Monday 18 March 2024

A Dingy Flat-Body



Taking those invites (to the Memorial of Jesus' death) round our block of flats last week reminded me of just how I am deteriorating.  I managed ten in all, yet not so long ago, when we first retired, I was knocking at every door in the flats, then in later years, if we had a lot of invites left I would take a bundle and put one through every letterbox.  This year, all I managed to do was to place ten - one on the ledge in each hallway, one with neighbour who I met in the Hall, and I left one with the workmen.  I had to do the last two hallways the following day.

The moths have returned to the balcony, including one we have not had before - the rather unkindly named: Dingy Flat-body - see photo above.  Could it be called the Velvet Cloak instead?

It makes me wonder what a giant extra-terrestial moth would call me if I went and got caught in its Person Trap...  but no, I don't even want to think about it.

Appropriately enough for Memorial Week the moth on our wall this morning, under the balcony light, is called the Hebrew Character. It flies in a single generation during March and April, and is attracted to the light.

Col kindly chauffered me to the meeting at the Kingdom Hall yesterday - for the Special talk - The Resurrection : Victory Over Death.  It was a wonderful talk, so comforting.  

Among the verses the young brother giving the talk, quoted was this, one of my favourites, as it is such a clear promise of the awakening from the sleep of death, and of its being such a joyful one:

      “Your dead will live.

My corpses will rise up.

Awake and shout joyfully,

You residents in the dust!

For your dew is as the dew of the morning,

And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life." - Isaiah 26:19



Friday 15 March 2024

Queen Emma




We were watching a programme about the conquests of King Canute, when his Viking army/navy sailed to the UK and ended up making him king.  The previous Roman occupation made an appearance as London was able to hold out against King Canute because of the immense walls the Romans had built hundreds of years previously.  Some of those walls stand to this day.

There is a joke currently doing the rounds on facebook, saying that, if England is to be invaded again, can it be by the Romans, as we badly need all the potholes in our roads fixing.

Canute and the rightful heir to the throne, Edmund, fought each other to a standstill in the end, with  slaughter and cruelty on both sides.  And they agreed to sort of rule together.  However, Edmund was very quickly killed - but not it seems by Canute, but by an act of treachery from someone on the English side, someone well known for previous treacheries.

It all reminded me depressingly of some aspects of expat life - well, all life as it is now really.  The backstabbing, metaphorical as well as literal - even over the smallest of prizes.

Canute himself made a good King apparently. He made a very sensible dynastic marriage with the British Queen Emma - and I had no idea till I saw this that we ever had a Queen Emma! - and England had a welcome period of peace under his rulership.

But what a tragedy it has all been. Human history I mean.

I couldn't find a "Queen Emma" in Col's photo gallery, so I hope one Himself took of a Queen of Spain Fritillary will do.  I feel sure Queen Emma was lovely too.

There was a great confusion about my Audiology appointment in Worthing on Wednesday morning.  It turned out they had cancelled it, I assume because I had an emergency appointment when my hearing aids failed. Though they assured me at the time that the second appointment was still going ahead. Luckily we checked ahead before we set off. The Captain's idea, and a very good one.

At any rate they have re-scheduled it.

I have taken some invitations round the block - just one in each front hallway - and hope and pray that someone will come.  I must remind myself to go round again on the Monday after the Memorial and remove any that haven't been taken, which I hope won't be all! and put them in the recycle.

The Memorial will be after sunset on Sunday the 24th March at your local Kingdom Hall. You will be so welcome. And there is a special talk about the Resurrection, which will be given here this Sunday at 10:00. If you want to go to that, you will need to check the time with your local congregation.

The title is: The Resurrection, Victory Over Death".  And it will be a lovely reassurance that the dead will not be forgotten during the Thousand Year Reign of the Kingdom of God.They have such a joyful awakening ahead of them. I hope I will be there to see it. I hope we will all be there.


Tuesday 12 March 2024

POLYCRISIS!



