WATCH THE EYES AND TONGUE

OH, THE EXCUSES THEY COME UP WITH

IN PRAISE OF DRY GINGER ALE

NO, MATTHEW 6:34 DOES NOT SAY THAT

AUGH, TELL ME THIS IS NOT CUTE

My thanks to http://flatrock.org.nz/index.html

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES

ONE OF HUMANITY'S GREAT HEROES

HIS IMAGINATION WILL BE MISSED

The great American writer Ray Bradbury has died, aged 91.
My favourite Bradbury work is the short story The Flying Machine. It is a lovely piece and I recommend a Google search for it. You might find it at http://raybradbury.ru/library/story/53/4/0/ for a free online read and it is certainly worth your time.
Strange to note, Ray Bradbury loved books and libraries but hated the Internet.
I think Arthur C Clarke would rate Ray’s attitude as a very strange failure of imagination.
For me, Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web and the hyperlink are wonders that take us ever closer to the age of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s noosphere.

NOBODY KNOWS HOW IT WILL ALL END

HELPFUL ADVICE FOR THE FOOLHARDY

HOW'S THIS FOR HEROISM?

You might not recognise US astronaut Bruce McCandless but I bet you have seen the picture of him in the Manned Manoeuvrable Unit. In February 1984 (on his first space mission!) McCandless spent 88 minutes out there in the MMU – and untethered. This meant he was utterly alone, relying only on the MMU’s nitrogen propulsion system and his own wits to get him back to the shuttle Challenger. This was the first time anyone had done this. For me, this kind of heroism beats anything any footballer might do.

DON'T ASK HIM ABOUT THE CLIMATE

GOD KNOWS WHAT IT ALL MEANS

BRILLIANT MUSIC FROM AUSTRALIA

Treat yourself to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NilHdbxQZ7Q to see and hear oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros and friends making fabulous music. Then maybe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEM-ieW-ECw&feature=related

NOT AS EASY AS PUSHING A BUTTON

Not that simple, is it? You can’t just push a button and, bingo, prayer happens. The picture is not meant to suggest that sort of simplicity, but it is meant as a helpful idea.
The spiritual life is essentially our response to the constant flowing of God’s grace in our lives. Prayer is our conscious opening of our souls to that grace and responding to it. We are told to pray constantly, but we are all imperfect and forgetful. We need to constantly remind ourselves to be prayerfully open to the Spirit.
That’s where the button idea comes in. It is a time-lag or fader button. You might enter a dark apartment block at night and push such a button to turn on the lights. If you just watch the button you will see it slowly come back out and the lights go off, but of course the idea is to move to your apartment before the lights go off.
The prayer-reminder button works something like that. God’s grace is there for us constantly, but when we “fade to off” we need to push our internal reminder button to consciously, prayerfully “reconnect” with the energy supply for our journey.
If you like this “reminder button” idea, please tell someone else about it.

SAY G'DAY TO KOALA KEV

Photogenic fellow, isn't he? Kev lives on an idyllic rural property in northern NSW, where he has got to be something of a family friend.