"So This Is Christmas......"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb5hk7jDvvs

John Lennon composed this little song as a protest against the Vietnam war at the time. The full title includes the words "War is over". There are a number of different "versions" of the song on youtube. There is one depicting the most ghastly photographs of war and suffering taken by some of the most hardened war time photographers of the time. I decided to stick my head in the sand and post a much softer version with pictures of beautiful gardens and stuff. So much for the explanation.

It's wishful thinking to believe pain and suffering will stop. Even just for one day. It's even harder to imagine the warring factions will put down the guns and silence the rhetoric just for one day and "Give Peace A Chance". Believing that death and destruction will take a deserved break just for one day is the belief of a fool. So what is there to believe in. 

Expectation, Hope, Joy, Purity are what the four candles of Advent mean. We can live with the expectation that tomorrow will be better. We can live with the hope of a brighter future if we all put our hands to the plow and work together to make this world a better place for each other. We can share in other's victories and celebrate the joy that comes with overcoming obstacles. We can strive toward the purity of heart and mind, to live life never to have to look over your shoulder. 

Am I delusional. Maybe I am. Yet someone once said there is good in everyone. Sometimes we just have to scratch a little deeper to find the shiny bits. 

Look back, Look Inward and Look forward. May this Christmas be a GOOD ONE.     

Lessons from Trees - Hope for the Future

The one skill I do not have is gardening. My green fingers just never grew. Maybe that's why God gave me the ability to see things just a little different. 

Anyway, about three weeks ago we hired a gardening service to come and cleam up around the house. One of the trees in the front yard is a Syringa. Those that know the tree will also know it tends to be a little messy. However it is also a hardy and resilient species. Trying to control it's growth can be a full time job. These guys rocked up and hacked away and broke off branches fron the tree with almost reckless abandon, leaving one or two jagged ends. Two days ago I went out to get our tree climbing cat out of the tree and spotted the new shoot growing out from where the branches were broken of. My first thought was to photograph this little marvel of nature. Well, I think it's "bloody marvelous"

This got me thinking.

Twenty fifteen can hardly be described as a vintage year for me personally. And I guess I can say with a fair degree of confidence that there are many who too, have not being dealt a fair hand the past year. Now we find ourselves on the verge of Christmas and the end of the year. Twenty Sixteen beckons. We can look back at the year gone by and reflect on the mistake we've made and revel in the victories. We can use the gift of hindsight and say with confidence "never again will I do it that way". The future is unknown and it's quite frankly better that way. 

However, I want to have the resilience of the Syringa. Even though I may be broken and slightly bent out of shape, I want to continue growing and have the ability to grow new life. There will always be adversity. People will come along and "break" me crudely and harshly put me down. But I want to have the ability to sprout new "branches" everytime.

And to all my friends here, there and everywhere. See you all in 2016. Never give up. Never stop growing "new branches".    

Perspectives

One of my all time favorate songs is a song by Phil Collins called "Both Sides Of The Story". 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PclPI54NvNM

Watch the clip and you will understand where I am coming or going with this. 

Friday afternoon we had our usual dose off loadshedding. I decided to escape the pending darkness and head to a little place not far from home. It's a place where one could at one stage quite peace and solitude amidst the bussle of urban life. It's a place where, on a good day, one is able to photograph the most beautiful birds and the occasional wild life. One can sit in a hide and wait for hours for a Malachite Kingfisher to appear out of nowhere. The silence will surround you and solitude will become your companion. 

Friday was different. There was the noise of construction everywhere. The sound of hammers and drills and mechanical tools drowned out any hope of quite solitude. AND above everything, there were no birds. I had clearly chosen a wrong time and wrong place to "escape the darkness". There was going to be no getting away from the noise. 

I left the hide and decided to walk the paths in search of something to photograph. Two little Cape White Eyes made a fleeting appearence. They were simply too fast to capture. It was getting cold and miserable. The only "subject" left to photograph were the thorn bushes. 

Looking through the lens I struggled to see beauty in the thorns. They appeared harsh and threatening. For a moment I pictured the crown of thorns. I imagined the damage they could do. Then I saw a nest under construction. I saw the little green leaves on the branches surrounding the thorns. I changed the settings on the camera and managed to "paint" a mottled, blurred background. All of a sudden there was beauty there.

Just now and then we need to change our perspective and look at people, things, circumstances and our own lives just a little differently. 

There is always another PERSPECTIVE. We may just need to make little adjustments.  

Rising From The Ashes

Cape Town experienced one of the most devastating veld fires a few weeks ago. It raged for days over a vast area of the Southern Peninsula. A family drive-out yesterday took us along the route where the fire had roared for days. 

The "moonscape" is visible from a long way off. What is of signifigance is how close the the fire had come to dwellings and how lives were affected. Vast swathes of mountainside has become sandy wasteland. The normally beautiful green landscape has become a blackened scene of unbelievable devastation. 

As we drive along the winding mountain pass the we see more and more signs of life rising up amidst the ruin. Green leaves seem to be popping up in the most unlikeliest of places. Mother nature has taken control and and started restoring herself to the former beauty. We are told it may take years. Yet one thing is sure. The beauty WILL be restored. 

Our lives are often devastated by raging fires. We are challenged by circumstances that destroy our dreams and desires and proverbially force us to change direction. All  we see from one end of the horizon to the other is utter devastation. Smoke clouds our vision and our eyes drown in tears as we try and make sense of the ashes and embers that surround us. 

As Mother nature is able to rise again, we too can rise from the ashes. When the smoke has cleared and the tears are gone, we are able to see the green leaves rising from the scorched earth of our lives. Yes it may take years. It may even need a complete turn around strategy. In nature these fires need to burn. So too it is in life. The fires need to burn for new life to rise from the ashes. 

Let the fires burn. We have a God given power in us to Rise From The Ashes.