Polycrisis is a word apparently coined in the 1970s.  It was needed to describe many global threats happening at the same time.  And does anyone have an answer to this supercrisis?  It would clearly need a united, one-world government to even begin to think of tackling it all.  But can you imagine the horror of a human one-world government - George Orwell's 1984 come to life?

It would probably lead to a new word having to be coined - a Polypolycrisis maybe?

Which is why we need the heavenly government - the Kingdom of God - for whose coming Jesus taught, and teaches, us to pray.  You can be taught by it and cared for now, if you wish - the good news of the Kingdom is being taken worldwide, as Jesus prophesied it would be:  And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. - Matthew 24:14

The end being the end of the current wicked system of things on the earth, not the end of this lovely planet!  And our Speaker at the Hall on Sunday pointed out that the fact we need a new word to describe the system in which we are now living, surely fits exactly the time of the end as described in prophecy in the Inspired Scriptures.  

Sadly, although we had a ton of religious education at the Convent, we never touched on the vital matter of Bible prophecy.

The lovely starfish that heads the blog was taken by Himself on Paradise Reef in the Maldives.  As the Kingdom of God will soon transform the whole earth into the paradise it was always meant to be, it seemed appropriate.

The earth is so lovely.  I am looking out over a rain-soaked Green with one valiant waterproofed dog-walker and beyond to a grey Channel and sky. And it looks beautiful.

Friday 8 March 2024

Alfred the Great



Alfred the Great
by Stevie Smith

Honour and magnify this man of men
Who keeps a wife and seven children on two pounds ten
Paid weekly in an envelope
And yet he never has abandoned hope.

I was reminded of this poem by a post on fb on Tuesday, one posted by one of my great-nieces.  It said:
If a monkey hoarded more bananas than it could eat, while most of the other monkey starved, scientists would study that monkey to find out what was wrong with it. When humans do it, we put them on the cover of Forbes.

And, yes, we are encouraged - by the world and its media - to adulate the super rich and what I suppose could be called "the designer label" culture.  But why, in a world in which some people work all their lives, yet never know what it is not to be hungry?  Shouldn't we admire those who cope with such difficulties, such a struggle, for their courage, for their fortitude?  So I remembered the poem in which Stevie asked us to admire and honour such a person.

And here is some perfect advice, from the very Source of wisdom, our Creator, Jehovah:

Do not love either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world. Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains forever. - 1 John 2:15-17

Would it be fair to say that the Designer Label culture is all about making a showy display of our means of life? The present wicked system of things on the earth will soon be passing away.  We need to stand clear of it, and resist all the world's efforts to push or persuade us off the "narrow road" that leads to life. And we need to warn others,


On Tuesday I zoomed with a couple of friends in the morning, and made a wokful of veggie curry in the afternoon as I had rather  a lot of veggies left over. I had a blood test on Wednesday morning, and two more Zoom sessions, morning and afternoon.

What did we do before Zoom came along?

I couldn't find a King Alfred in Col's photo gallery, but I did find a King Angelfish which will have to do.  It looks very fierce and kingly.  And I do not think I would like to fall out with it.



Monday 4 March 2024

APOLOGIES to my Blog Readers



I have to start this blog with an apology - it seems that over the years I have been getting some lovely comments from my readers, but I had not seen them. They were supposed to have come to my email address first so I could decide to put them on my blog - or not.  I was alerted recently by Stuart and Boris that they had made comments on a couple of my recent blogs. And yet nothing came through.  I have finally found where they have been hiding - for many years! - and have posted them all.  From now on, I should be able to see them and put them on the blog.

I appreciate all of them, but this is the first chance I have had to see them, and to say so.  

Where were they going?  Well, the clue was this, into a box called "Comments".... that I had never even noticed before.   "Elementary my dear Watson." - or it should have been...  

At least I can blame it on my age - which is one compensation for being so old. The other compensation, which I have surely mentioned before, is that the gift of life seems more wonderful, precious and interesting by the day.  

