I am trying to give some attention to some lovely nominations and tags I received recently.
You all know how long these award posts take to prepare, but I do love them. I have been thinking about them while they have sat patiently in my drafts folder. I feel like I need a break away from my lap-top after the BAKE-OFF. So I think I am going to be content with publishing one a post day, maybe two if the mood takes me 🙂
The wonderful Teresa, better known as The Haunted Wordsmith has nominated me for THE MYSTERY BLOGGER AWARD, as you can see from her post below:
https://thehauntedwordsmith.wordpress.com/2019/03/19/mystery-blogger-award/
What is the Mystery Award?
“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.
– Okoto Enigma
Rules
Put the award logo/image on your blog.- List the rules.
- Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link back to their blog.
- Answer the 5 questions from the blogger who nominated you.
- Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.
- Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
- You have to nominate 10 – 20 people.
- Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
- Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify).
- Share a link to your best post(s).
Three Things About Me
I am trying to think of three new things to tell you. Hmm…
I was once dragged through the snow on my stomach by a sledge pulled by a team of husky dogs. I was on the back of the sledge (I was supposed to be “steering” the sledge) and I fell off. I had asked the owner of the sledge and the dogs, what happened if I fell off. He told me there was no way I was going to fall off. I fell off. I was clinging with all my might to the handle bar of the sledge, terrified that my friends were going to end up crashing into a tree. I was dragged along on my tummy for some time before eventually my strength gave out. I could hear my friends screaming. The owner…well it’s such a funny story, I should probably save the entire saga for another post.
I was a first aider from the age of sixteen. Every three years I went on a refresher course to re-qualify. My last certificate expired about a year ago. For the first time in twenty years I am not a “qualified first-aider” which means I cannot be used as a first-aider on a lot of the voluntary projects I work on. It feels like a real shame. I think I need to go and do another full first aid course (I can’t do a refresher course because my certificate has lapsed). I have been a first-aider on many construction projects and at major events for many years. It seems a shame to not be one of the team.
I am so so excited about watching the final of the BBC Masterchef show. I will be at work tonight when it is broadcast, so I will have to wait to watch it on BBC i-player. I can’t wait. I have been so fond of the contestants and am so impressed by what they have accomplished. Please don’t tell me the result!!
My Best Post
One of the very first posts (I think it was the first) I ever published is the one that is closest to my heart. I wrote this poem twenty years ago. I have worked on the middle section a couple of times, but the start and finish are exactly what I wrote when I was a teenager. I have a huge soft spot for it.
Five Questions From Teresa
What are your plans for this fine spring weekend?
On Saturday I will be walking out in the spring sunshine and enjoying all of the wonderful blossom that is on so many trees at the moment. The forecast is pretty good at the weekend. My friends and I will be walking from Hampstead to Richmond. I am going to a party on Saturday night. It is after a ceremony (I am not going to the ceremony, just the after-party), so it will be a late night for me.
Sunday – I am doing some volunteer work for most of the day, and then in the evening I am going round to the home of some friends from Bulgaria. I am taking a chilled chocolate cheesecake (which I will have to make first thing on Saturday morning, or maybe I can risk leaving it til Sunday morning – nope, I am going to be too tired after the party). People love that thing, I am asked to make it regularly. I daren’t eat it because I am not good with dairy.
What kind of museum would you create if you could (what would you put in it)?
Oh…that’s an interesting question – never have thought about that. So many museums in London that I love visiting. I guess I would love there to be a museum packed with all our family memories.
All the different cars Dad has driven over the years. Mum’s dresses. Swatches of the different curtains and wallpapers we have been through. Our toys and books from childhood. My collection of sunglasses from childhood and my roller-skates. All the family photos of course.
I think I would visit the museum regularly, as would all of my family. But I don’t think anyone else would be interested! We are not going to be able to get the tax-payer to fund this museum are we!
What is something best served cold?
Custard.
