This water flowing into the sea.
Makes the waters wholesome.
With its healing touch we begin to see.
We need never be lonesome or glum.

I woke to a a light filled feeling.
That doing what we do in our job is okay.
As long as from self we are fleeing.
It’s as if what we do was surrounded by a sun filled ray.

All suffering or dissatisfaction arises from a mistaken understanding.
That we are a separate and distinct self.
We will be happy if we have a true understanding.
That we are not just this our self.

Then the light passed from my self.
As of course I started worrying about myself.

……….

Misunderstanding
Is thinking we’re separate
Leads to suffering

…….

See Ezekiel 47
And the sayings of the Buddha.

If your gift is prophecy then use as your faith suggests.
If administration, then use it for administration.
Land wherever the sum of your abilities rests.
And do so without any hesitation.

It’s extraordinary how better you sleep.
If you think not of your own but others problems.
Our thoughts can run selfishly shallow or generously deep.
We can dwell on solutions or quarrels.

At about four this morning.
I started worrying about my legs aching.
Then I concentrated on my grandmother now for ever resting.
And soon I was sleeping.

And so if we realise we are not distinct.
We may end up not entirely extinct.

…….

If we think others
Rather than always ourselves
We may sleep better

……

See Romans 12: 5-16

When you have a party.
Invite the poor , the crippled, the lame, the blind.
No need to bring out the turkey.
Or fear being declined.

Rationally I do not know if I believe in the Almighty.
But I believe the scriptures.
It’s buried deep in my Psyche.
To accept the word of these descriptors.

But if you accept the Resurrection.
Then you accept that God  does exist.
There will always be this tension.
We find it so easy a witness to resist.

So we keep searching.
And finding.

…….

We ask does God exist
Start by seeking the Scriptures
We may get answers

….

See Luke 12: 12-14

Everything they do is to attract attention.
Like wanting to take the place of honour.
But to ourselves, we need to pay attention.
We are really no more than anyone else any great person of honour.

Why are we so obsessed with ourselves as a whole.
Either we are just a brain’s electric current .
Or an immortal soul.
Either way death is of little account.

So we can relax.
Everything will be alright.
What you see is mere melting wax.
But beneath is a great perpetual light.

So this is not true lasting reality.
Let’s treat ourselves with proportion and sensitivity.

……..

Where is our great light
It is not in our body
It is in our soul

.. ..

See  Matthew 23: 1-12

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
And the man who humbles himself will be exalted.
Only at our death will all be revealed.
For then no longer will we be tempted.

I like the idea of a village funeral.
In a small church .
With a simple sermon and no life tale.
It’s good enough to have a life that left no one in the lurch.

No memorial service.
No extravagant wake, no adornment.
A gently intoned new order Latin mass would suffice.
With immediate church yard internment.

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled.
And those who humble themselves will be exalted.

…….

Best humble yourself
You might then be exalted
But exalt yourself ?

……

See Luke 14: 1, 7-11

My sorrow is so great.
My mental anguish so endless.
I always seem, in my dreams, to arrive late.
Falling from one into yet another mess.

Then I pray for my parents.
Imagining their loving care .
After  I pray for my grandparents.
How with their love they could wipe away all fear.

Does it help them at all.
Are they even listening.
I cannot know, but after I walk tall.
And then happy, I start sleeping.

They are, I’m sure , all there.
Wiping away every fear and tear.

…….

I pray to parents
Don’t know if they’re listening
But makes me happy

…….

See Romans 9 : 1-5

Their going looked like a disaster.
They’re leaving us , like annihilation.
They can no longer walk with us, either slower or faster.
They are now part of all past and future creation.

They are in peace.
Their hope was rich with immortality.
They are with us without cease.
They have overcome mortality.

God has put them to the test.
And proved them worthy.
They are blessed.
And prayer to them is trustworthy.

When we pray to them without cease
We somehow seem at peace.

………

So have  the dead gone
Or are they still listening
I believe they are

…….

See Wisdom 3 : 1-9

After that I saw a huge number.
Of people from every nation.
We do not know who now looks on God in wonder.
Or what now is their heavenly station

I dreamt of Mame , mere soul or saint, my grandma.
Dead these sixty years.
What joy it gave to meet her from afar.
Wiping away all bereavement’s tears.

Every time my thoughts half waking.
Turned to the world today worrying.
My heart started sinking
And then I felt my grandmother listening.

When we pray to the dead, we thrive.
For in our thoughts they are alive.

…..

We pray to the dead
For to us they are alive
Now and for ever

…….

See Wisdom 3 : 1-9

There are six days when work can be done.
Come and be healed on one of those days.
Not every day can we see the sun.
Or its resplendent rays.

It is good to keep one day special.
And so in our hearts Sunday has a place.
A holy vessel.
A day to imagine God’s face.

With relentless pressure.
Every day passes.
With no leisure.
And work never ceases.

But one day we can keep.
And salvation reap.

……..

Keep one day holy
Not all days need be the same
Take time, have a rest

…….

