Tuesday 11^th December 2012

Life Continues Within

I find myself looking at the piece of art work on my wall done by my good friend Ed, and I smile knowing to an extent the amused consternation it causes and some people just say hmm… ‘Yes Rachael’ and move on quickly to something else or change the subject.

The picture as you will see from the link shows a woman lying in her coffin and above her spirit is at last free from material existence.  While I can acknowledge that death is a frightening and very painful subject for many of us, particularly when we experience bereavement, we naturally want to avoid the subject, but to me, this picture reminds me of the eternal dimension to life rather than just the few limited decades we have on earth where there is very often pain and frustration and things we don’t understand.

To me this picture serves as a reminder that ultimately all is well.

http://www.edp-spiritualart.com/life-after-death-pic.html

Turbulent Storm

Monday 10^th December 2012

Today I ask myself what was the significance of a very vivid dream I had last night about an extremely turbulent storm.

I consult a book I have on dreams to see what light I can throw on the dream and as I write these words ‘throw light’, it actually brings back to mind the vividness of the dream because there was a strong flash of lightening in the dream, so consulting “The Book of Dreams” by Brian Innes, (Published by Random House, New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland) I find for lightening it says:

“Lightening, a common symbol for sudden revelation.  It may be a sign of spiritual inspiration and enlightenment; or it may represent a good idea that has just struck the dreamer – and, hopefully, it will be remembered on awakening!”

Ah the positive aspect, and now we come to the negative interpretation starting with the word ‘but’. Yes I knew there had to be a ‘but’ somewhere.

“But lightening is also destructive, striking trees and buildings and setting them on fire, and killing unwary people.  Other circumstances in the dream will be an aid to it’s interpretation.”

I must confess I’m drawing blanks on this.  Interesting one.

The Gift of Music

Sunday 9^th December 2012

Maybe it’s after being at Andre Rieu’s concert last night or maybe it’s because I am presently listening to Beethoven’s fifth symphony, the Emperor that I am brought back to my first significant memory of how music impacted on my own life.

  I can remember as a child being sent from the classroom to the school hall to audition for the choir which was called ‘The Young Dublin Singers’.  I was of course delighted to be deemed worthy and  considered to have a good enough voice to be admitted to the ranks where we were trained in rhythm, harmony and canon.

Years later as I was collecting one of my children from a music lesson at their music school,  I happened to notice an article on the school’s notice board about how teachers had found a huge change for the better in the behaviour of the children who were hitherto deemed unmanageable in a tough school in the east end of London.  This free, child centered and fun based musical training had totally transformed the lives of the children.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/sep/10/music-memory-intelligence-behaviour-school

I also reflected on an inspirational nun by the name of Sr. Bernadette Sweeney who had a vision of how she could bring music to her own school and in her own words, “ To give to all what the rich can buy for money."

http://www.iec2012.ie/index.jsp?p=108&n=144&a=2111

An Evening With Andre Rieu

Saturday 8^th December 2012

This evening I attended a concert by Andre Rieu in the 02 Arena, Dublin.  This Dutch man from Maastricht knows how to put on a spectacular show.

We got off to a flying start with a rousing ’76 Trombones’ as he and his Strauss orchestra made a grand entrance marching onto the stage and taking up their places.  The ladies of the orchestra wear colourful ball gowns and the gents are clad in formal evening dress.

The thoughts I came away with were how uplifting and universal music is as well as being the language of harmony amongst people.

Taizè

Friday 7th December 2012

Tonight I was at a special service for Advent, organized by the Taizè group I sing with.
Taizé is an ecumenical monastic order in Taizé Saône-et-Loire, Burgandy, France.
It was founded by Frère Roger in 1940 and there are now many Taizè groups in various Christian  parishes  all over the world.  Brother Roger did a lot to promote Christian unity and was such an exemplary figure.  He was a Lutheran monk, a man of great holiness and prayer and deeply loved by many.