I really like hot fruit crumble with cold custard (dairy free for me). My friends like cold crumble with hot custard which I think is odd. Custard is so nice cold!
I know there will be some who disagree with me. My friends and I seem to be 50/50 split on this issue. But that seems to be the trend in the UK at the moment – to be 50/50 split on important subjects like whether custard should be cold or hot.
What can always bring you out of a slump?
What kind of slump? Are we talking about feeling a bit low?
Normally, being with people cheers me up enormously. I really thrive on being with people. I am from a big family. I have worked on projects with hundreds of other volunteers. I love people. I am with people a lot. But I like being alone too. It’s important to me to have some alone time.
There are other things I might do if I am on my own for some reason and feeling down. Sometimes I am forced against my will to be alone due to the intense pain I have since I received head injuries. At times like that, I do sometimes feel a bit sorry for myself. I mentioned some of them in my SHARE-YOUR-WORLD post this week:
- ring my mum, one of my sisters, or a good friend
- type an e-mail to Goldfinch
- go for a walk, there are beautiful parks nearby my accommodation
lie on the grass in the park and doze under the warm sunshine- listen to some music that always makes me feel good
- walk to a nearby artisan bakery on the high street and buy myself the gooiest cake I can find
- iron any laundry that is stacked up, it’s something I really enjoy
- work on the little book I am writing for my niece
What recently read book do you think everyone should read?
![Wish Upon A Leaf by [Grabs, Teresa]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31zwEMUhIJL.jpg)
I find Teresa’s new book an absolute delight. The main characters are enchanting. I love their story. I love love love it.
My first copy arrived from Amazon yesterday. I am going to buy more copies as we have quite a few children in our family who are the perfect age group for this book, and they all like reading.
I wish Teresa every success with her new book…and hopefully more are in the pipeline.
Put the award logo/image on your blog
1. I love wearing dresses. It’s not practical to wear a dress for some of the work I do, gardening and cleaning. Neither do I wear dresses when I go hiking or running. But I love wearing dresses any other appropriate time. I loved wearing dresses for Goldfinch.
2. I love summer. I love it very much. However, for the last three summers I have had a lot of frightening flashbacks taking me right back to that night in the park. There are lots of things that trigger memories of that night. The heat, the smell of grass, the sounds of animals at night. This year I will be in Australia when that date comes round again. Four years since I was attacked. I will be with Goldfinch. It will be winter in Australia. I am hoping I am alright.
3. I need to get a hair cut! I have shocking split ends at the moment. But it costs so much money to have my hair cut here in London. I am trying to arrange a salon appointment on one of my visits up north. My hair is quite long at the moment, and because it looks a bit tatty when it is down, I am having to wear it up all the time 😦
But I think you said it was for a whole weekend…therefore, I will probably throw in some other activities too. We would probably be camping outdoors and watching the stars at night. We would definitely be swimming. Probably swinging from a rope that was tied to a branch.
I rarely look at photos of myself. I can’t bare to. I am not camera shy, in fact I can be quite a poser! But I am photo shy, I hate to see myself in a photo. Please don’t ask me to explain it, but I literally cannot bear to see myself in a photo. There are no photos of me on display here in my little abode. My family have photos of me displayed, but I know where they are and I won’t look at them.
But I don’t have any problem with mirrors in general. Goodness, I have made myself sound as if I have a phobia. I love the mirrors on the bathroom cabinet in my little abode. It makes my face look so pretty. Also I have two long mirrors and they are very flattering. I don’t know whether it is the softer lighting, or if the mirrors I have here are faulty – but I like what they show.
I have a healthy awareness of my erm, “assets” and I also know which bits of me I could change if I put a little more effort in!
Cleaning. I shall explain further down…
It’s sometimes incomprehensible to me how they can make so much mess. I would like to walk in while they are all there, freeze them, tidy up while they are all frozen and then see how they react when they are unfrozen. I have started to leave notes explaining areas I was not able to clean and stating how they should leave the premises in order for me to be able to clean properly.
