Pachyderm

Random blogging

2012-02-11T20:44:00.001+13:00

Well, today appears to have been one of the five days of summer we're going to get this year, the other four all happening just around Christmas.... It didn't start off all that promising but turned into a lovely day so we took the opportunity of going for a nice long walk this afternoon, doing some of the Riverbank Trail along the side of the Hutt River. Always a nice walk along there, especially in the late afternoon sun, and we finished it off by picking a huge bagful of wild blackberries for dessert tonight. Went especially well with the slabs of ham I had cut off the bone and fried for proper home-made hamburgers with real ham. Mmm. Something to be said for waiting to buy ham on the bone until after Christmas when all the prices fall like a stone!

I'm now sitting with that pleasant tiredness you get after a long walk, enjoying the feeling of Lush Pied de Pepper on my feet (and the wonderful spicy cinnamon smell of it too!), feeling pretty relaxed. It's a good feeling. There's been a lot of rush and stress the last few weeks: two of my colleagues have just resigned (they both got headhunted!) and there's a bit of slack to be taken up. They haven't left yet but are winding up a lot of stuff, so there's plenty for the rest of us to do.

I got a slightly scary piece of mail today. It was my summons to attend the Electoral College for the purposes of electing the next Anglican Bishop of Wellington at the end of March. And it is a summons: all current voting members of the Wellington Synod must attend (lay and ordained) and you're not allowed to be absent unless you've got a seriously good reason. The rule is that when a Bishop announces their retirement, the current sitting Synod members become the Electoral College and no replacements or changes to those elected representatives can be made by parishes until after the Electoral College sits (so we can't rig the vote!). So, I get to be involved in selecting our next Bishop. What an opportunity! I've known about this since before Synod last year but it's all getting rather official now.

An even scarier piece of mail will arrive in about three weeks: a very confidential packet containing the names and profiles of those people who have been nominated into the process. One of those people may be our next Bishop - I say may because the vote of Electoral College needs to be ratified by the House of Bishops, but apparently it's fairly unusual for the diocese's choice not to be taken.

The dark is returning?

2012-02-07T19:34:00.001+13:00

Back again. Work decided that for some reason best known to them, I needed to return to Wanganui and deliver some training, again. This is always a weird experience: I used to live in this town many years ago and it always gives me some strange moments being back here as a "stranger". I know my way around but don't belong, and there isn't anyone here that I used to know anymore - after all, it's nearly 18 years since I left. I had a thought when I saw a girl in my old school uniform: I left that college before the current students were even born. Now that is depressing....

Briefly on the breviary

2012-01-27T20:33:00.000+13:00

Thought it was time for a brief update on my earlier post about the arrival of the new Benedictine breviary (although why it is called a breviary when it's anything but brief at over 2260 pages I don't know - unless it's related to breve as in music. Mmm, might have to check that out...!).

Enough blather. I have been using the new breviary for a couple of weeks now and am starting to get the hang of its geography. It's much easier than it looks now I've actually had a go with it. I've got adventurous and fully observed several feasts (including the Conversion of St Paul on the 25th - this was almost a disaster because I got the date wrong, but I figured it out in the end!). I've also made it work in terms of my time: I'm anticipating Vigils. Just as major feasts have a first and second Vespers, I'm anticipating Vigils the night before (so Wednesday Vigils are done on Tuesday night and so on), followed immediately by Compline. This works well as I have more time in the evenings.

I am enjoying the readings for Vigils immensely: daily readings are contiguous parts of OT and NT books (currently Deuteronomy and I Corinthians), but on Sundays and feast days, the readings are a piece from a Church Father and a Gospel (and they have the correct readings for Years A, B, and C which means I get to hear the Gospel twice for the day). The readings from the Fathers are particularly interesting as my reading in this area was limited to what was required for theology and church history papers, usually segments from particularly argumentative people! We had Clement of Alexandria on Sunday, a piece I hadn't read before, and that was really lovely.

This has also meant that I've been able to use Lauds as my first morning prayer, and I've been doing Vespers in the early evening where it belongs instead of at night like I was doing with my old Morning and Evening Prayer book. I've managed to keep the Little Hours (Terce, Sext, and None) nearly at their right times by doing them at morning tea, lunch, and afternoon teatime. It hasn't worked every day, but it's worked most days. This means that for the first time in 11 years since I first started getting involved in things monastic, I've actually managed to keep the full Hours, all seven of them. It's worked for two weeks, so hopefully I can make it stick.

The interesting thing about this is that I'm finding the prayer slots very easily into my day, it doesn't take a lot of time, but it does help me focus again back on my work and why I do it. It's also feeding into my personal contemplative times as well. These are becoming richer too - the psalms feed the contemplation and vice versa. Balance is slowly being found....

Summertime

2012-01-25T19:59:00.001+13:00

"The sun is shining, the tank is clean... The tank is clean!" (Finding Nemo - yes, I watch too many kids' movies!).

It is gorgeous here in the Harbour Capital today, and apparently if we're extra lucky, we might get a view of the aurora australis tonight about midnight if it stays clear - courtesy of an enormous solar flare. It's extremely unusual to see the aurora in Wellington, so here's hoping! It would be good to tick that one off my "bucket list", although one day I'd love to see it from a polar icecap!

We've been enjoying the summer weather with trips to the Wairarapa on Monday (a public holiday for Wellington Anniversary Day) and backyard camping with my daughter last night. She did much better than expected - she slept in the tent for quite a while - but we ended up back inside the house at about 2.30am. I wasn't particularly surprised about that. I was actually quite impressed that she slept out there at all!

The first of many?