Like many holy people of love and peace he encountered its opposite in the manner in which his life was ended rather brutally when he was stabbed to death during the evening prayer service in Taizè on August 16th, 2005 by a young Romanian woman named Ruxandra Solcan who was later deemed mentally ill.
As I write this I also think of another exemplary figure and man of God, Mahatma Gandhi  who also died a violent death, and I reflect on the mystery of evil and why it is that the very gentle and very good are so often targeted for such a violent death.


The Taizè service consists of beautiful harmonious chants, almost like meditation to music you might say.  There are then periods of silent reflection, two readings from scripture and a reflection from Brother Alois the current head of the Taizè community.  There is a space where the cross is placed on the floor and candles are lit around the altar.  There is generally an atmosphere of profound peace at these services,  and it is a very welcome experience to see both Protestants from various denominations, and Catholics coming together to unite in prayer in this sacred space.  Taizè also traditionally appeals to young people and it is heartening to see many young people being drawn to these services.

More Cheerful Reminders of Impermanence

 Thursday 6^th December 2012

I spent ages here fiddling around with a poem I wrote a while back and while it is not on the subject of impermanence, the concept of impermanence came into the last line and I thought this would be a nice follow on from my reflection for Wednesday 5^th.

I did quite a bit of fiddling with the original poem I wrote, because I know these particular publishers are very fussy about unnecessary words, and clichés are a definite no.  I was pleased with my new version and ready to post it here until I realized that if by any chance they should find the poem on my blog, there would be no chance they would publish it, should they wish to do so.  Instead however, I offer this piece of wisdom on the subject of not just impermanence, but also, love, relationships, security, delusion and flow from Anne  Morrow Lindberg:

“When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment.  It is an impossibility.  It is even a lie to pretend to.  And yet, this is exactly what most of us demand.  We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships.  We leap at the flow of time and resist in terror its ebb.  We are afraid it will never return.  We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom.  The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even.  Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now.  For relationships, too, must be like islands.  One must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits – islands surrounded and interrupted by the sea, continuously visited and abandoned by the tides.  One must accept the serenity of the winged life, of ebb and flow, of intermittency.”

Anne Morrow Lindberg

Clearing The Ashes

Wednesday 5^th December 2012

Today I was clearing the ashes from the fireplace and thought to myself this will be me one day and so I wrote the following senryu:

winter morning
clearing yesterday’s ashes
i see my own

© Rachael Stanley

Not very cheerful you might say, but unavoidable and no harm to reflect on that reality now and again particularly if it helps us to prioritize and get the things done that are important.

“We have not here a lasting city” Hebrews 13:  14

“Everything flows and nothing abides,
everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”

Heraclitus

Heraclitus (c 540 – 475 BC)

Kevin Barry Cheered Me Up Courtesy Irish Times

Tuesday 4^th December 2012

I have a confession to make.  I’m addicted to physically buying the newspaper each day, the Irish Times to be precise.  It’s really just habit I suppose but a habit that’s hard to break.

I know it’s possible to find the various articles on line and I keep telling myself this is ridiculous when I start saving a couple of days papers to catch up on articles with a heading that I know will interest me.

The first port of call is the crossword, the easier one and then I usually have to get tomorrow’s paper to check up the clues that eluded me in the previous day’s puzzle.

However today I refer back to yesterday’s Irish Times and am fascinated to see that the writer Kevin Barry  admits that;  ‘A little flush of triumph comes to my cheek if I manage to email someone a photo, or paste a link into the body of a mail – this, after 18 years of internet activity, is the level of it.’

What music to my ears, to read that a bright young spark such as Kevin Barry is proud of his fairly limited skills on the internet.  This makes me, a fifty seven year old woman feel a lot better. Thank you, Kevin.

He also very interestingly sets out very clearly two extreme and contrary arguments regarding the online divide and says that he believes both positions to be entirely true.  Thank you once again Kevin.

I was beginning to think that this was some major flaw in my character that I can very often manage to agree with two opposing sides of an argument.  Being like this does not make life easy, and in fact there are times when I would love to have a more clear cut black and white view of everything.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/1203/1224327385679.html

The Pros and Cons of Technology

Monday 3^rd December

My post yesterday spoke about the relentless changes that have come about through technology.  It has brought so many benefits, and yet in some ways I feel something has been lost.