I feel safe within a relatively limited number of readers – who are all other bloggers and writers. So far 99.5% of the bloggers I have interacted with seem lovely. There is a nice supportive spirit. But the thought of the number of people looking at something I have written growing like wildfire is a bit frightening.
I know you said to imagine that one of my blog-posts had gone viral and everyone loved it, but it still makes me nervous. I don’t want Jack to find me. Not only physically, but I don’t want him to know anything about my blogging. If there was a dramatic increase in the number of people who were viewing my posts, I would be afraid that it would not be long until he found me.
There was a mistake I kept making for years. I was told again and again that I needed to learn to say no. I think a lot of people realized that for many years I was juggling a lot of responsibilities. Perhaps they could see it was unsustainable.
However, since I was the victim of a serious crime, I cannot go at the pace I was before. My head injuries have limited my abilities. I try to be honest and upfront with people about how much I can commit to. I am busy. But I cannot be busy the way was before. I cannot have lots of people depending on me. If I felt overwhelmed, I would probably just say “this is not going to work, it would be better for everyone if you found someone to replace me“. I try to keep life simpler. I just cannot feel the pressure of juggling too many obligations.
DO YOU FEEL SAFE WHERE YOU LIVE? NOT JUST WHEN YOU ARE INDOORS, BUT WHEN YOU ARE WALKING THROUGH THE STREETS NEAR WHERE YOU LIVE?
I learnt British sign language when I was sixteen, and for around ten years I was an interpreter for those who were deaf. That was mainly when I lived up north. When I moved down south, I interpreted just a handful of times, so I became rusty. But then when I started working in pharmacy, we had a few deaf customers, so it was very useful. I don’t use sign language regularly now, but I still find that I sometimes “think” in sign language, especially when I dream. Sometimes Milly and I will have conversations in sign language. (Milly is still an interpreter.)
There was a stage in my life when I had to clean out the tank regularly that was the home of eight stick insects. Those little guys would chomp their way through a lot of foliage and then there was lots of stick insect poop in the tank and shrivelled up twigs that needed clearing out. It was really hard to make sure they did not escape. I had a couple of afternoons when I was searching the kitchen high and low for stick insects. Boy can those things move!
Most of my clothes and shoes are from charity shops. I buy underwear brand new. I also buy work shoes brand new, because they need to fit well and they need to be good quality. Other than that, second-hand is fine for me. There are six charity shops on the high street here and it is not unusual to find beautiful designer clothes with the original retailer’s labels still on.
I have to admit, it is a long time since I made time to watch any Olympic event. I am drawn to swimming though because for years my sisters and I were competitive swimmers. And diving too.
My favourite colours make me happy – blues and greeny blues and bluey greens. I like a little yellow and a very little pink. But what makes me happy is colours that compliment each other. I love to see a mix of colours that dance together. There’s nothing quite as pretty as a rainbow.
I would not say it makes me mad, but I don’t get on well with orange for some reason. I attribute to this to my Dad painting the ceiling orange in the bedroom I shared with my sister Mandy when we were very little girls. Dad felt colours would impact our personalities and he thought orange was a happy colour. Staring up at an orange ceiling just seemed to make me averse to orange.
Every single day at work we are bombarded with questions in connection with the …you know. It’s hard to think about anything else. I know more and more people who are self-isolating and everyone else is social distancing. Many of my friends are anxious about their parents or grandparents. It is hard to switch off that anxiety. Then there are the financial worries many are facing. We are all wondering what is ahead.
Normally I go to the same supermarket to do my shopping. But almost three weeks ago, I had to search five supermarkets near me in the search for toilet rolls. While I was at these different shops, I ended up buying all sorts of other items I don’t usually buy. It was costing me a fortune! Thinking about what I might need if I have to self-isolate completely for either seven days or a fortnight, I bought tinned goods that I don’t normally look at, including asparagus soup, curried baked beans, mushy peas and black eyes beans. I did eventually find toilet rolls and then Jack pinched most of them! I am just about to run out again, but I now know that as someone who works for the NHS, I have a route to obtain some! Wooh hoooh!