2012-01-13T23:07:00.002+13:00

Today has been an interesting day for lots of reasons: some good discussions with my colleagues, a walk in the wind (quite a lot of wind to walk in too), and I finished a report I've been trying to do all week. Given it was my first week back at work I was relatively pleased with what I got done.

But the best bit came last. I got home from work to discover my order from Amazon.com had arrived. Two books: Benedictine Daily Prayer, and Martin Laird's new book A Sunlit Absence. Martin Laird's first book Into the Silent Land has been a near-constant companion for me since Synod 2010, and the next one promises to be just as good.

I spent some time with the new Laird book tonight: this time, instead of looking at contemplative prayer as a series of doors in how we deal with distractions, he's looking at focused attention and the "opening up" that comes through contemplative practice. He uses the concept of the "prayer word" (usually the Jesus prayer) as a focus for attention: not to overwhelm attention but as somewhere to bring attention back to when it wanders - as it does when one prays (distraction is a given!) He uses the lovely image of the videos that play in our heads - emotional reactions, thoughts, replaying situations over and over, but that these videos aren't really us. They're just our constructs of us. I'm not explaining this very well, but it's a concept at the edge of language, and mine isn't all that good anyway!

The new prayer book is a Benedictine version of the breviary, written by a Benedictine oblate and used by a number of abbeys. It's a simplified version (apparently!) of the opus dei, but what's really lovely about it is that it is aimed at an ecumenical audience. There is also full text for the whole seven liturgical Hours (instead of the two I've been doing for the last few years), with full text for the readings for vigils (which I'll have to find somewhere to do - I may swap this and do it after compline rather than in the morning, as mornings are tricky for me!). The "geography" of it looks a bit more complex than the Morning and Evening Prayer I've been using for the last few years though. However, I suspect that with practice it will come to be as natural as the other. I am very excited about the full-text readings though, as these include readings from Doctors and early church Fathers and Mothers, and for the propers for the saints' days there are extensive readings from writings of those saints. Looks fun!

So I have my challenge for the year: a new breviary, with additional Hours (the day Hours and vigils), and a challenge to more regular contemplation. My spiritual director suggested that I find the time for prayer that doesn't take anything away from anyone else, like when daughter is asleep and hubby is watching tv. So, maybe less Facebook this year? Who knows! Anyway, the adventure begins!

Around and about

2012-01-04T21:01:00.000+13:00

Hey, I'm back. I've been enjoying the gorgeous summer sun and Christmas festivities, not so much on the computer recently...

We've been up to a few bits and pieces. The traditional catching up with whanau at Christmas - my lot on Christmas Day for a very mellow afternoon tea/very late lunch/very early dinner - anyway, it was food about mid-afternoon with various members of the family and it was good. Hubby and I had collaborated on our first version of big bro's world-famous Christmas pudding and made a couple of puds: a smaller one for Christmas Day (for six adults and a child) and a bigger one for Boxing Day when we were catching up with his family (8 adults and a child). And they were wonderfully good. And we've had requests - so that sorts Christmas presents next year....

It sort of worked quite well: we had our traditional seafood Christmas, and on Boxing Day it was the English version with turkey etc. Although they did insist on serving devil droppings (aka brussel sprouts) I was able to avoid those. The turkey was good though.

Christmas at church was slightly less successful this year: we had planned to go to the Cathedral - we even got there for the carol singing at 10.30pm on Christmas Eve - but by the time the service was due to start at 11pm, small daughter was about to completely melt down so we headed home. Oh well, we sang carols. Pity: I was looking forward to hearing the mass they were singing as it was a setting I didn't know (Charpentier: Messe de Minuit), but it was the right call.

New Year's Eve was a non-event for us - in fact, I can't remember the last time we went out on NYE, but I wasn't worried. We pottered around and played games together. We've also been teaching our small daughter Canasta, and her card-playing genes are showing pretty well - she's picking it up like a dog does fleas. Or some other slightly nicer simile!

We've also caught up with a lot of good friends and family after Christmas too. And managed to excavate some of the dark sneaky corners in the house that tend to accumulate stuff (I had a massive throwing day in the study yesterday. It felt very satisfying!).

In terms of fun holiday-type stuff, we've done a few bits. There's an exhibit from the Victoria and Albert Museum at Te Papa at present called Unveiled - of wedding dresses, suprise surprise. We went last week when we had a grotty rainy day. I really enjoyed it, especially looking at some of the older dresses, with the intricate embroidery and incredible lacework. Some of the more modern stuff left me pretty cold, but there was enough wow there for me to be happy. Daughter enjoyed looking at the dresses, and we were looking at what inspired some of the more modern dresses (particularly the celebrity dresses). I was disappointed though that there were no male wedding costumes, especially from the earlier periods when men wore tights and women were scared....

The day before we'd spent at Dowse, one of our favourite rainy-day haunts. Again, this one was a dress exhibition, but of ballet costumes from the Royal NZ Ballet productions of the last few years. Really amazing to get that close to the dresses and see the details of how they're made to be both worn and danced in (we could get closer to this than the V&A exhibition, which was all in glass cases).

And today we went to the zoo. Lots of critters to see, and some great work being done to revamp everything. Lots of zoo babies to eye up too, including some very cute baby meerkats, baboons, and chimpanzees.

Oh, and we bought an exercycle, and we've been beating it up daily. And it's good!

Advent lessons

2011-12-18T22:32:00.001+13:00

Just home from the 9 Lessons and Carols service. I sang again this year as a guest (we often have a few extras joining in the choir for special services), and it was really good. My two favourite pieces were both by Jenny McLeod, a New Zealand composer, who wrote Vulcan and Jade, both contemporary explorations of what it means to welcome Jesus into the world. What I liked about both of these pieces was they are both strongly rhythmic, but are also exploring Advent in a New Zealand, Southern Hemisphere context. There was a rich exploration of the themes of light, of brightness and beauty, of the joy that Christ brings, that really seem to resonate with me. Advent for us is the time of light, longest light - the longest day for us is December 22 - summer, brightness, freshness, beauty, the best food of the year with all the summerfruit and berries - it's a time of awakening, and the two McLeod pieces really capture this for me.