See Luke 13: 10-17

The Lord told the sons of Israel.
You must not molest or oppress the stranger.
This is the true vision of Israel.
For in the land of Egypt you lived as a stranger.

If you are harsh.
They will surely cry out to me.
You do not need to wade into this marsh.
You need to understand , forgive and see.

Be sure I shall hear their cry.
My anger will flare out.
Is there always a need for an eye for an eye.
Can we not listen rather than with violence shout.

Sometimes retribution  needs pausing.
Or we risk , hurting the innocent with warring.

…..

Oppress not the stranger
For once you were a stranger
Try to understand

….

See Exodus 22 : 20 26

When you see a cloud looming up in the west.
You say at once that rain is coming.
At some stage or other we are all put to the test.
And our chances of redemption are fleeting.

Sleepless during the long night,  I kept reciting.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
But the effect, strong at first, became more fleeting.
Actually I came a bit bored.

It was as if rain had washed away faith’s flood defence
And then I realised it had become just mantra reciting.
I was forgetting the word trust in its sense.
I was just saying, not trusting.

In God I still do enough trust.
Faith dissolves into weary disbelieving dust.

……

It’s trust in the Lord
And the vital word is trust
That’s all that matters

…….

See Luke 12 : 54-59 and Psalm 1

Happy the man who has placed his trust .
In the Lord.
This is not just a may , it is a must.
To carve the way of truth as with an unwavering sword.

He is like a tree planted.
Beside the flowing waters.
Everything just needs to be accepted.
Despite trials from many quarters.

A tree that yields its fruit in due season.
And whose leaves shall never fade.
This is true reason.
Another unwavering blade.

All that he does shall prosper.
Although we say it only in a whisper.

……….

So shall we prosper
If we place trust in the Lord
It is just our choice

……..

See Psalm 1

You too must stand ready .
Because the son of man is coming.
Can we, despite all the stress of life, remain steady.
And we do not know the hour we should be expecting.

If the householder had known.
At which hour the burglar would come.
All would not have been blown.
He could have warned others, sounded the drum.

Happy that servant if the master’s arrival.
Finds him at his employment.
And so there is more than just our survival.
Or mere enjoyment.

We must stand ready.
And steady.

……..

When will he arrive
We do not know at what time
But arrive he will

……..

See Luke 12 : 39-48

See that you are dressed for action.
And have your lamps lit.
Whatever the reaction.
And however our future path is lit.

Be like men waiting.
For their master to return from the wedding feast.
Right comes in the giving not the taking.
It may be sent not from the greatest but the least .

Happy those servants .
Whom the master finds awake.
We may not be savants.
But we hopefully know how to give and not just take.

We do not know in which watch he will come .
But sometime he certainly will come.

……..

So when will he come
We do not know at what hour
But yes he will come

…….

See Luke 12 : 35-38

I will pull down my barns.
And build bigger ones.
He thought his happiness depended on more farms.
For his daughters and his sons.
Fool this very night.

The demand will be made for your soul.
For him everything soon will be out of sight.
And he will disappear down eternity’s hole.

So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself.
In place of making himself rich in the sight of God.
Any moment we can fall off this fragile shelf.
And then it will be nothingness or God.

So worry not about future saving.
But what is now, this minute, life enhancing.

…….

Save for tomorrow?
It might never come at all
Live then just for now

…….

See Luke 12 : 13-21

Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
And to God what belongs to God.
Too much interest in God lies in the freezer.
We are spiritually unshod.

More and more seems to belong to the state.
Less and less to the individual soul.
We search less for the Godly estate.
With  more and more  time in restless toil.

If we must ,give Caesar what he needs.
And leave plenty back for God’s needs.
Here are holy seeds.
And spiritual reeds.

Provide the state’s needs
For there is plenty for God
If we search to find

…….

See Matthew 22 : 15-21

If anyone declares for me in the presence of men.
The son of man will declare for him in the presence of angels.
We have to speak out again and again.
To be heard by the heavenly archangels.

I was walking in my parents steps in Bletchley Park.
Passing through the huts they worked in .
They were there eighty years ago making their mark.
To the allies’ ultimate win.

They never talked about it.
Sworn as they were to silence.
Here was wartime true grit.
Yet a place of knowledge not violence.

Thus the distant past still had echos.
The sound waves coming in highs and lows.

…….

Can we feel the past
Only in such faint echos
But it is still there.

….   ..

See Luke 12 : 8-12

A man is justified by faith.
And not by doing something that the law tells him to do.
Faith appears often in Paul but all that rhymes with it is wraith.
Indeed with faith again and again we have to renew.

Alas for you lawyers .
Who have taken away the key of knowledge.
Faith indeed comes in layers.
But we have to accept and acknowledge.

But with the Lord there is mercy .
And fullness of redemption.
Surviving all controversy
And all that tension.

But as we await our prize.
It may be a surprise.

………

We await our prize
It may be quite a surprise
But we do not know

……..

See Romans 3: 21-30 and Psalm 129