I had a dress all picked out for an event that I was supposed to be going to. But the event has been cancelled because of the …you know. My lovely dress will have to stay in the wardrobe for another big event. It is not really a summer dress, it is more of a winter dress. It is tapework and although it is lovely, the fabric feels quite heavy when you wear it. I showed Jack and he liked it. He liked taking it off me too. Normally, I go to a lot of large events on a regular basis, so the coming months will be very different. But it is a necessary measure to protect especially our precious older ones.
Nice. I just am. I like being nice.
Also, both us and our neighbours would sometimes lock ourselves out. Several times my Dad was called upon to provide the solution. Because he was a window cleaner he had ladders. Because our council houses were so crumby, we all had damp problems, so we all tended to leave a little window flap open to allow ventilation. So whenever someone locked themselves out of the house, Dad would climb up the ladder with one of us little ones and we would have to squeeze through the little flap. We then had to run down stairs and open the front door. I remember having to find a chair or a bench to reach the door hand handle in both our house and the neighbours’ houses.
What else? Hmm.
I don’t find animals sexy.
Or are you talking about information? There are things I like to keep to myself. What has my age got to do with anything? I ask you! What has the tiny account in my bank got to do with anything? What has my weight got to do with anything?
I am so glad I can’t read minds. I think I would find it unnerving.
I have been back in healthcare since last September…and I must admit, this coronavirus situation is testing me. It is busier than ever, and I feel as if I am out on the frontline. I was already tired, but the last few weeks have been crackers and I have a feeling it is going to get a lot busier! I feel as if I am running on adrenaline at the moment. We all are. A huge amount of work is being done, but there are stacks of other things to do everywhere I look!
I have a flight to Australia booked for this summer and although I will have to wait and see what happens, I am anxious in case by then we are told it is not permissible to travel. I mean if that is the case, I just have to accept it, but still, I am longing to go back there. None of us know what will happen tomorrow. But I would love to see Adelaide and Goldfinch again.
I spent most of my childhood reading Enid Blyton books such as The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and Mallory Towers. I read all of them, some of them more than once.
Be patient.
If you are ever struggling – it’s ok to ask a blogger for help and advice. Other bloggers are human. It’s endearing when a new blogger is a little lost and asks for advice.
It depends on the subject.
Not really. My little nest here is very pleasant. I sometimes type at my desk, sometimes while sitting on the sofa or even sitting up in bed.
My schedule used to be great. I had two mornings where I started work at 1pm and I could have a relaxing morning writing lots of posts and scheduling them to be published throughout the week. But since January 2020, my schedule changed dramatically. I have had to work a lot of overtime at work because a colleague left and they still have not recruited anyone to replace her.
Well, as I mentioned above, I used to have a schedule. It was working very well. But since January 2020, It’s helpful that when I did have those two mornings a week, I would sit down and write so much. My drafts folder has all that material I wrote when I had the time. I have not been able to write as much new material this year.
What did I want to do as a child? Climb trees, play football and eat ice-cream. Yes, climbing trees is still something I do in the summertime. Yes, I play football with friends in the park, again in the summer. Ice-cream is not as big a part of my life as I would like it to be. The problem is dairy. I occasionally have sorbet or a dairy free ice-cream, but to be honest ice-cream of any variety has almost dropped off my radar.
Oh I would probably do some things differently. I used to get a bit carried away at times. I was a pretty good kid at school – top grades for everything, on all the school sports teams etc, but sometimes I would get too excited and some teacher would blast me because I was shrieking in the corridors or dancing on the teacher’s desk (no, really, i did dance the can-can on the French teacher’s desk) or…play fighting with the boys and ending up smearing their faces in the mud. I think I was a good kid on the whole, but I had a bit of a wild streak that got me into trouble occasionally. Teachers and other kids liked me a lot though, so I didn’t get into any serious trouble. I “got away” with things like bunking off school.
