate my writing to God, for me, writing is part of spending time with God, I'm being creative with Him alongside me, inspiring me and encouraging me, I am so blessed by it, it is unbelievable! I believe creativity alive in you is one of the things that bring a person to life! Getting in tune with one's artistic side, that is just so amazing and God works through you in that way.
It takes discipline though... If you wait to be inspired you'll be waiting for a long time, instead, you must go out and get in touch with the things that inspire you! Keep your senses alert, it might just be a whisper from God, a sound you hear, a scene you see or a fleeting glimpse you catch, an aroma you smell, a flavour you taste, anything can just fill you with a sense of "I need to do something right now or else I'm going to explode!!". To quote the film American Beauty: "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it... and my heart is going to cave in." There are moments when that is exactly true...
I was cycling back from church this morning and I looked around... All around me, at a 360 degree angle, there were fields, hills, woods, the sky was blue but slightly darkened by clouds as well as brightened by the sun. The whole scene was still. Completely still! It seemed as though someone had taken a painting and placed it within the firmament, it was really strange, and in a strange way inspiring, something inside of me was reached, if I took that something and used it I could write and write and write... It doesn't take a life shattering experience to be inspired, though a whisper can be life-shattering, it just takes person to invite the Holy Spirit to show them how amazing God is and He will do that through the infinity of things God can do... Writing is a beautiful thing, creating is a beautiful thing. Even if no-one likes what you do, no-one is touched, you will have been touched, you will have been affected. Even if no-one is going to like my song, I'm quite pleased with it, I think it's a good song!
This is the end of my permanence in Crossways 18, CT2 7BS. I moved all my stuff out yesterday, and tomorrow will be moving my butt out as well, if anyone wants to know my address, e-mail me. It was quite strange having to empty my room and move stuff into storage, then sleeping in an empty place, with my sleeping bag. This marks the end of an era... The undergraduate student era. I have hated my degree, but have been so blessed by my life in Canterbury and to be able to stay here another year is such a fantastic blessing. My new house is beautiful and you are more than welcome to come and stay if you feel like a holiday in beautiful Canterbury. No longer a student, I am going to be so much freer than ever before, and as a church worker I'm going to have the time of my life, getting behind the youth in their growth and spiritual maturing, it is a privilege to be a part of their lives and a part of the team working for the church! This year holds so much I can't even imagine and will be without a doubt the year I will grow more than I ever have in the past. Hoping to get a part-time job in linguistics, we'll see how it goes and then God will speak to me about what he wants for the future... I have faith in that. I have to, I have seen with my eyes the work of the Lord, in my life and in other peoples' lives. I got through my dissertation and exams only by the grace of God and soon I will be completely relying on God financially for next year! So I guess we'll just see how many miracles Jesus will perform, sorry if I don't count them, I've already received many!
Off tomorrow for Italy, to see my parents and sister for a few weeks, any of you are welcome to come along, just e-mail me and get a Stansted-Pisa flight ;)
Enjoy the summer, I am already!
Been finally able to write music after so long, one song and a very cool riff which will be the base for a funky rap-metal tune, very Tom Morello-like, it's really exciting. Hopefully next year I'll be able to gig a lot with the band, we just want to make music and play it, having fun and expressing ourselves at the same time. It is such a blessing from God to be able to do that.
I will also have the time to finally pick up from where I left off with all my writing projects, stories, poetry, songs, et caetera. I have so many ideas coming up in my head and so many things I need to finish, my head might just burst. I wish there were an easier way to complete my works, but there obviously is not... The thing is, writing is amazing. You can't know until you try it, it is a bit like spending time with God, you're like "Oh man, I really don't want to do this", then when you get started you remember how beautiful it is, what a feeling it gives you, how fulfilled you feel. Of course, I relate my writing to God, for me, writing is part of spending time with God, I'm being creative with Him alongside me, inspiring me and encouraging me, I am so blessed by it, it is unbelievable! I believe creativity alive in you is one of the things that bring a person to life! Getting in tune with one's artistic side, that is just so amazing and God works through you in that way.