Someone once said to me ‘you just don’t like change do you?’   I suppose in a way familiarity is comforting, but when changes keep taking place, it can be difficult to keep up with all these changes.

I often look back nostalgically to a time when if you had a problem about some product or service, you could ring a number to a central switch board where a real human being would answer your call, and transfer you to speak to another real  human being, but these days you get mostly, press one, for such and such, two, for this and that, three for whatever and so on.

I often think of all the people who’ve been disposed of because using machines is more cost effective, and I recently read that even in a household instead of people sitting around a fire like times past talking to one another, now everyone sits in their own room communicating with others on their lap tops on social sites, we have never been so connected and yet we have never been so isolated and apart.

Virtual communication has so many limitations, but one thing that is certain, we cannot turn back the clock.

But of course I must equally acknowledge all the benefits, the wonderful friends I have made through a shared interest of writing and the publishing opportunities that have opened up for me.

A Little Bit of Humour Helps

Sunday 2nd December

I’ve already said how Saturday was a bleak day for me, and so I approach Sunday gingerly. I did not sleep all night long, not a complaint I normally have.

I’m not sure whether disaster awaits me. I have convinced myself that from the way the computer was acting last night, and the fact that I had to unplug it and reboot, I’m convinced that I have probably lost everything, but all I’ve lost was just the one short piece of work I was typing when it crashed.

I say a short pleading prayer of desperation, all the time thinking of Peter McVerry’s no nonsense attitude to people who wish God to do their bidding, ‘God is not a magician’, he’s saying this in the context that miracles prove nothing, and that the God that Jesus reveals is a God of compassion and that we can’t shape him around our whims and desires, but I earnestly plead that today will be a better day than yesterday and that some of the problems I was having yesterday will be resolved. I’m hoping and praying for this positive outcome and not really believing that things will be better today, so you can’t say that this is mind over matter, or just luck or chance, because beyond my wildest expectations, everything today is better than fine, and not only that, I eventually after much blood and tears and toil and sweat at last I’ve managed to find the elusive setting to edit the blog which had so defeated me yesterday.

Technology is wonderful and has many benefits, but I have to admit I had to go kicking and screaming into the twenty first century. The pace of change has been relentless, but it helps to have a sense of humour as well of course as a little bit of Divine intervention and so I dedicate this poem to the person who gave me not only IT training but a wonderful life coaching session which helped me on my journey, so thank you Richard.


The Soft Return

For the purposes of writing my poetry,
I ask Mr. Richard Butler, ECDL tutor,
life coach,and neuro linguistic programmer,
“how do I avoid capitalising the first word
of each new line?

“Just hold down the shift key and press return,
it’s called a soft return, you could also back space
in front of the first letter.”

Well the back space I’d figured out
myself, Richard
but I do not like the little green squiggle
that follows the back space option,
I prefer your soft return
it is simply more efficient,

it cuts to the chase Mr. Butler,
ECDL tutor, life coach and neuro linguistic programmer.
So as I sit in a class of twenty or thereabouts
we watch the miracle of technology unfold

Your voice rises above the din,
the mumbo jumbo of almost
twenty competing voices,
your strong vocal tone and superb diction
happily transcending this babble of bedlam

“Just click in any white space,
check where your insertion point is “
to a ripple of suggestive titters
enjoyed and taken by you good humouredly
“and remember garbage in and garbage out”

On and on we go
on our voyage of discovery
megabyte, gigabyte, kilobyte,
bits and bytes
and not forgetting poor old
lan and wan


Now, since we’re Dubs
mention of Wan
leads to the smart ass quip
“Who’s your wan”?