Book to movie…oooh. The thing about many books is that you get to know the characters so much more intimately. I don’t find I connect with movie or television characters. It’s all too “flash in the pan” for me. When I read a book, my entire attention is on the book. But whenever I sit down to watch a movie or a show, I become distracted by all sorts. If I do watch a show, I often can hardly remember a thing about it afterwards. But I like a movie that captures a little of how I felt on reading the book.
I will give you two examples, The first is “The Count Of Monte Cristo”. I absolutely loved this book. I mean wow! What a story. It packs in an incredible amount of emotion and drama. It is one of the most epic books I have read. It is a long book. It’s not really a book you can make a two hour movie out of, more a twelve part television series. There is a great dramatisation that I think was for TV with Gerard Depardieu. They packed so much from the book into the series, although they did tweak the ending.
However, Hollywood did make a two hour movie out of it…and you know what – surprisingly, I loved it! I even forgave Hollywood for changing a key part of the plot (in connection with Mercedes). I loved it because, they captured the spirit of the book. The fascination other characters have with the mysterious and magnificent Count Of Monte Cristo. I think they did a great job of portraying how some of the other characters go from bad to worse in their selfish ambitious thinking.
I find it hard when supervisors or managers in my paid jobs think they can harass me by making multiple phone calls and leaving several messages on my phone, asking me to come into work to cover somebody else’s shift at short notice. On my days away from paid work, I am doing unpaid work as a volunteer for charities (or else I am away visiting my family (over 200 miles away) or perhaps with Jack). I sometimes come back to my nest after a few days away to find my answering machine is full of messages. What is the matter with them? I have agreed to work certain hours, and I will do them. I can’t spare any other time for the mundane task of making money. I only do the paid work I need to cover my rent and buy groceries. I am too busy with more important things. But it is really hard to get that across to the supervisors at my paid jobs.
I am trying to be really careful about what I eat at the moment and also I am out walking a lot. I want to slim a little, not a lot, just a little. It’s not because I am unhappy about my body. It’s because next year I am going to start attending events with Jack publicly. The first will be in January. There will be cameras. Cameras do me no favours at all! I don’t mind posing for photographers, but I really hate seeing photographs of myself. It’s something I am dreading. I love Jack though, and I want to be with him. So I am going to try to give myself that boost of confidence so that I look pretty for the pictures of him with me tagging along. I will be getting all dressed up so that Jack is proud to have me by his side.
I am not sure what some of this question means? MCU/DC movie? Perhaps I am a bit out of touch.
So ever since then, whatever I learn of history, I am curious to know the living and working conditions of people. I especially compare those with wealth compared to those without. There is a lot of “showing off” in history. A lot of self-glory and boasting about accomplishments and greatness. But when you look at the abuse, the degradation and dire poverty of so many people, I find myself seeing those boasting elite, powerful rulers or upper classes as despicable.
Well…I think that when I was around five years old, I first dealt with my first big ordeal. Some very close friends of ours were in a tragic accident. Icy roads, a lorry pulverised their car. It was a shock to everyone. I was only five, but I decided it was about time I started to read the scriptures. I was so moved by what I read about our Creator’s power to undo death and raise people back to life on earth.
I have had some challenges to deal with, I had eighteen months of illness around eleven years twelve years ago. I had four surgical operations and had a very unpleasant time with postoperative infections. My immune system seemed to be completely thrashed for some time and I had so little energy. What I found tough was that it seemed as if I would never be able to achieve my long-term goal of qualifying to be an international volunteer. But amazingly, I did!
Of course that led me to make a foolish decision. I was on my own late at night in a park in London (because I felt I couldn’t face going home) when I was the victim of a serious crime. A security guard found me unconscious the next morning. I was hidden in bushes and badly beaten up. When I woke up I was in an ambulance speeding to a nearby hospital. I was told that it is possible my attacker left me thinking I was dead. So…yes, that was a challenge.
