Ain't me mam luvly?!

Just thought id share a pic of the lovely flowers i walked into my room to find on valentines day from my dear mummy!

Spent this afternoon in a bear costume... including 4 paws and a head = very limited vision and rather hot and itchy! Great fun though, giving out doughnuts - dont ask - was an outreach thing for church - all very random - good... although two kids started crying when they saw the bear and ran behind their mums! Was very touched when an older guy called Stephan that goes to my church gave me a hat and huge hug today - he's brilliant! Used to be a homeless guy in Leeds and then became a christian when he met some guys from Mosaic (my church) - he cant read or write and is quite simple in that sense but is the most enthusiastic guy at church, helps with everything and knows everyone! He reminds me a bit of some of the folk in Trapia - especially the way he shouts out during the sermon giving his point of view on what the preacher's saying!

Off to play poker (not for money...) now with block mates - which i love but, bc i refuse ever to give up and sit out for a round if i have a bad hand, im not very good at it!

Another poem...

To be honest a lot of this has no relevance to me what-so-ever as i could not call my life particularly stressful or my workload very heavy, but none-the-less it made me chuckle when i found it in amongst the posters and stuff iv collected over the years for putting up on my wall...

Resignation

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year old again.

I want to go to McDonald's and think that it is a four star restaurant.

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.

I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple.
When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know, and you didn't care.

All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair.

That everyone is honest and good.

I want to believe anything is possible.

I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to live simple again.

I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor's bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.

I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.

So here is my check book and my car keys, my credit card bills and all my statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood.

And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause...

"TAG! YOU'RE IT!"

A Poem

Speaker at church today read a poem which i found quite helpful, stuff i know but hadn't really thought about for some reason. It was written by a friend of his who he shared a house with when he was in his teens. This friend went on to work in the post-apartheid South Africa, he faced many risks and was eventually killed in an accident whilst bringing the gospel to a township when he was just 21. His parents found this in his stuff afterwards (the quote at the end is from something Jim Elliot said):

Risk

To laugh is to risk looking a fool

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental

To reach out for another is to risk involvement

To show feelings is to risk revealing your true self

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss

To love is to risk rejection

To live is to risk dying

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken because one of the greatest

dangers in life is to risk nothing

Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing,

and become nothing

They may avoid suffering and sorrow

But they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or even live

Chained by their certainties, they are slaves

They have forfeited their freedom

"Only a person who risks all that he cannot keep,

to gain that which he can never lose..."

....is truly free.

- Simon Reynolds