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Close focus on life

10/24/2016

In summertime my boss’s standard lunch was a large bowl of fresh fruit salad from the local deli. He didn’t wolf it down as I so often do, but ate it slowly and deliberately. Sometimes he’d shut his eyes and just relish the texture and explosive flavour of the mango or the nectarine. I still remember his sighs of delight and ecstasy. He took the time to savour every single mouthful.

As I got to know him better, I discovered that’s how he read a book. Slowly and deliberately, taking notes along the way and recording quotes that moved him. Then he would add his own thoughts as he reflected on what he’d read.

Not surprisingly, I eventually discovered that this was how he lived his life, savouring every moment. Somehow he’d learnt to concentrate his whole mind and energy on one thing at a time … unhurried … undistracted ... reflectively.

I want to live like that.

But I’m discovering it comes at a high price. It requires me to choose to live, not focusing on the next trip … the next family celebration … my next career move ... when the kids leave home or when I retire, but deliberately in the here and now.

You’ve heard it all before … seize the moment … be mindful.

But what if life in all its richness is actually hidden in the everydayness of life.
What if by rushing on to the next thing I am bypassing the best of all.
What if every ordinary moment brims with heaven and I miss it?

It seems to me that abundant life is more about how we live and the choices we make. Dan Allender says, “The rubber hits the road when a potential yes means saying a thousand noes to a legion of legitimate choices”.*

So what am I willing to give up to savour every moment of life?

The choices will be different for each of us but I'm convinced that the most courageous and daring thing we can do is live life with a close focus on the present. Embracing every moment as a sacred gift, open to learn whatever it has to teach, allowing ourselves the freedom to discover the clarity and detail that close focus holds.

Jean-Pierre de Cassaude called it, "The sacrament of the present moment".

* To be Told by Dan Allender

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A most inspirational woman

10/17/2016

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Come with me back to the days when teachers wrote on blackboards and students used slate and chalk. It certainly was a step back in time when I visited this rural school in the back blocks of Burkina Faso. But children are children wherever they are. Although a bit overwhelmed by this strange white lady with a camera, once outside they were as fun loving, mischievous and noisy as any children you could meet.

I loved their beautiful smiling faces but what impacted me most was the way they were treated with such love, respect and dignity … for many of them that was a first time experience.

Each child had a disability of some sort … deaf … blind … or physically disabled, yet unlike most disabled children in their culture, these children were being given an education and training which will enable them to earn a living and live independently.

I wandered around the large dusty campus, grateful for the scattered palm trees that gave shade from the relentless heat. On one side a clinic, providing physical therapy was throbbing with activity … children being assessed, therapy given and aids produced to enable mobility … physio assistants coming and going on home visits to those unable to travel to the clinic.

Fifteen hundred children are cared for on and off campus. I let the enormity of that truth sink in … 1500 lives transformed … children who would have no other alternative than to beg for the rest of their lives are now being given the skills to live with purpose and dignity.

Francoise with one of the blind students

It all began in 1989 when a French missionary nurse midwife named, Francoise, met a young disabled boy named, Moussa. Francoise was working at a small rural hospital in Mahadaga at the time. She found Moussa a wheelchair and couldn’t believe the difference it made in his life. She nursed him back to health, saw him through an education and he is now a laboratory assistant at the very hospital where they first met.

Francoise had a heart for handicapped children in a culture where they are marginalised and often discarded because they are unable to work; a ‘burden’ on the family already struggling in poverty. She helped a number of them but realised that so much more needed to be done and she couldn’t do it alone. God gave her a vision for a centre where these children could be helped. For more than 20 years this quiet, self-effacing lady has worked tirelessly, with the help of SIM (an international missionary organisation) and other supporters and staff to create this Help for the Handicapped Centre where lives are changing and blossoming every day.

The girls were proud to show me their weaving and tie dying, the boys less keen to display their woodwork. There were dressmaking and tailoring classes for older children and later I had the joy of visiting a tiny tailoring shop which one of the school graduates has set up alongside the main road through the town. He is now training another younger boy who is also totally deaf.

I wandered home along that same dirt road, oblivious to the passing parade of animals, people, carts and motorbikes. My heart and mind were elsewhere … the joy in a blind girl’s smile, the pride and excitement on the face of the girl behind the loom and the inspiration of this woman who has committed her whole life to transforming the lives of those in greatest need.

The love in that place is palpable. I don’t think I have ever experienced the love of Jesus in such a practical and tangible way as I did there. Love lavished on children society rejects. They are taught about a Saviour who loves them and then get to experience his love, not just in words, but in life-changing care.

What a reflection of the way Jesus loved ... the marginalised and rejected ... the blind and lame ... loved and valued without reserve.

A class of sight impaired children with their teacher

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Do you remember

10/10/2016

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Do you remember the house where you grew up … your first kiss … your child’s first words?

Memories are the fabric of life … the warp and weft woven together by the ongoing experiences of life. They connect our past with our present, and help us understand ourselves.
They are snapshots of our life so far; images of our perception of the way things were. They are uniquely ours.

Some are painful, even haunting or agonising and we’d prefer to forget. Others are joyful, beautiful and strengthening. They’re the ones that can help us through the pain of losing a loved one or moving far from home.