But the good news is…I have enjoyed a rich and wonderful life, which has helped the challenges fade to the back of my mind. Recently, the man who made me the interest of all those people who were unkind about me online…well, he has made contact with me, made peace with me, and turns out to have been in love with me for years. Which is pretty awesome. What is equally as awesome, is that I have always admired him and wanted to be on friendly terms with him. I am currently in the beautiful and intoxicating process of falling more deeply in love with him everyday.
Life is extraordinary at times! I feel that I am going through one of the most remarkable phases of my life right now. But I am a realist. Challenges can come at anytime. Not everyday is sunny and bright. Cold cruel winds can start to blow, leaving us struggling to keep our embers burning within. Sickness, accidents, the turbulence among mankind in general – any of these can arise. If you are not prepared for challenges, you may suffer more.
I have recently written a long fictional project that has given me the opportunity to weave a lot of personal situations in my life and portray them through the lives of my fictional characters, my main protagonist was Annabelle Riley. Although it probably isn’t particularly worthy of anyone else’s attention, I have found the writing the story tremendously satisfying and rewarding.
I have been looking back at some of the posts I have written in the past. ALthough dire to read, some of them were very important to me. I know that some who read them found it hard to understand. But I was trying to explain how I truly felt. But now I am so glad that I put my feelings down on record. I have written a lot down over the past six or seven years, ever since we met. It helps to reassure him. He had no idea what I was thinking and feeling.
Well, funny enough I found a lot of the things I lost recently. I have been driving myself crazy looking for shoes and books and kitchen equipment ever since I came back from Australia. Well I found a box with a lot of those things in them. I packed a lot of my personal items away when I was going to Australia because there was a holiday maker here in my flat while I was away. When I came back I unpacked most of my personal items, but somehow I missed a box. Phew!
I expect not.
I remember doing a tour of caves in Gibraltar. The tour guide explained that geologists feel that the rock has been turned upside down. They explained that some force ripped up the rock and upended it. They theorise that this would have allowed waters from the Atlantic to pour into the Mediterranean basin. The guide said they think it would have been one of the most spectacular waterfalls to have occured on Planet Earth.
I do believe that there are plenty of intelligent creatures who are not like us. We are made of matter. There are intelligent creatures who are not made of matter. Why do I say that? Well, our Creator was able to take vast amounts of energy and convert it into matter. He himself is unlikely to be made of matter if he has this kind of control over it.
It seems unlikely that He created intelligent creatures made of matter on other planets. Why do I say that? Well, if there were other intelligent creatures made of matter, then I suspect the way our Creator dealt with the issues caused by Adam and Eve’s rebellion may have been different. But our Creator did not want to give up on His purpose. The history of mankind will provide a judicial precedent for any other intelligent creatures – our history on earth may well provide a testimony for the rest of intelligent creation throughout the material universe.
For years man’s brain has been likened to a computer, yet recent discoveries show that the comparison falls far short. “How does one begin to comprehend the functioning of an organ with somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 billion neurons with a million billion synapses (connections), and with an overall firing rate of perhaps 10 million billion times per second?” asked Dr. Richard M. Restak. His answer? “The performance of even the most advanced of the neural-network computers . . . has about one ten-thousandth the mental capacity of a housefly.” Consider, then, how much a computer fails to measure up to a human brain, which is so remarkably superior.
The Encyclopædia Britannica states that man’s 
But there is another remarkable capacity that all intelligent creatures need ongoing training and practice with: genuine unselfish love or kindness. We have an amazing capacity for capacity for genuine, disinterested, true altruism. Only in humans is it practiced with an awareness of the cost, or sacrifice, that may be involved.
