All posts tagged: eternity

Look at the Beautiful Clouds

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Have you noticed the clouds? Seems they’ve been particularly spectacular of late. Were you a neighbour you might have seen me standing precariously on a rickety bench seat on the deck, neck craned to watch the cloud formations as they balloon and morph in a moody panorama. There are those sweet little fluffy white ones, the kind in children’s books, harmless as a bunny loping in the sun. There are the clouds that multiply into an expansive pattern, repeated like ripples in sand stretching out ad infinitum. And (my favourite), there are the clouds that growl. They have steely edges and are backlit to give the illusion of added dimensions. Crispest white is contrasted with rumbling grey, deep and violent against a passive blue backdrop. Can you picture them? Billowing, curling like meringue, and dramatic as the stage makeup for a Broadway show. I balance there, watching the performance, snapping a few pics with my SLR even while sensing the impending disappointment – because my awe always outstrips my technical know-how with a camera. I learnt …

Why We’re So Intrigued By Injury

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Every parent knows that a Bandaid on a child is so much more than an adhesive strip to mop up blood and keep dirt out of a scrape. The power of these magical stickers should never be underestimated. What’s more, the colourful cartoon characters printed on the more expensive varieties are a novelty du force. The humble Bandaid is a gallant defender of the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ maxim that most parents cling to. Have you noticed how the fine motor skills required to tear open the packet, peel away the fiddly leaves and then smooth the apparatus across the lesion without touching the site of grief brings a beautiful distraction from the trauma of the incident itself? Wonderful invention. But the most perplexing result is observed beyond adult supervision, in the playground, with another little mate seated beside. They are peeling the Bandaid away to, “Come look!” and “Awww!” and to boast “I cut it on dad’s fishing lure!” Yep. There’s the little blubbering mess suddenly dry-eyed, ripping off the dressing to show …

Jesus has a Response to #FOMO

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“Wonder and perish,” the line says. Reading the passage in my timeworn Bible, it entered my head like this: Bla, bla, bla, WONDER AND PERISH, bla, bla, bla… Did the highlighter fairy flutter some fluorescence on that line in the night? But it was all black and white, text on paper, no lairy yellow or green. My eyes were drawn to those words because God was showing me something. That’s what he does. Dreams, whispers, a friend’s timely visit, the balm of nature – and words that leap from the page, grab hold of the eyeballs and brand themselves on the brain. “Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you,” Acts 13:41 flared at me. Life is short and fragile. Death is undiscerning and impatient. What do we do with this knowledge? Christian or atheist, we agree on these points surely, it’s what we do with the information that sees us travel different paths. We all grapple with the, “What’s this all …

Thankfulness: Time’s Paperweight.

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I have on my shelf a paperweight. Remember those? It’s on the shelf because I don’t use it – but it’s too pretty to turf. A glass orb encasing a whorl of deep violet. I guess paperweights once held down loose pages on desks. On a scorching summer’s day, Executive Director Whatsit might have flung open his windows to let the breeze through, making everything quiver and dance. Lucky he had that paperweight to hold down important budget documents! These days, our desks have trays of incoming and outgoing left loose and free, without a thing to pin them down. The windows are screwed shut and air-conditioning doesn’t generally have the same gusty force. So, our paperweights sit as useless objects on shelves. Until last week. I’m reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, a New York Times bestseller (she blogs HERE). If you think my writing is flowery, you’ll think hers is positively botanical! She introduced me to a new – and better – way to handle the finite hours and minutes in a day that begs for …

The Antonym of Selfishness

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The sunny, smiling face of Jack Duffy being piggy-backed by his equally smiling and sunny-faced father Chris is a wonderful picture of parenthood. I’ve been following his story – maybe you have too. Jack, eight, has cerebral palsy spastic quadriplegia and can’t talk or walk. This small detail has not stopped his parents from imagining new adventures that any kid would marvel at. Last year Jack did the Ross Marathon, pushed in a buggy by his mum Erin and Chris. In 2009 they kayaked 600km from Launceston to Hobart along the East Coast, raising $70,000 for St Giles Society. And in April next year Chris will carry Jack in a special backpack along the 65km Overland Track, this time raising funds for Life Without Barriers. Makes me feel exhausted just writing about it! Parenting a child with additional needs must be one of the most difficult gigs, and my hat’s off to every person who has marched that path. You. Are. Legends. When these sorts of stories surface – of parents doing extraordinary things to …

If “God has Planted Eternity in Men’s Hearts and Minds”… Where’s Home?

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Moving house is an upheaval that most of us have the smarts to do just twice or thrice in a lifetime.  The impost of upending your life’s accumulation into cardboard boxes is unmentionable, albeit cathartic. I’m an ‘If-it-hasn’t-been-used-in-the-last-12-months-get-rid-of-it’ girl.  This invariably causes friction with my ‘I-better-hold-onto-this-in-case-I-need-it-next-decade’ husband. We managed.  We wrapped it all in newsprint, packed it in boxes, stacked it in a truck and shifted it to a neighbouring suburb within a few days, thank you very much.  I may have taken a few stealthy armloads to the wheelie bin when hubby wasn’t looking… During this madness there were a few moments when I had headspace to look around and mourn what we were unlatching ourselves from.  A red front door.  A sun-drenched window seat.  A magnolia tree.  A gate to the best neighbours in the world.  A doorjamb marked with our son’s height at birth, one, two.  A doorbell that can be heard four doors down.  I allowed a self-indulgent tear to be shed over the place we had called home for the …

The One Word “Written on the Brow” of Every Man, Woman and Child

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“Where there’s tea, there’s hope,” said the quote written across a gold-framed mirror on the wall in a looping hand.  We were having breakfast in the most adorable little teahouse* with bold, emerald green wallpaper in a vintage design, French-style seating and a single pink tulip propped in a vase at each table. As I gobbled down my pesto eggs on sourdough with a pot of earl grey tea, that little sentence kept niggling at me.  Finally, I pointed it out to my brekky buddy. “Really? Tea and hope?” I scoffed, “What a lot of shallow nonsense!” I should point out here that I’m a tea girl.  I enjoy the occasional coffee, but tea is my staple.  My kitchen features a precarious mountain of tea canisters and it’s a joyful day when I discover a new blend to add to the collection. Tea equals contentedness, comfort and enjoyment? Yes. Tea equals hope? Not so sure. I rate such a statement up there with that ridiculously over-used poster ‘Keep Calm and (enter meaningless activity here)’.  My …

Urgent Community Announcement – Keep Reading, it Just Might Save Your Life

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There will be an earthquake on Thursday at 5:30pm. At peak hour traffic the six-magnitude quake will test the city’s infrastructure, shaking the swampy foundations of Invermay, bringing Launceston’s few storied buildings to their knees, compromising the structural integrity of bridges spanning the Esk Rivers and rattling windows from Youngtown to Rocherlea. Before you write me off as some kind of freak doomsday prophet, consider the hypothetical (yes, it’s just a hypothetical!). Imagine you were given a memo with the potential to save thousands of lives while simultaneously subjecting yourself to ridicule. Imagine you were the only person who knew that an earthquake would ravage Launceston this Thursday. The question is, would you open your mouth? Your mind is racing with what-ifs. If your information is wrong you stand to forever scar your reputation not to mention inconvenience a city-full of people, many of them family and friends. But if you’re right, you will save lives. As a resident of this fair city I sincerely hope that you wouldn’t keep that kind of information to yourself. …