It takes discipline though... If you wait to be inspired you'll be waiting for a long time, instead, you must go out and get in touch with the things that inspire you! Keep your senses alert, it might just be a whisper from God, a sound you hear, a scene you see or a fleeting glimpse you catch, an aroma you smell, a flavour you taste, anything can just fill you with a sense of "I need to do something right now or else I'm going to explode!!". To quote the film American Beauty: "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it... and my heart is going to cave in." There are moments when that is exactly true...
I was cycling back from church this morning and I looked around... All around me, at a 360 degree angle, there were fields, hills, woods, the sky was blue but slightly darkened by clouds as well as brightened by the sun. The whole scene was still. Completely still! It seemed as though someone had taken a painting and placed it within the firmament, it was really strange, and in a strange way inspiring, something inside of me was reached, if I took that something and used it I could write and write and write... It doesn't take a life shattering experience to be inspired, though a whisper can be life-shattering, it just takes person to invite the Holy Spirit to show them how amazing God is and He will do that through the infinity of things God can do... Writing is a beautiful thing, creating is a beautiful thing. Even if no-one likes what you do, no-one is touched, you will have been touched, you will have been affected. Even if no-one is going to like my song, I'm quite pleased with it, I think it's a good song!
This is the end of my permanence in Crossways 18, CT2 7BS. I moved all my stuff out yesterday, and tomorrow will be moving my butt out as well, if anyone wants to know my address, e-mail me. It was quite strange having to empty my room and move stuff into storage, then sleeping in an empty place, with my sleeping bag. This marks the end of an era... The undergraduate student era. I have hated my degree, but have been so blessed by my life in Canterbury and to be able to stay here another year is such a fantastic blessing. My new house is beautiful and you are more than welcome to come and stay if you feel like a holiday in beautiful Canterbury. No longer a student, I am going to be so much freer than ever before, and as a church worker I'm going to have the time of my life, getting behind the youth in their growth and spiritual maturing, it is a privilege to be a part of their lives and a part of the team working for the church! This year holds so much I can't even imagine and will be without a doubt the year I will grow more than I ever have in the past. Hoping to get a part-time job in linguistics, we'll see how it goes and then God will speak to me about what he wants for the future... I have faith in that. I have to, I have seen with my eyes the work of the Lord, in my life and in other peoples' lives. I got through my dissertation and exams only by the grace of God and soon I will be completely relying on God financially for next year! So I guess we'll just see how many miracles Jesus will perform, sorry if I don't count them, I've already received many!
Off tomorrow for Italy, to see my parents and sister for a few weeks, any of you are welcome to come along, just e-mail me and get a Stansted-Pisa flight ;)
Enjoy the summer, I am already!
Monday, May 09, 2005
A time to vote and a time to abstain...
DISCLAIMER: This post does not in any way make reference to anyone and it is not trying to make you do or believe anything, it is purely a series of reflections on certain things which have made me reflect, so do not get offended.
In the light of recent political election campaigning and voting booth antics, I feel the need to express my views in a slightly more serious vein than my friend Patrik. The Legalise Cannabis Alliance with its fancy manifesto clearly typed out by a many times over shot-up pot-head as funny as it may be was not, as was predictable, of any actual relevance in the electoral outcome, thank God! I also got a manifesto through the door about an independent participant in council elections who wanted to segregate anti-social families to an area of town and ban "gansta rap" from jukeboxes... What are we, in a fascist regime?!! I ended up burning in my garden the manifesto of an unnamed nationalist party who clearly doesn't like anyone other than pure-breed Brits!
Much has been said about this election, but for a guy who looks into a church and asks "What party do Christians vote for?" there is little chance of him getting an answer. And this is where I get a little... annoyed... angry? There is obviously no major party representing Christians, which is quite a good thing I think, since I don't believe Christians should be too involved in games of power, but I do believe that it is a serious thing to go and vote, using your right to vote... A person who decides to use his right NOT to vote replace it with the one of sitting on the couch has clearly not really understood much about life. I felt like a rat, walking around campus not being able to vote on the 05/05/05 because of my lack of registration!
