the PRESSURE of doing NOTHING

It's a strange world isn't it? When we have a bundle of things to do, we can't wait to take a moment's respite to just catch our breath and be contemplative for a few minutes. Yet, when we it gets too contemplative and still, we can't take the boredom and itch for something to do. Doing nothing is considered unproductive, a waste of time, a waste of money. Every nanosecond of a minute has to be occupied because of that big word that looms ahead of each of us-USEFULNESS.
Yet, I know of many learned and respected people who took time and spent it in contemplation. They weren't the worse off for it; on the contrary, they lived a longer and more fulfilled life. Maybe we hurry because we don't want to think of the crossroads we would need to face, or the dilemmas we would need to encounter....so hurry and let's bury all that- ESCAPISM
We need to sit down, reflect and regroup. The three Rs of life:

• REST
• REFLECT
• REGROUP
• RECUPERATE

We need to do the first three before we can get to stage four. Don't be in a hurry to get from one to four in a flash. Don't be sucked into the pressure of doing something when nothing is perfectly suitable.

SELAH

S*I*C*K

Bugs....not the creepy crawly ones, but the ones that get into your system and wreck havoc with your insides and your head. How we detest the bugs! There are so many strains of them.... your 'garden variety' , your 'exotic' and your down right 'rare' strains. These days, its challenging for medical personnel to decipher and understand the different strains that keep multiplying and mutating at speeds we can't detect. MBBS isn't enough...MDs don't mean a thing....if we can't get a swing on how to stop them. But can we? We can't stop people from getting sick; isolation doesn't help...eradication doesn't seem to be plausible.

We have to learn to manage it.

Being 'sick' emotionally is similar. We were made to be relational. We can't change our inherent DNA directives. We can learn how to be relational as well as how not to. The 'bugs' of the mind are harder to treat, but the 'bugs' of the heart can be dealt with with tender loving concern....notice i didn't use care in that cliche because care isn't seen as a good word these days. Care is seen as manupilative. Sad isn't it? The value of care is priceless and healing and understanding begins at its doorstep.

Step right up and please, leave your masks at the door!

SELAH

FEncES

I was watching a rerun of an old TV series whilst nursing a bad cough and cold in bed. It was called Picket Fences and it was created by one of my favorite producers, David E Kelley. What I like about Picket Fences is how the situation in one household becomes the fodder of conversation in the community, and how that in turn affects the situation in that same household. Well, there have been many spin offs of such 'dramedies' most prominently of course being Desperate Housewives.
Fences are erected to keep villians away, to keep the flock together. Fences should be respected and not tested. Yet, what happens on the Hollywood set of the shows mirrors what happens in our lives as well. We love to test the boundaries set, be it a young child with his parents, a school student with their teacher, the citizen with the state...it's interesting to see to see it being enacted. Why? Because, it is something inherent within human nature to want to see if we can get more than what we bargained for. We don't like to be boxed in by rules, by dictums by regulations. We love freedom and we expect it. Yet freedom has got its own fences,hasn't it? Remove that, and we have pandemonium, chaos. Would that be what we would want to see?
God forbid!

SELAH

SONflowers

I know its Mothers Day and many people are taking their mums out for lunch or dinner or just giving them a well needed break. Favorite gifts for mom? Chocolates (dark of course-can't afford the fat!), cards and flowers. How can we not forget the flowers? Flowers brighten up any mom's day, and for that matter any one's day. Roses perhaps? They are expensive so mom knows that she's worth a lot in petals; Petunia's? 'Chrysanthemums'? Daisies? Orchids stay fresh longer in the tropical heat. May I suggest a single stalk of the glorious sunflower. Just one stalk please because:

• mom is outstanding
• mom brilliantly shines at multi-tasking
• mom is constantly moving as long as there is sunshine, just like the sun flower that follows the sun's movement through the course of the day
• mom watches over the movement of those whom she loves-her family

Take a break moms....today is your day to be admired, appreciated and loved. Your lingering presence is our greatest gift......

Happy Mother's Day

SELAH

The WEAK, the FAINT & the WORRIED

This week I learnt of a good man of the cloth whom I had admired had passed away after a long bout of illness. Week after week, he would faithfully serve His God in the church, smiling and reassuring the weak, the faint and the worried.

The weak, the faint and the worried.

Doesn't that sound like you and me? Aren't we weakened by our internal condemnations? Aren't we afraid to be found weak in the eyes of many? Aren't we worried that we won't survive this rat race we are in?

Yet, this nice sweet man of God reassured us that we could, because he had. He became a living proof of how his God had sustained him, how his God had carried him through the rough times, how his God had calmed many a worrisome storm. How we need to find people like that in our lives today, people who can stand alongside us and say, I am here with you, don't fret, it's not over yet!

I miss you Canon Lomax.... thanks for being God's angel while on earth...now rest in His peace

SELAH