My father died 23 years ago. I can still remember the crepe myrtle tree he planted outside my bedroom … its big mauve cloud-like blossoms framing my window each summer. I remember his patience with me as a small child as I ‘helped’ him in the garden and he painstakingly taught me so much I value today. And I remember the dolls house he made me, with handmade furniture and tiny electric lights which turned on and off with a switch by the front door.

We didn't have much money when I was growing up but on special occasions he would take me to a milk bar and we'd sit on high stools and drink lime ice cream sodas ... he took us blackberry picking as a family and we'd have blackberry pie for dinner. My dad was a memory maker.

Of course some of the best memories are spontaneous and come unbidden along the path of life and we look back and laugh … ‘remember the time’. But many memories are an investment of someone’s time, energy, imagination and sometimes money.

Arranging the sleep over, planning the treasure hunt, making time in a busy life to take the family camping or on a discovery trip, all require someone to have a dream and care enough to make it happen.

In her book, What is a Family, Edith Schaeffer said, “Building memories, and the little things that keep memories alive, are not a luxury that takes too much time and money, but need to be a definite decision on someone’s part.” I can recall reading that as a first time mum and deciding that was something I could do.

I loved doing that for my children and now I have the joy of doing that for my grandchildren. For each child’s birthday, we go on an adventure … a secret destination complete with clues … a time for just the two of us to build special memories together. And then there is the fun of saving those memories in some tangible way for them to look back on in the future.

But memory making is not just for children; it can be a way of blessing friends, neighbours, partners, adult children and even strangers. Recently my family gifted me a helicopter ride, something I’d always wanted to do. Not only did I have a fantastic and truly memorable experience but got the opportunity to make a memory for a complete stranger who happened to travel with me. It was her birthday and she was sad that her tiny phone couldn’t manage to grab the amazing scenery we were enjoying. I was able to send her lots of photos so she could look back on a birthday adventure and remember.

That’s what good memories allow is to do, live twice … once in the doing and again in the reliving. Often it’s in those unexpected moments when a fragrance, a song or a photo transport you back to a person or a place you once loved and you relive the moment.

Memories are a gift you give to others and in the giving you are enriched. Be a memory maker!

21 memory-making suggestions

Kidnap a friend and take them for ice cream and a swing in the park – relive childhood
Take someone from a nursing home for a drive in the country or to a favourite coffee shop – they love getting out into the ‘real world’
Walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with a friend, then climb the Pylon and get a bird’s eye view of Sydney and learn the history of the bridge at the museum on the way to the top
Take a garden-loving friend to a garden festival – Spring is the perfect time
Love music? Share a free lunchtime recital at the Conservatorium of Music with a fellow music-lover
Take your mother or father on a ‘date’ – get to spend some quality time with them
Plan a train trip to somewhere you’ve never been and take a friend
Eat fish and chips at the beach or by the harbour with a child
Pick berries at a berry farm
Be tourists for a day exploring a new part of your city or a different neighbourhood
Art your thing? Grab a fellow art-lover and enjoy a day at the Art Gallery together
Share a ferry ride with someone, exploring a new destination
Do a tour - Sydney Town Hall, State Library, The Calyx glasshouse in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, the Opera House, The Rocks, National Trust properties
Free walking tours in Sydney and Melbourne – learn lots of interesting facts about your city
Take a trip on the oldest commuter ferry in Australia, the "Curranulla" from Cronulla to the white sands of Bundeena
Spend a morning or a day with someone who is lonely – take morning tea or lunch, share a book, a movie or just listen to their story
Enjoy a museum with a child and learn with them
Share a meal with a friend eating food from a culture neither of you have ever experienced before
Plan a mystery tour – bus, train, ferry or walking – surprise destinations and suspense all the way – a fun lunch or picnic along the way
A treasure hunt for children or adults – it’s as much fun planning and orchestrating it as it is for those taking part
Discover a beach – rock pools, shell collecting, swimming or just wandering along the beach listening to the sound of the waves, the cry of the seagulls and the soul restoring power of the sea air and sand beneath your feet.

Apologies for those who don’t live in Sydney but explore an equivalent option in your city or neighbourhood.

Memory making suggestions for children in a future post.

What are your favourite memories? I'd love to hear.

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Close Focus - Spring

10/3/2016

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Freeman Patterson reminds me that the camera points in both directions ... that it says as much about me as as it does about the subject I'm taking. That's certainly true of these images.

I was born with a fascination for small things. All my life I've been drawn to tiny, intricate things, so it wasn't surprising when I developed a love of photography that macro work became my passion.

It seems to me that the wonder of design, the sheer beauty of detail and the power of colour is magnified when we look closer, and often the greatest beauty is found in the smallest things.

Some of these flowers are no more than an inch in diameter ... at a glance they look very ordinary but look closer and the detail is breathe taking. It reminds me that God is a God of detail ... in creation and in our lives ... as he cares for the lilies of the field, how much more does he care for us.

We often miss the beauty in the small things in this larger-than-life existence we are encouraged to live. I hope these images bring a moment of delight and joy to your day as you stop and enjoy the wonder of our great Creator.

These images were taken in Mt Wilson NSW at two of my favourite gardens, Merry Garth and Windyridge. Both these gardens are the work of the owners, true gardeners who have painted wide sweeping vistas and secret rooms with dirt on their hands, passion in their soul and dreams that keep them creating an ever evolving landscape. I highly recommend a visit.

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Close focus on life

A most inspirational woman

Do you remember

Close Focus - Spring

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