While realising the microchip was surely
the greatest invention of the 20th century ,
I have come to realise alas
that for some of us who arrived
before it’s invention, the joy of this ECDL
course has not been without its moments of anguish,

I’ve been known to let fly the odd oath or two,
“Rachael is your poetry always full of profanities?
You say this in amused astonishment
until you decide that
a stern look and a single utterance of RACHAEL
might be a better strategy;

Oh, it does the trick alright
you know what you’re about don’t you?
Mr. Richard Butler, ECDL tutor,
life coach and neuro linguistic programmer;

Now the awful words swim around
my head, examination words like
ICS-skills.net, oh and I forgot to mention
ram and rom and that’s before I get my head around
diagnostic and invigilator,

and of course, the day of reckoning comes,
the test
“now click start, off you go and good luck”.

With trembling fingers and thudding heartbeat
I dare not look, but the message of success
flashes on the screen
Congratulations, you passed

So, here’s to you, Mr. Richard Butler,
ECDL tutor, life coach and neuro linguistic programmer
I raise my coffee cup to you and your soft return.

ECDL: European Computer Driving Licence (Yes that’s me in the driving seat)

LAN: Local Area Network
WAN: Wide Area Network
BITS AND BYTES: I suggest you google this otherwise we might be here all day
DUBS: Short for Dubliners
WHO’S YOUR WAN? An old Dublin witticism uttered when someone is perceived to be getting a bit above themselves.

NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_neuro-linguistic_programming

The Right Words At The Right Time

Saturday 1^st December

Did you ever have one of those days where everything seems to go wrong from start to finish?  Well today I had one of those kind of days.

Later in the evening I talk with a good friend of mine.  She is a regular meditator, and day in day out, year in, year out, rain, hail, snow, Christmas day, every day she never fails to retreat to her special corner and observe the breath (vipassana) and recite the mantra she uses interiorly in rhythm with the breath.  She tells me how life changing it was for her, and I know myself when I see her.  She is always positive, always happy.  She is definitely a good advertisement for daily meditation.

After having had a difficult day, more things go wrong for me in the evening, technical things like the blog I can normally edit won’t seem to bring me into the place where my posts are. I try several times, and then the cursor starts doing a dance across the page.  I can’t control it.  It’s like it’s acting with a mind of its own. Yes, I know that sounds quite comical, and on a good day, I will see the funny side to it,  but not now, not at this particular moment. This final last straw is just too much and I find myself descending into a very dark and bleak place.  It is a hellish place of futility as if I cannot see the point to anything.

Now having been told by my warm and loving mother that Jesus never fails us, I can never ever forgo this gift of faith that has been handed on to me and which lifts me out of such places of  darkness always when I need it most.

I have a bedside book called God Calling, a devotional diary by Two Listeners. It says on the front that it has sold six million copies worldwide, and so I randomly open it trusting and believing it will bring me to a passage that will be relevant and so I open the book not by selecting a particular page and theme, but just allowing myself to be led to wherever or whatever it is I need to see and I am brought to July 7 with the heading  which I would like to share with you whoever or wherever you are on your journey.

Painful Preparation

“Help and peace and joy are here.  Your courage will be rewarded. Painful as this time is you will both one day see the reason of it, and see too that it was not cruel testing but tender preparation for the wonderful life-work you are both to do.

Try to realize that your own prayers are being most wonderfully answered.  Answered in a way that seems painful to you, but that just now is the only way.

Success in the temporal world would not satisfy you.  Great success, in both temporal and spiritual worlds awaits you.

I know you will see this had to be.”

Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.  Matthew Chapter 11: 28 -30

The word yoke in this context means something that binds.

A Little Bit of Magic

Friday 30^th November 2012

Today I wait in a rather large queue at a busy shopping centre.  Already the Christmas rush has started.

The queue is at the gift voucher counter, and though most are probably getting in early with their Christmas shopping, the voucher I want is for a birthday present for my daughter.

I get fidgety,  a will I, won’t I internal dialogue starts, as to whether I should wait in the queue or move on,  until my attention is drawn to the man in front.  He is roughly mid to late sixties and he has a little toddler in his arms.  I’m assuming he is the grandad, though for all I know he could be the father, but somehow I sense it’s a grandfather, grandson relationship.