I also enjoy singing the much more traditional Quem Vidistis Pastores by Poulenc, and of course the Christmas carols. Hodie went better than expected (it's very high, very fast, and just rocks on at a million miles an hour!), so all in all pretty happy.

It was also really special to share this with small daughter: she has been singing in the childrens' choir this year and was part of the processional and recessional, singing Once in Royal David's City and Hark the Herald Angels Sing - as she's only just learning to read, getting her to sing all of the childrens' choir songs was a bit much but she led the whole choir for the processionals, and sang the carols she knew.

Here we are again

2011-11-30T21:19:00.001+13:00

It's Advent again. The days are getting longer. Summer officially starts tomorrow! It's getting noticeably warmer - I've appeared in my favourite 3/4 pants a few times, and sandals are definitely making a comeback. Nights are still cool - there was a serious dew this morning - but the numbers of covers on the bed are reducing gradually.

The colours have changed at church, and now it's purple everywhere. The liturgy has changed too - finally Ordinary Time is over (all 34 weeks of it, most of it after Pentecost!) and we're into the season of being aware. For me, Advent is a "deepening" season: the colours at church deepen from green to purple, the sky deepens from the light blue of spring to the deeper blue of summer, the leaves are beginning to darken up a bit, shadows are darker, light is brighter. Deeper inside too: making space for the one who is to come, at Christmas and to us. There's such a feeling of refreshment when Advent begins: after all those weeks of Ordinary Time it's back to the beginning of the year and the start of everything, and all the prayers change again. It's almost as though one is dowsed in cold water after sitting in the sun for hours - a shock, but a refreshing, welcome one. All things are new!

As is our custom, the Christmas tree went up on Advent Sunday, the Advent wreath came out, and the journeyings of our Nativity figurines began. I've spoken about this before, and we always find it a very special, fun way of thinking about our own journey through Advent. It's also fun finding the "special" decorations: each year we each choose a special decoration from Kircaldie & Stains, and finding them in the box is always fun as we return through Christmasses past. Unfortunately this year, we found one of my "specials" (a gorgeous teal-green bauble with a leaf pattern all over it) had smashed in the Christmas storage box, despite careful packing last year. However, it's the first decoration that has broken in 10 years so we're not doing too badly, and all the really precious (and smashable!) stuff like the Nativity set was fine.

Crossing the threshold of life

2011-11-02T20:31:00.000+13:00

I've been meaning to properly blog for a while, but haven't had the mental space to do so. Tonight, I'm at home, small daughter is asleep, and hubby is out helping someone with some computer glitch. I'll have the house to myself for a while, methinks!

Lots of things going on since my last proper post, when NZ had just won the Rugby World Cup final (by the skin of our teeth, but one point is all it really needs, hmmm?). Some things of note: my sister and brother-in-law took hubby and I to the Royal NZ Ballet's Meridian season of The Sleeping Beauty last Saturday night. We had spectacular seats, 3 rows from the front, and it was beautifully done. Freshly choreographed for this performance, with amazing sets, and some quite innovative stuff (like the two courtiers for the King and Queen being played by people pretending to be cats - very very funny). Unfortunately, the ballerina dancing Princess Aurora looked a bit overwhelmed by the role (we had one of the understudies) - however, the Lilac Fairy, the Prince, and Carabosse were all amazing. It was the first time I'd seen a full-length ballet live and I loved every second of it.

I've also been struggling with a nasty nasty cold for over a week: the sort that starts with chills and fever, and sticks you with a grotty congestion for ages.... I gave in to it fairly quickly as I knew I was supposed to be flying to Hamilton on Sunday night for work and didn't want to fly feeling really sick, so ended up spending Thursday and Friday last week in bed (keeping in mind I knew we had tickets to the ballet and wanted to be well enough to go to that too!).

Work in Hamilton was good, and even better that I caught up with a colleague I don't see nearly enough, and an old university friend I see even less - although less than impressed that I couldn't get a flight out on Monday and had to stay over a second night. My last trip to Hamilton was a bit of a disaster so I was pleased that things went better this time. I was delivering a new version of our contractor management course that I rewrote recently, and my colleague was sitting in to see how it went as it's a very different approach from what we've used in the past.

However, what I really want to write about tonight is something that happened at church on Sunday. We were celebrating All Saints' Sunday (although technically All Saints' Day isn't until 1 November, we keep it on the Sunday closest), and I was reading the epistle (from 1 John, one of my favourite letters) and praying in the chapel with anyone who wanted it. One of the older ladies in church, who I only properly met a couple of weeks ago, came in for prayer. She told me about three friends of hers: two who have recently died and another who has been told she has only days to live.

Just before we prayed together, the organ and choir were finishing their motet, and it had this amazing fanfare on the trumpet stops. We waited until it was over as we wouldn't have been able to hear each other anyway, but what was beautiful was how it all seemed to fit together. The lady told me her two friends who had died had both been glad to go and she wasn't sad (even for herself), and she was praying that her dying friend would go with courage. We thought about how the fanfare on the organ was like the fanfare that we'll hear when we finally go to God: such joy and delight that we will stand in God's presence and be embraced fully in God's love, and it suddenly struck me all over again how important this all is. Faith is where the rubber meets the road, when we live and when we die, when we hurt, when we cry, and when we rejoice. Going to church is only the practice (sometimes not very good practice at that!) for what we do every day, and more importantly, for how we handle the good and the bad bits, the living and the dying.