I put a bunch of flowers at the head of the this blog by way of thanks to you all for the comments.

A Lion or a Lamb?




Did March come in like a lion or a lamb?  It was hard to tell on Friday - raining hard one minute, then sunny, then quite windy with waves on the Channel.  Then it was sunny again. So I don't know how to apply this bit of folk wisdom: When March comes in like a lamb, it goes out like a lion - and vice versa. 

Friday was a trip to the Audiologist... which I was very apprehensive about in case he would not be able to fix the hearing aids. However all was sorted there and then, thank God, and believe me I did ask Jehovah about this.  A young audiologist with the most beautiful long blonde hair, cleaned the aids and changed a little disc on them and I can hear again! We wished her a lovely weekend.

Wonderful.

And re March, as we got out of the car when we got home we stepped into a violent hailstorm! So I guess March HAS come in like a lion.  And the lion of March was still roaring on Saturday morning - wind, rain and a stormy sea - all interspersed with sudden bouts of sunshine.

Col left very early for The Field, well laden with metal detectors and sandwiches. I washed the kitchen and bathroom floors, got the washing done, and joined the Field Service Group in Zoom. And I spent the rest of the morning Zooming with 3 friends, which cheered me up.

And Sunday morning was the meeting at the Hall, and as I can hear again, I was able to go in person, though everything now sounds VERY LOUD.  Which just goes to show how brilliantly Jehovah created the human ear.  Amazing technology has gone into my aids, and I am very grateful for it. But the original ear cannot be replicated.

Thursday 29 February 2024

February Filldyke




Acquainted with the Night
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rainand back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. 
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Apparently the Romans used to call the British February "February filldyke" as there was so much rain. And this February has lived up to its Roman reputation.   

So I was looking for rain poems and came across this odd and powerful Robert Frost one - not about rain as such, but with rain in it and well worth a read.  And perhaps it ties in with what I am going to say about "the original serpent".

Last Thursday I got some energy from somewhere. I finished my study for the meeting, watched the Broadcast from the Governing Body, did a bit of witnessing (letters, fb), and made an apple crumble for himself. He had bought some cooking apples in a pointed sort of way when we did our grocery shopping, and so I took the hint.  This Thursday, everything is going to be an effort, and I will have to be at the meeting in Pixel Form this evening as given my hearing aids have packed up on me, the only way I will be able to hear is via the computer headphones.  This new med, which is supposed to be an anti-depressant (though I am not taking it for that reason) is making me both depressed and tired, even though I am sleeping heavily, as though I had been clubbed.

I have an appointment with the Audiologist tomorrow and just have to hope he can fix the hearing aids...

The photo is one Col took of a lovely grass snake. And like all snakes it has such an innocent face, and is very beautiful.   I say that because I want to talk about "the original serpent" - not a snake at all, but Satan the devil - the one who Jesus called "the father of the lie".

The Bible tells us simply and clearly that the whole world, all its institutions, lie in the power of "the wicked one", Satan.  

And it also tells us that Satan is deceiving the whole world.

So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth,  and his angels were hurled down with him." Revelation 12:9

If those words are true, then Satan is pulling the strings and is deceiving the entire inhabited earth, and we are being lied to a scale we can probably hardly comprehend.  Wouldn't it explain why there are so many conspiracy theories?  We perceive the hands behind the curtain, and see that they are not benevolent ones, but without knowing what the Inspired Scriptures tell us, we can so easily be persuaded to blame and turn on each other.

And it is so important to know that, while in the poem Robert Frost talks about being well acquainted with the night, the Inspired Scriptures promise us a wonderful dawn is coming.

People sometimes see Revelation as a frightening book, maybe all about the end of the world. Whereas what in fact is does describe is the end of the current wicked system of things on the earth, and the restoration of paradise earthwide.

This is what it promises us:

With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more,
 neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away."