Life's Journey

  Today, I am taking things a little easier and copying what was already prepared for the church newsletter. Note that it was written on 25th January, just over a week ago. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is in a date? Today, as I write, is the 25 th January. Some will find the date is marked in their diary as being Rabbie (or Robert) Burns Day. It will be seen as a day to remember the writings of the Scottish poet. Many, particularly in Scotland, will celebrate as they partake in haggis and neeps (turnips), perhaps washed down with Irn Bru (or for some they would drink the other Scottish national drink). Then, of course, there will be the bag pipes heard in the midst of it all. It is a time of celebration. For Joan and I in our diary it is recorded as the day of the anniversary of our engagement in 1973, engaged to be married is the full term, and indication of a life long commitment that w

  This week many throughout the world are remembering the holocaust of the 2nd World war. Between 1941 and 1945 6 million jews were murdered in attempt to rid the world of  the Jewish people. My dad never spoke a lot about his experiences during the war. Few of his generation did. However, on one occasion he spoke of how he arrived at Belsen and remarked that he could smell the camp before he got anywhere near the place. He could never forget the horror and the tragedy of it all, mans inhumanity to man! No doubt others had smelt the same thing and sensed the vile nature of it all, yet for whatever reason never spoke  of it. Maybe it was through fear, but the horror continued. Many of us are familiar of the book called Anne Franks diary. It was the diary of a Jewish teenager living in Holland. Visitors to Amsterdam can still visit the family home beside the canal and can visualise how this was not any ordinary teenage diary. It was the diary of one who faced the tragedy of the war in a

  I find it interesting to discover how many days are currently specified to highlight something that should be special every day of the year.  Today    is National Hugging Day. This event aims to encourage people to hug family, friends, and close ones more often, as hugs are known to have positive effects on mental health. There is some truth in that. It is a part of being human that we need and desire some form of interaction, some kind of message that says "we care".  This year, unfortunately, hugging is not recommended. Often we do not even recognise others, all that we can see is a mask. The image of the person behind the mask is hard to see, it could be anyone. As for hugging, we cannot get close to anyone. For nearly 2 years it has been impressed upon everyone to keep at least 2 metres distance from each other. Not even a shake of the hand was deemed to be acceptable. It seems to me ironic in these circumstances that instead it has been encouraged to "fist bump&qu

  Following the recent death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, here are a few quotes from the man who made his stand against apartheid in South Africa.  Quotes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu “Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.” It is not the volume of our words but the veracity that determines our outcomes. I have always considered that once you raise your voice you have lost the argument. The story is told of the preacher who wrote in his notes "Argument weak, speak louder" “I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.” All human beings deserve to be equality and compassion. Love should shine forth irrespective of the person one is with. “Without forgiveness, there’s no future.” Forgiveness has the power to heal the world, but without it we are headed towards darkness. This must be the best quote. It is with the forgiveness of God comes the hope of an eternal futur

  He is coming! Something special is happening. Surely that must be true as the decorations are set up. Lights are lit up, Trees are erected Who is it that is being expected? For some you would be forgiven if you thought it was a chubby man in a red suit flying around the world on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. However, could the real answer lie with a clue in the name of the event Christmas? CHRIST mas does seem to emphasise the name of Jesus Christ, and the full name literally means the "feast of Christ". To celebrate Christmas and ignore the central character seems to be a strange aspect of modern life.  Certainly there is much debate on the date, 25th December, but I can understand that because no one knows the precise date of the birth of the babe in the stall. Yet as Christians we do not claim this is his precise date of birth, but rather this is the date we specifically remember the birth of Jesus as it is recorded in the bible. Over the net couple of weeks many of us wi

Seeing the smiling pictures of the Bee Gees it seems ironic that the word that comes to mind is tragedy! It is that song that they sung in which "tragedy" is continually repeated that seems so appropriate today The big news today is the funeral of a much loved Member of Parliament.  Southend will say goodbye to much-loved MP Sir David Amess with a procession through his constituency and funeral service today. Conservative MP Sir David Amess died after being stabbed several times at his constituency surgery, almost 40 years after entering parliament. It is a tragedy, irrespective of where we stand politically. Indeed in the past decade a number of MP's of different political positions have been tragically killed, the last one being Jo Cox who was a Labour MP. In a world that seems to often to be a harsh place where everyone tries to bring others down, but on this occasion all political persuasions in Westminster came together to speak well of this man loved across the poli