This lady herself is probably in her eighties or nineties and death is very much on her mind as well, but she said to me that she knows that she is walking in God's grace and love. I thank God for her faith, and for the reminder that this was for me: what we do is important, and our love and faith and courage change things, particularly when we have to cross that final threshold of death - the door into richer, fuller, more wonderful love and life with God.

Quote of the day: rules for the cat

2011-11-02T20:03:00.001+13:00

Courtesy of one of my Facebook friends...

Hell, according to chemistry

2011-11-01T09:34:00.003+13:00

The following is an actual question givenon a University of Arizona chemistry mid term, and an actual answer turned inby a student. The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professorshared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we nowhave the pleasure of enjoying it as well :

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (givesoff heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of theirbeliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it iscompressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hellis changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving intoHell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely. I think that wecan safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore,no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look atthe different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if youare not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is morethan one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than onereligion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death ratesas they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increaseexponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell becauseBoyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell tostay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls areadded.

This gives two possibilities:

If Hell is expanding at aslower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature andpressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

If Hell is expanding at arate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature andpressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulategiven to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day inHell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept withher last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell isexothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is thatsince Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more soulsand is therefore, extinct ... leaving only Heaven, thereby proving theexistence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa keptshouting 'Oh my God.'

This student received an A+

Need I say more?

2011-10-24T20:39:00.001+13:00

The All Blacks and the Rugby World Cup (Getty Images)

Just in time....

2011-10-21T09:37:00.001+13:00

Martin Johnson (coach of the English rugby team) and Graham Henry (coach of the New Zealand rugby team) both die and enter the Pearly Gates. God takes Martin on a tour of heaven and ends up at a little two-bedroom bungalow with a faded English rugby banner hanging from the front porch.

"This is your house, Martin," says God, "You're very lucky. Most people don't get their own houses up here, you... know."

Martin looks at the house, then turns around and looks at the huge mansion on top of the hill; a massive, multi-storey affair with white marble columns, balconies and attractive gardens. All Black banners line both sides of the footpath and a huge New Zealand flag hangs between the marble columns.

"Thanks for the house, God," says Martin, "But let me ask you a question. How come I get this little two-bedroom bungalow and Graham Henry gets a huge mansion with all those marble columns and things."

God looks at him seriously for a moment. "That's not Henry’s house," God says, "That's my house."

In the bath

2011-10-10T23:00:00.000+13:00

I have just been rediscovering a practice of grace. I havejust spent the better part of an hour soaking myself into wrinkliness in athree-cornered spa bath, in the company of half of a Lush bath ballistic (it’sbig enough to do two baths, and I’m here for two nights), Barbara Brown Taylor’sAn Altar in the World, and the rainon the roof. And God. Sitting in the warm water, surrounded by the smell ofjasmine and tonka bean, with just a touch of ylang ylang, I remembered why Ilove having a bath. Maybe I appreciate it more because I don’t have one myself.I only get to soak when I’m away and happen to find a motel unit with a tub(which isn’t all that often). The combination of a motel unit with a tub and a Lush shop in the same town is evenrarer.

But back to the practice of grace. Why is soaking in thebath a place of grace? Maybe because it’s a place where I come to a skiddinghalt, all of my thoughts oozing away in the warm water as I lie back there,still and silent, warm, peaceful, and alone. Maybe it’s because it is a placewhere I simply am – all of me, naked before God (quite literally!) – where I haveto look honestly at myself and accept that there is perhaps too much flab andnot enough muscle where it counts, but that God loves all of me, even theover-padded bits. Maybe because when I’m having a bath, I can’t be interrupted:even if the phone rings, I simply can’tanswer it. The world can roll on without me, and I can be alone. I could getmetaphysical and suggest that being in a bath is a bit like being back in thewomb, but that might be going too far.

Whatever it is, a bath is a place of grace for me. It is apiece of space that is invariably a time when I can open myself more to God’slove, to reflect on my life and my world, and to realise again that busy doesnot necessarily mean in touch with life. The grace of the bathtub is like the graceof the four days I had up at Southern Star Abbey last month (last monthalready?!) but in a short and condensed form. It’s the STOP sign. Stop here. Waithere. Be still. Listen. Know that God can only love me, flabby though I mightbe, right exactly here, doing exactly what I am doing, and that the invitationis for me to look at the world and see God’s fingerprints in it. God’s face inthe faces of the trainees I will meet tomorrow. God’s story in their stories. God’sgrace in their conversation and learning. God’s tenderness in the hands thatprepare and serve our food. God’s sense of humour in dumping me in with all ofthat grace. My grace to open my eyes to see it a little more.

Thank God for the gift of a bath.

Goodbye to my hero

2011-10-10T19:51:00.000+13:00

A few weeks ago I discovered that chivalry is called Mils Muliaina. Last night he reached an amazing milestone: 100 tests as an All Black - only the second All Black to ever make that mark (Richie McCaw was the first a couple of weeks ago). And tonight, he announced his retirement, because he broke his shoulder in our quarter final against Argentina last night (which we very nearly lost, but that's another story).

So, goodbye, Mils. You've been an amazing All Black. I've loved watching you carve up teams over the years and I will miss watching you. You're also an amazingly kind, gracious, all-around nice guy, so I really hope that there are some good things in your future. I'm really sorry you didn't get to help us carve up the Australians next week, and then get your mitts on the Webb Ellis Cup the week after that....