The thing that irritates me is in seeing a mixture of hypocrisy and ignorance coming out of the mouths of children of God. When we take our stand and say "I'm going to vote for the party which is against abortion, against homosexuality and against weed!" we are making the rashest decision ever! Also, when we work in the community for a week to try and help families sort out their gardens and their lives, then vote for the party which is encouraging the maintaining of social disparities, there is clearly something wrong. There is something wrong in the way we are thinking and there is something missing in our reasoning.
Sure I'm against abortion, homosexuality and weed, but is that what Christians are about? Are we not forgetting that we are under the covenant of grace and we should be extending love to the lost? Don't get me wrong here, I'm NOT saying we encourage those things, but I am thinking about whether we are building our decisions on legalism rather than love. We can also learn that what is repressed tends to grow with further strength, just as Christianity does in oppressive nations, that is why Paul said "everything is permissible, but not everything is good!", to show us that the law just makes people want to sin more!
What's more, I just don't see the sense in acting out of love and outreach, then voting for a person who will build up barriers against poor countries and their people, then raise up taxes for the poor and lower them for the rich.
... I'm not saying there is a party to vote for (especially in this completely bogus British selection of parties), I just want to challenge the thinking of some people as to what are their motives when they tick the box. If they believe they are in Christ, then that's great, I myself have to question my own motives, since I am as biased and misinformed as anyone, though I like to think I'm not... ;)
In the light of recent political election campaigning and voting booth antics, I feel the need to express my views in a slightly more serious vein than my friend Patrik. The Legalise Cannabis Alliance with its fancy manifesto clearly typed out by a many times over shot-up pot-head as funny as it may be was not, as was predictable, of any actual relevance in the electoral outcome, thank God! I also got a manifesto through the door about an independent participant in council elections who wanted to segregate anti-social families to an area of town and ban "gansta rap" from jukeboxes... What are we, in a fascist regime?!! I ended up burning in my garden the manifesto of an unnamed nationalist party who clearly doesn't like anyone other than pure-breed Brits!
Much has been said about this election, but for a guy who looks into a church and asks "What party do Christians vote for?" there is little chance of him getting an answer. And this is where I get a little... annoyed... angry? There is obviously no major party representing Christians, which is quite a good thing I think, since I don't believe Christians should be too involved in games of power, but I do believe that it is a serious thing to go and vote, using your right to vote... A person who decides to use his right NOT to vote replace it with the one of sitting on the couch has clearly not really understood much about life. I felt like a rat, walking around campus not being able to vote on the 05/05/05 because of my lack of registration!
The thing that irritates me is in seeing a mixture of hypocrisy and ignorance coming out of the mouths of children of God. When we take our stand and say "I'm going to vote for the party which is against abortion, against homosexuality and against weed!" we are making the rashest decision ever! Also, when we work in the community for a week to try and help families sort out their gardens and their lives, then vote for the party which is encouraging the maintaining of social disparities, there is clearly something wrong. There is something wrong in the way we are thinking and there is something missing in our reasoning.
Sure I'm against abortion, homosexuality and weed, but is that what Christians are about? Are we not forgetting that we are under the covenant of grace and we should be extending love to the lost? Don't get me wrong here, I'm NOT saying we encourage those things, but I am thinking about whether we are building our decisions on legalism rather than love. We can also learn that what is repressed tends to grow with further strength, just as Christianity does in oppressive nations, that is why Paul said "everything is permissible, but not everything is good!", to show us that the law just makes people want to sin more!
What's more, I just don't see the sense in acting out of love and outreach, then voting for a person who will build up barriers against poor countries and their people, then raise up taxes for the poor and lower them for the rich.
... I'm not saying there is a party to vote for (especially in this completely bogus British selection of parties), I just want to challenge the thinking of some people as to what are their motives when they tick the box. If they believe they are in Christ, then that's great, I myself have to question my own motives, since I am as biased and misinformed as anyone, though I like to think I'm not... ;)
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