It is really hard to pick a best post. There is one that I have mentioned numerous times before. My very favourite post:
Well, because I had no answer to this question, I asked a friend (you know in like that quiz show with Chris Turamt – ooopsy, did I mean Tarrant?), and he said “dinosaurs”, which everyone laughed at. But hear him out, he said at the end of the last Jurassic movie (my eyes were glazing over at this point) the dinosaurs ran off wild somewhere in California apparently. So he says, if that was real life, dinosaurs would end humanity. You should have seen my face listening to this. Anyway, my response was, well of they are in California, let’s hope they head for Hollywood first hey?
Nope! Are you kidding??? That would be a turning point in our relationship I feel. Wouldn’t that be an awful situation to be confronted by?
Last year I had a phone-call from a gentleman who was not making any sense at all. He was incredible hard to understand. It was painful. After about half an hour I established that he had my CV and wanted to invite me to an interview. However, I could not understand the name of the company or the role that they were recruiting for. I was asking all sorts of questions to try to find out what I needed, what kind of business was his company involved in? Where were they located? But nothing he said was making sense. He may as well have been speaking another language. It was so awful. In the end I had to keep saying, please e-mail me with the information. And several times I repeated, “I am so sorry, I cannot understand you. I am putting the telephone down now.
I have no idea what those words mean – but I would happily call myself YOUNG.
I do not understand racism, or even nationalism. As far as I am concerned, I am a member of the human family. Whenever I pick up on people having an air of superiority or feeling they are special, or more deserving, on account of where they are born or the shade of their skin…well, I just find those kind of attitudes repugnant. Now that I am being open I will also add, I hear people in western countries moaning about what they don’t have, or that they don’t have as much now as they used to have, and I think to myself, “You have no idea! Let’s uproot you and relocate you where the average wage is around $1 or $2 a day shall we? Once you have returned to your “home-country”, hopefully you will never moan again!” There are some very spoilt people in western lands who take so much for granted.
My brain leans towards maths, physics and chemistry. I am fascinated by geology and marine biology. I do enjoy reading about history and culture, but I find my brain is sorely lacking when it comes to art. Goldfinch loves art. I love that about him. But my brain is so hopeless when it comes to art. I have tried, but I fall back on drawing goofy cartoons because I become so frustrated with my efforts. Algebra, trigonometry any day! Ask me to write a letter, or an essay – easy peasy! But if you ask me to draw a self-portrait, well the paper will be covered with my tears because I don’t seem to be able to move the pencil around the paper to produce anything other than a cartoon character. And I now think that it is a hand-eye-brain coordination thing. I was always deemed good at sports, but that was only because I had so much energy and stamina. I was not great at catching, or aiming. Just furiously energetic and without any fear of tackling the opposing team. But I always had to pass the ball to a team-mate because I had no skills.
I have a few favourites. I mentioned a couple of my favourites in another award post recently. But this is also very much one of my favourite posts that I like to go back and read over. It is about a memory I have of the very first time I saw bluebells! I was only a little child, and I was up int he woods where we used to play. The whole woodland floor had turned blue. I was enthralled by it!
Another great question. One that is extremely thought provoking.
There are many unspeakably horrific crimes that have taken place on a huge scale, that mar human history. The crusades, the holocaust, the invasion of other lands by greedy nations. But when I think about it, our history is very important. Our history is going to provide judicial testimony that is going to bring peace to our planet and peace to the entire universe.
In the meantime, He continued to the accomplishment of His own purpose. He provided His Word which would guide those who sought his rulership. He provided hundreds of prophecies pointing to the appearance of His “sent one” or “Messiah” or “Christ” – who would become the ruler of a government established by our Creator. Christ demonstrated the power he would be given over disease, the weather, and even death. He showed on a very small scale what he would be empowered to perform on a global scale in the future.
Why? Because human rulership is on trial. There is already a very checkered history on record. There may have been some who seemed genuine in their motives, but even those who seem noble have had limited success.
If our Creator had continued to intervene to prevent bad things from happening – would it not make people think that human rule is not that bad after all? Our Creator has already recorded his view of the thousands of years of human rulership that he has witnessed. Grossly inadequate, a failure. Some rulers he has seen are highly reprehensible.