Linkage

2011-10-08T21:18:00.002+13:00

Fascinating article by Sr Mary Catharine Perry OP, Vocation Directress at Our Lady of the Rosary monastery in Summit, New Jersey (USA). Sr Mary Catharine wrote a novel that I like, and I follow the blog of the sisters of this monastery - they're cloistered and the blog is a lovely window on what they get up to. Recommend this article - some interesting reflections on the rosary.

Quotes of the day

2011-10-07T12:28:00.001+13:00

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down tohis level and beat you with experience.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it'sstill on my list.

3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why somepeople appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

5. War does not determine who is right - only who isleft.

6. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom isnot putting it in a fruit salad.

7. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,'and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To stealfrom many is research.

9. A bus station is where a bus stops. A trainstation is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

Updated predictions

2011-10-02T22:52:00.001+13:00

Catastrophe for the All Blacks today, with Dan Carter ruled out of the rest of the World Cup due to injury. Also a key day for deciding quarter final spots, with the final standings in pools B & C only decided in the last 2 matches!

Quarter finals are:

England v France
NZ v Argentina
Ireland v Wales
Australia v South Africa

Now, this is where I get into trouble again, with some more predictions. My first attempt wasn't that successful, so here's another go now I've seen all of these teams play during pool play.

Semi-finals:

France v Wales
New Zealand v South Africa

Finals:

A final: France v South Africa
B final: NZ v Wales

I really really hope I'm wrong, but I don't think that we can go all the way without Dan, especially as there isn't a convincing replacement for him at No.10. Colin Slade played okay against Canada today, but they're minnows and his kicking wasn't good. Piri Weepu would be a more convincing choice at No.10, but it's not his regular position - however he won't let penalties and conversions slip away from us like Slade did today. It didn't matter today against Canada, but it sure as heck will matter in the semis...

And the Blackness was mighty

2011-09-24T22:34:00.000+12:00

Against France, the All Blacks have shown their class. 37-17, with some really sweet, sweet moves. Some great tries, lovely backline moves - Richard Kahui had an amazing match, and Dan Carter even put up a beautiful drop goal. Ma'a Nonu seemed to be everywhere, and Israel Dagg at fullback was fabulous - bit sad to see him limping off. Hope he's okay! And Cory Jane had a great try, but unfortunately got a bit squashed under a Frenchman and went off looking a bit stunned....

And it was Richie Macaw's 100th test as an All Black. Really special, and really great to see him captain us for a win against the French - the great grudge match of this World Cup, after the fiasco the last time we met the French in a World Cup.... Keep it up and bring it home, boys!

Updated position

2011-09-18T22:36:00.000+12:00

On a completely different and unrelated note, my predictions for the World Cup may have ended up on their ear because Ireland BEAT Australia last night!!! Complete major upset, awesome match. Makes me proud to be part Irish! And they kept Aussie tryless, and they missed two penalties and still won.

I'm still digesting the possible ramifications in terms of who will meet who in the quarters, semis, and final - may post an update to my earlier predictions. It was a major upset and is a real reflection of how well the smaller teams have played in this tournament so far. Wales has had a couple of blinders, very nearly beating South Africa last week and then carving up Samoa today. Canada outplayed Tonga earlier in the week in an amazing match, but unfortunately lost to France tonight. It's been amazing to watch. Even Japan, who faced us on Friday, played really well and managed to score against us, and had some lovely backline moves and a couple of gorgeous intercepts.

Beginning to think that Wales may be the dark horse in all this, and Ireland definitely is one to watch. The Six Nations teams are starting to show some mettle and I like it. Makes the Cup more interesting for everyone. As long as the All Blacks still win....

Synod 2011

2011-09-18T21:37:00.001+12:00

Wellington's Diocesan Synod was this weekend in Palmerston North - my third synod, and second as a full voting member. Attending synod is always a privilege, but this year particularly so as we were debating probably the most important document to come through the Anglican Church in the last decade or more: the Anglican Communion Covenant. This document comes out of the Windsor Report process and basically sets out in 3 clauses what unites us as worldwide Anglicans, and in clause 4 what would happen to a Province that chooses to act outside what unites us.

I was expecting an impassioned debate, and we got that and more. What I was not expecting was the erudition of the speakers, the respectful, wise, and compassionate way a very divisive topic was addressed, the fire in the speeches that was also tempered with mercy. A truly Christian debate! I took some notes on some of the things that struck me in the speeches (most of which were debating section 4 of the Covenant):

The Covenant text does not identify what "matters of common concern" might be to other Provinces, so we don't know what might cause a Province to be suspended from the Anglican Communion
Had the Covenant been in force when this Province was debating our Constitution/Te Pouhere, we would probably not have our three Tikanga structure
The Covenant appears to block truly prophetic actions by a Province, such as when we ordained women to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopate - if we'd waited until the Communion said we could, we'd still be waiting 25 years after we started!
The Covenant text does not make it clear how full communion is restored
The Windsor process of love and gracious action does not appear to be present
It centralises more power in the hands of the Instruments of Communion, specifically the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Consultative Council [in an aside, of the four Instruments, only the ACC has lay representation - the rest are all bishops or archbishops!]

Of the speeches in the synod chamber, 10 were in opposition, and 6 in support. The vote was held "in division", which means that instead of a vote by show of hands (the usual method of voting in our synod), we gathered "in Houses" with ayes on one side, nays on the other of the synod chamber, divided into clergy and laity. The rule is that a vote in division has to be passed (with a simple majority) in each of the three houses of laity, clergy, and bishops, for the motion to pass.

Clergy passed it by 12 votes
Laity passed it by 8 votes
Bishop voted for

So it passed, but by the narrowest of margins.

