Green and Pleasant Land

It struck me last night, while driving back from Coventry (of all places), that once again this has become a "Green and Pleasant Land". Inspiring...

Finally,

The trees have thier leaves, the grass is radiant and the sun is shining.

Winter has lost its clutches and summer is here.

Ice

Graceful and Beautiful,
Charming and Poised,
The skates that glide across the ice

Sharp and jagged,
Cold and deadly,
The awsomeness of the mountain top

Cool and refreshing,
You quench my thirst,
When you sit in a ready glass

All these are one and the same,
yet so different,
Can they have one name?
And yet they do,
Their name is ice,
and they all have their charms,
and they all have their vice

Ice, written 21st Feb 2006, Martin Eyles

A few Haiku

Goodbye dear Nikki,
It wasn't to last for long;
Hope your future's bright.

Poetry was your love,
To relieve the strains inside,
And to start anew.

Although slightly mad,
Your presence made office glad,
So now we are sad.

Go on to great things,
It was your leaving remark.
You deserves this too!

Create

Cafe create was once again good, and just to give one example of an act, I point you to a poem that was written and performed last night, as displayed on the author's blog.

Today, small groups are going to be doing various things in the community, including giving out free tea and coffee. And there will be interesting things at church this afternoon. dancing, flower-arranging, prayer discovery zone (inluding use of a photo-map in some manner), a scavenger hunt, and a barbeque

Then tomorrow, an opportunity for people to sneak in the back and drink tea and coffee, and listen to the church service, without being pressured. Should be grand, and you never know, someone might be started thinking, which would be really grand.

Anyway, that is a random summary, so it anyone in leamington reads this today, come here.

Stars

Ok, I was going to talk about strange things in search and messaging industry for computers, then I was going to talk about cricket, and then I was going to talk about a film... All this will follow in good time, but for now I think I'll talk about stars...

I was outside, and looking up, on this clear night, and a few things popped into my head. First I thought of the song stars from Les Misérables, which follows here...

Stars in your multitudes,
Scarce to be counted,
Filling the darkness
With order and light.
You are the sentinels,
Silent and sure,
Keeping watch in the night,
Keeping watch in the night.

You know your place in the sky,
You hold your course and your aim,
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same.

Stars from Les Misérables. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Lyrics by Alain Boublil & Herbert Kretzmer

And then I thought of a part of the bible, where God speaks to Abraham about his descendents and stars...

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward."

But Abram said, O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.

Then the word of the Lord came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Taken from Genesis Chapter 15, verses 1-6. Using the New International Version translation of the Bible

So, there are a lot of stars, which I see, and a lot of descendants of Abram too. Stars are great reminders of how we fit in. Yes there are many many stars. But although those stars are tiny in our skies, they are even more beautiful, intersting and complex close-up. I think that there are many descendants of Abraham (Should point out here to avoid confusion - Abram and Abraham are one and the same), but god knows us in all the interesting close-up detail, not just like the blanket of stars we see.