By the end of a thousand year period of rule under the government established by our Creator, we will be in an even better position to make a whole-hearted choice. During that time the earth will have been restored to the paradise He intended. He will have resurrected those who had died during the thousands of years of human rulership. Disease, old-age, abuse, pollution, war, crime will be distant memories.
Humans will face another pivotal moment. A decision will be before them once again. Yet again the question of who should rule will be thrown up. The scriptures show this is the final time this issue will need to be answered on such a large scale. It is after that that we can say all things have been restored. There truly will be complete peace throughout the universe.
You are worthy, our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they came into existence and were created. – Revelation 4:11
I don’t intend to ever stop eating in all honesty. I love variety, so it’s hard to pick favourites because I love new flavours and ingredients.
I think I have a huge soft spot for Anne Elliot in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion“. The first time I read that book, I started to adore her from the first chapter. I did not know Jane Austen’s books at all back then.
What do you want to know??? I am running out of new things I can tell you because I have done so many of these award posts.
My dream is to build a boat (with the man I love) and sail around the world as slowly as possible – immersing ourselves in the local communities wherever we travel, making friends (members of our wonderful human family) and exploring their cuisine, music, culture.
The weirdest thing? Oooooh. Lots of weird things have happened. Most seemed weird at the time, but were less weird when someone explained their actions.
Some years ago I was in Monte Carlo. I was visiting the palace and ended up straying from the group of tourists I was with and wandering into an area where I was presented with a glass of champagne. Friendly old me started chatting with a couple of people around my age. After a while, I decided to leave the group and go and find where my mum had disappeared to.
As I stepped out onto the pavement a few people who I believe were speaking German ran up to me and started babbling at me. I could not understand them at all. But they were taking photographs of me and all seemed rather excited. The group of people who were gathering around me started to grow and cameras were all pointed at me. To be honest I found it rather intimidating. Then I spotted my mum through the crowd laughing at me and looking as bewildered as I was. I pushed my way through everyone to reach my mum and asked her if we could go somewhere less crowded.
I longed to become a full-time international volunteer. I had met many who were. But I was given a very realistic description of the challenges that are involved in that role. The accommodation is very basic and modest – well small, very small. There is a a strict schedule and volunteers are often required to work “over-time”. There can be challenges when sharing kitchen and bathroom areas with other volunteers who come from different backgrounds and cultures. The physical demands and difficulties in the various challenging assignments can be exhausting. And for everything you do you receive food and lodgings but no wages. I am pretty sure the marines are paid some kind of salary.
For many reasons, the number of single men vastly outweighs the number of single women. There are many many part-time roles for women, but the role of a full-time international volunteer is so tough, that it is normally only men who are invited to take up this role. The physical, emotional, mental tests they put you under are designed to reveal if you really can take on a self-sacrificing role and if you really can be sent anywhere in the world and adapt to any way of living. Many men cannot hack it. Yet in general, they are more likely to endure and remain in this role for longer.
I have read about people who were imprisoned, not due to to some immoral heinous act, but because they could not go along with what they knew was wrong. I have read the stories of others who were executed for their courageous stand for right. Their conscience objected to something a government required. I have met German conscientious objectors who refused to perform the Nazi salute (that infamous expression “heil Hitler” became mandatory for German citizens when he was in power). They were in their eighties mostly when I met them, but they had they had that sparkle in their eye that comes with a clean conscience.
I am really in awe of those who are not swept up in the heat of propaganda, not easily swayed by popular opinion. Those who have their eyes fixed on what is right and true and will not compromise their integrity. Quiet, peaceful, ordinary people made into superheros by remarkable courage.
Yes they may have been afraid. They may have been scorned or punished by others. But they knew there are some things more important than fear. I am so impressed by those who have immense conviction and quietly and respectfully hold their ground on matters which put their beliefs to the test.
Caramel 