The other area of significant interest this year was the Electoral College process. Because Bishop Tom has announced his retirement, the voting members of this synod form the Electoral College to elect our next Bishop. +Tom went for a walk while the Chancellor explained the process to those of us (like me!) who have not been part of an Electoral College before. Apparently, it's overseen by a Commissary (another Bishop) with an arrangements committee to get it all running. Nominations for the episcopate have to be made by a layperson and seconded by a clergyperson (or vice versa), and any elected synodsperson can make a nomination. And even if our term as synodspeople was due to expire before the College sits, we cannot be released from our role until afterwards (I was going to stand again in any case). And of course, when the Electoral College sits, everything inside the discussion is completely confidential - no big blog afterwards!

Slightly scary, that!

The metropolis thrives?

2011-09-12T22:32:00.000+12:00

Irritating. I am in a "thriving metropolis" in Levin, one of NZ's smaller corners. Yes, the unit is okay. Yes, it has SkyTV. Yes, I have a live internet connection (courtesy data stick). But it's Monday. There isn't a shred of interesting tv on 12 channels in the unit (sad) and Monday and Tuesday are rest days for the RWC. There are repeats of the weekend games - all the good ones of which I watched on the weeked! How is this fair? The only time I have SkySport, there's no rugby!

On the even more irritating side, the walls in the unit seem to be fairly thin - I can hear the neighbours' TV and apparently we back onto the main trunk railway line. I have heard several trains go by and at least two of them must have been freight, as they felt like small earthquakes. It's about 25 years since I lived close enough to a railway line to hear and feel trains.

And I stupidly forgot to print off the Anglican Communion Covenant text to digest before synod this weekend. We've got the vote on whether Wellington Diocese will endorse it, which will be particularly interesting given that Waiapu and Auckland Dioceses (who met in their synods recently) have both voted against it, along with two of the Hui Amorangi (Te Manawa o Te Wheke and Te Tairawhiti). That's two out of eight diocese and two out of five Hui, with the rest still to meet. So far, I'm undecided. I have been told by the Parish to vote "according to my conscience" and the three people who have made time to talk to me about it, either at church or through email, have all been against. Is everyone else for, or do they not care enough to talk?

We're in business

2011-09-10T21:49:00.000+12:00

It's here! It's finally here! The World Cup started last night with an epic opening ceremony - short and impressive, with some pretty amazing light shows and a great showcase of our Maori culture, beautifully interwoven with our passion for rugby. Very nice indeed - and a really impressive fireworks display all over Auckland.

And the rugby? All Blacks v Tonga last night was fabulous in patches and just patchy in other places... the first half was reasonably neat and we were clinically carving up the Tongan backline, but there were a lot of missed passes and sloppy passing (behind the supporting player - duh!) and the tackling wasn't that convincing in places. Richard Kahui had a great game on the wing (an unusual place for him to play) and there was some good play in other positions - SBW had a good game and made some great play, but all in all it looked untidy. We'd better get our stuff together before our next match!

Other matches so far: Japan nearly nearly upset France (!) - it was pretty close until the last 10 minutes, apparently (I didn't see this game); Romania had a blinder against Scotland and nearly upset the apple cart here too; Fiji carved up Namibia (as expected) and I'm currently watching Argentina v England. So far this match is a bit messy: both teams making mistakes, and it's low scoring so far. What's really peeving me with this one is watching the Poms play in black. Oh, and we've got Jonny Wilkinson sitting on his potty trying to line up the penalty (and missing). England's national colours are white and red - what possessed them to choose black for their major playing strip for this tournament I will never know. Argentina is currently leading and I would love to see them win!

Possessing my soul in patience...

2011-09-05T20:32:00.000+12:00

Not long to go now. I am waiting, more or less patiently, for the beginning of New Zealand's biggest sporting tournament, Rugby World Cup 2011. I am a big rugby fan and am really looking forward to following the tournament over the next six weeks. Of course, I want NZ to win (and we're in with a chance) but most of all I want to see some good games.

I have also been watching the advertising for RWC with some amusement. I spotted the ads for the "rugby heaven app" on Stuff the other day and enjoyed the short article on them from Bosco Peters over at Liturgy.co.nz. Rugby is often described as NZ's state religion (although perhaps less so now than formerly?): there's certainly priests (Dan Carter, anyone!), theologians (who are busy pontificating over the airwaves at present!), and a huge lay presence (also busily pontificating...). But there's also those who don't really care less about the game (notably about half of my office, who are English and think that games should be played with a round ball instead of a pointy one).

All joking aside, I have spent some time over the last week or so making my final pre-Cup picks for the games. I'm going on record now:

Quarter finals:

Australia v Fiji
England v France
South Africa v Italy? (not quite sure about SA's competition here)
NZ v Argentina or Scotland

Semifinals:

Australia v England
NZ v South Africa

And the finals:

NZ v Australia, NZ to win but very close
South Africa v England (B final), South Africa to win

There is a slight possibility it could be a NZ/England final, depending on how they go during pool play. What I am absolutely sure about is that it will be southern hemisphere teams in the first three places! France could do a sneaky one v England in their quarter, and if they do it's going to make the semi really interesting because it will be Australia v France (still picking an Aussie win in that semi).

The really embarrassing thing will be if we lose to South Africa in our semi.... or worse still, if we lose to our opposition in the quarter (I'm picking Italy for that one, but there is a slight chance Scotland will come second in that pool). But given the recent TriNations results, a loss to South Africa is a possibility - not one I want to entertain, of course!

So there you are. My picks. It will be interesting to see how close I am once the competition starts!

Just checking in

2011-09-01T21:42:00.000+12:00

Life has been pretty busy recently, particularly around work. I got called to do a safety pre-audit for a client early in August, and when they failed (quite spectacularly) I spent most of two weeks on site basically rewriting their safety management system from the ground up - at a frantic pace. Not much else - haven't had much energy for anything else!