It is extremely boring standing waiting in a queue, but my time is made easier by my fascination with the interaction between the man and the little boy, who I would put roughly at two years of age.

The little fellow fiddles with Grandad’s ears rather playfully, and Granddad blows back affectionate kisses

It somehow fills my heart with hope and without a doubt, it makes queuing easier.  Before I know it, I’m now at the top of the queue and my business is done and I hold in my heart this little bit of magic that came to me today.

In keeping with today’s theme of the special bond between  grandparents and grandchildren, I’m posting below Seamus Heaney’s poem taken from his collection Human Chain.  It’s called, A Kite for Aibhín (after L’Aquilone’by Giovanni Pascoli 1855-1912) I’m told that this poem was added late to the collection in celebration of the birth of Heaney’s second grand-daughter Aibhín (Aye-veen) born to his son Michael and his wife Emer.

  The happiness of an event from the past is recalled in honour of the family’s new ‘high flyer.’

The poem incorporates the life giving element of, air, pale, blue heavenly.   It conveys the poet being brought back to another time when ‘All of us there trooped out/among the briar hedges and stripped thorn,’ and then there is that skilful comparison of the kite’s string breaking and separating, like the umbilical cord being cut at birth and like the kite taking off, itself alone, a windfall in that final line, so too the new and separate life of his Grand-daughter begins.

A Kite for Aibhín (after L’Aquilone’by Giovanni Pascoli , 1855 – 1912)

Air from another life and time and place,
Pale blue heavenly air is supporting
A white wing beating high against the breeze,

And yes, it is a kite! As when one afternoon
All of us there trooped out
Among the briar hedges and stripped thorn,

I take my stand again, halt opposite
Anahorish Hill to scan the blue,
Back in that field to launch our long-tailed comet.

And now it hovers, tugs, veers, dives askew,
Lifts itself, goes with the wind until
It rises to loud cheers from us below.

Rises, and my hand is like a spindle
Unspooling, the kite a thin-stemmed flower
Climbing and carrying, carrying farther, higher

The longing in the breast and planted feet
And gazing face and heart of the kite flier
Until string breaks and – separate, elate –

The kite takes off, itself alone, a windfall.

Browsing Through The Book Shelves

Thursday 29^th November 2012

We never really know what a new day brings.  Today as I browsed through my book shelves, I came across a rather brilliant writer by the name of Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet and novelist.  He is also a booker Prize winning author for his novel The Famished Road.

He is described by the critics as someone who makes the essay into an art form and I’m not surprised.  I came across a lot of thought provoking material.  Consider this one:

“Don’t wait till you’re dead to know that in reality the whole of life is on your side.”

The following passages  may not be typical for the so called developed world, but are, sadly a reality still for many others around our world today:

“For essentially, it is love that we are talking about here; love for the better life that could be real for all the people; love for the greater possibilities of the future that are being murdered in the present by short-sighted leaders; love for the greater way, a higher justice that sits in the land like a wise and invisible god; love for better breathing in the beggar and the basket-weaver; love for women who bear all the suffering and wend their ways to deserted marketplaces and who create such small miracles of survival out of the bitter dust of the dying age; love for the children who grow up under a generous sun and who do not know just how distorted and blood-ridden are the futures they will inherit, who play in the streets and at their games while poison and despair gather about them and hover over their heads like the angels of death; love for the regeneration of a people who deserve so much better and who never seem to get any justice or many good days or much hope on this round earth which glows like a miraculous dream, in space, to the astonished gaze of astronauts.”

“There are some things on earth that are stronger than death.  One of these is the eternal human quest for justice; a people cannot live without it, and in due course, they will die to make it possible for their children.  Fables are made of this.  Anyone who can listen, hear me: a writer in Nigeria was executed while seeking a better life for his people;  the consequences of this are incalculable; his name was Ken Saro-Wiwa.”

The above passages are taken from a chapter called (Fables Are Made of This: For Ken Saro-Wiwa: 1941 – 1996) A Way of Being Free (Ben Okri)