Since the big freeze, we've been warming up towards the start of spring (officially today), although I understand that we're in for a bit of a chill tomorrow.

Not much to tell really. I'll post properly when I've got something to say.

What a week

2011-08-20T23:39:00.000+12:00

I don't usually spend so much time blogging about the weather but it's been so unusual this week that I think it was warranted! This last week:

Sunday: sunshine, then cold, then sleet, then bits of snow
Monday: colder, sleet, hail, and snow
Tuesday: masses of snow! We had about 10-12cm at our place
Wednesday: ice, then sleety rain
Thursday: rain, lots and lots of really cold rain
Friday: more rain, but slowly breaking up
Saturday: sunshine! and drying washing!

It has been unbelieveable. The polar blast this week covered the entire country in snow, from the deep south up to north of Whangarei - they even had snow on the ground in Dargaville! This satellite photo of NZ taken on Tuesday tells the tale:

NZ covered in snow: satellite photo from Landcare Reseach via stuff.co.nz

Pretty amazing. Standing there on Tuesday afternoon in my garden with my little daughter watching the snow falling fast and hard is something I will never forget. I had gone home slightly early - hubby had called and said if I didn't leave then I wouldn't get home, and he was right! - and snow was settling when I got to the Dowse Drive interchange, which is only a few metres above sea level. Avalon Park looked like it was covered in icing sugar, and by the time I got home, there was nothing to be seen but snow. It was amazing. We built another snowman, right in our own front yard, and had another snowball fight! The trees were so pretty, covered and outlined in snow, and the only sound you could hear was the laughter of children (and adults!) outside. I never understood until then how quiet snow is when it's falling. Everything gets this huge hush, like you're the only person breathing on the planet.

The cat, however, was completely unimpressed - he was giving me evil looks for days once the snow started to come, because he's never seen it either and didn't know what it was. It bothered him, especially when he went outside to do his business, and couldn't find anywhere to dig his hole! He soon discovered that under the bushes was free of snow, but that had its own challenges: he was less than impressed when he pushed under the bushes and got snow dumped all over him! The only time he was completely at ease with the whole business was when we went to bed and he could snuggle up on our bed and keep warm. Apparently it isn't only a housecat problem either: there was a great photo in the paper earlier in the week of the lions at Wellington Zoo, and the look of disgust on the lioness's face was exactly the same as my furballs's, only bigger and more grumpy (if that's possible).

They're calling it a once in 100-year snowstorm...

Photos from home this afternoon

2011-08-16T18:55:00.000+12:00

Small daughter and I in our back yard

Snow on the rhododendron

Looking west down my street

Nothing if not generous!

2011-08-15T22:49:00.001+12:00

Yesterday I posted about having a lifelong wish (seeing falling snow) granted in my own backyard. Well, obviously lifelong wishes are being granted with interest at present, because New Zealand is in the grip of the biggest snowstorm/polar blast in over 50 years. I wasn't at work today due to a close personal encounter with the ends of a 24-hour tummy bug, so I missed seeing snow falling in central Wellington (including Lambton Quay - there is a stunning photo on Stuff of snow swirling around the Beehive!), but I did see near-whiteout conditions in my own backyard.

After we picked our daughter up from school, we went for a very cautious drive up the Hutt Valley to Te Marua, where the snow was about 5-10cm deep, and played for a short time in it - only short because the snow falling was getting heavier and we were concerned about getting home again. But it was long enough to have a furious snowball fight and build a (small) snowman (I have had a snowball fight before - once on the Desert Road with a friend of mine - but never built a snowman!). Our place is completely white, and the driveway is a slush-fest, which I guess is variation on its usual mudbath at this time of year!

And it snowed in Auckland today. That hasn't happened in nearly a hundred years, or so Metservice reckons. Lots of us are revelling in the novelty of snow, but the South Island and central North Island high country is struggling, there are rolling power cuts (we've even had a few ripple cuts here, just flashing out for a second or so and then coming back), vehicle crashes, stranded travellers at airports and in cars, and general chaos. But for me: it's magical. Snow in Naenae. Who'd'a thunk it?

What strikes me is how different snow is to rain. It settles, it blows up and down like little feathers, and it's so quiet. Now I realise this is not news to those who live in places where snow is a regular hassle in winter, but for me it's a complete novelty. You can hardly see it, but then you can see it changing everything it touches. I've been reflecting on the snow alongside Lady Day and have been thinking that falling snow is a bit like God - it's quiet, subtle, goes everywhere, and it changes and transmutes everything from the prosaic into the spectacularly beautiful, and you can hardly see it happening. May our lives be like little snowflakes blown on the wind of God, changing and beautifying everything they touch!

Once upon a time...

2011-08-14T21:19:00.001+12:00

It snowed in Naenae. A couple of weeks ago I posted that there was snow on the hills around my house, and a bit of it landing on my windscreen. Well, today I got a lifelong wish granted. It snowed. I saw snow falling, landing on my lawn, on me. Big fat white flakes. It snowed. My small daughter videoed it in great excitement!

Apparently Wainuiomata has several centimetres; there's 5cm in Whitby; enough for snowballs in Waiwhetu and in the hills. Maybe there will be enough for snowballs here tomorrow! It's quite incredible. I've never seen this before.

It even snowed in downtown Wellington!

Chivalry is alive and well...

2011-08-03T20:37:00.000+12:00

... and it's an All Black!

My day yesterday was completely surreal. I was delivering training at a venue in Auckland - just another day on the road training health and safety representatives - and when I arrived at my venue I found it crawling with All Blacks. Ali Williams nearly ran me over in a corridor (I doubt if he saw me - he's about 900 feet tall....!), Piri Weepu was sitting on the floor blocking the door to my training room and I nearly fell over him, Keven Mealamu grinned at me - everywhere I looked there were All Blacks. I even saw Dan Carter coming down the stairs.... The only person I didn't see that I really wanted to was Richie McCaw.

I finally got my head together and delivered my training, and at the end of the day I packed up and was leaving. The venue didn't have lift access to the conference level and I was lugging my suitcase full of training materials up a staircase (and it's not light!), when a voice above me said, "I'll take that for you". I said thanks, and then looked up and realised my training suitcase was being carried by Mils Muliaina! I thanked him, asked him how training went (he said it was good - bodes well for Saturday's Tri-Nations/Bledisloe Cup match against Australia!) and I wished him luck for the games coming up (thinking mostly of the World Cup).

Completely and totally surreal. But awesome.

Not shy but retiring....

2011-07-30T22:10:00.000+12:00

Got an email yesterday - well, several actually - letting me know that Bishop Tom Brown has announced he's retiring in February 2012. I am very sad about this: Bishop Tom has been hugely supportive to me personally over the years, particularly as I was discerning my vocation with the Community of Solitude. He also confirmed me many years ago as I returned to the Anglican Church. However, he's been a bishop for 22 years, 14 of those as Diocesan (he was the assistant bishop in this diocese before that) and it's probably time for him to do some more fishing of a physical rather than spiritual kind!

However, I have just discovered something rather disturbing. I am a synod representative for my parish, and the vicar told me tonight that synod representatives form part of the Electoral College that elects the next bishop! Talk about responsibility! It also means that this diocesan synod in September will be Bishop Tom's last one with us, which will be sad - but what a privilege to share it with him.

Something new to add onto the list of things I regularly pray for - that God will show us who the next bishop should be.

Quote of the day

2011-07-29T09:36:00.000+12:00

Three Irishmen, Paddy, Sean and Shamus, were stumbling home from the pub late one night and found themselves on the road which led past the old graveyard.

"Come have a look over here," says Paddy, "it's Michael O'Grady's grave, God bless his soul. He lived to the ripe old age of 87."
"That's nothing", says Sean, "here's one named Patrick O'Tool, it says here that he was 95 when he died."

Just then, Shamus yells out, "Good God, here's a fella that got to be 145 years old!"

"What was his name?" asks Paddy.

Shamus stumbles around a bit, awkwardly lights a match to see what else is written on the stone marker, and exclaims, "Miles, from Dublin."

Out of the office window

2011-07-26T18:29:00.000+12:00

North to the Rimutakas from my office balcony

Looking north across Wellington Harbour

North to the Rimutakas and the Hutt Valley from my office balcony

Snow! and around and about the countryside

2011-07-25T20:57:00.001+12:00

Yep, you read that right. It's snowing here - in Lower Hutt - at nearly sea level! Snow in Wellington is incredibly rare: I remember one day in 1995 when it snowed on The Terrace in town, and apparently it snowed once on the hills in the Hutt Valley when I was a munchkin (but I don't remember it!). But today when I got up there was snow on the hills around the valley to nearly sea level, and snow was settling on my windscreen as I got into the car this morning - it did melt fairly quickly but it was definitely not rain or hail! The rest of the country, particularly in the central high country in the North Island, and the whole of the South Island is blanketed in snow and everything is pretty much stopped. The Rimutaka Hill road is closed - at Te Marua just north of Upper Hutt!

We had some family time last week in the first week of the school holidays: I had some training in New Plymouth and took a bit of leave with the family up there. We explored Mt Taranaki/Egmont, found the beautiful Dawson Falls and the wonderful Goblin Forest - which was quite damp as it was raining! It was also cold but I'm really glad we weren't up there today - it would be snowed out!

We also explored around the "other side" of the mountain, through Opunake and Manaia - torture to find that the Yarrows Bakery bread shop is not open on Saturdays but the baking continued.... the smell of fresh bread drifting through the town was gorgeous and we couldn't eat any!

We visited the beautiful St Mary's Cathedral in New Plymouth: New Zealand's oldest stone church and the newest cathedral in the Anglican Communion, consecrated as a cathedral in 2010 when the Waikato Diocese was split into Waikato and Taranaki Dioceses. Small daughter loved the church: it has gorgeous stained glass and a wonderful prayerful feel, and we had the privilege of adding a few stitches to the new altar frontal for the new altar - every visitor is asked to add a bit with a prayer for peace. It will be truly stunning when it's finished. Every parish sent in a design and they have all been incorporated into one huge design on the frontal.

Did lots of other things too, including catching up with some dear friends in Hawera on the way home, and showing hubby and daughter some favourite places in my old hometown of Wanganui - including a walk around Virginia Lake.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2

2011-07-16T23:03:00.001+12:00

Well, the last gasp for Harry? The last movie anyway. We went to see it in 3D last night, and I must admit that I was both excited and a bit nervous. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is absolutely my favourite of the book series (see my somewhat passionate review of the book from 2007 here) and the last half of the book (the bit that was covered in this movie) is my favourite part of the book.

Caution: Massive spoiler alert!

So, what did we think? I liked it. Despite the reviewer of the Sydney Morning Herald this morning saying that we shouldn't see it in 3D, I actually liked it that way. I didn't find the 3D intrusive at all, and enjoyed some of the effects such as the fiend fyre in the Room of Requirement "coming to get me", not to mention what happened to Voldemort when Harry finally sorted him out. Some key plot points in the book were missed in the interest of making the story flow better (most notably Dumbledore's backstory, particularly his links with Grindelwald and the story of what happened to his sister Ariana) but somehow I didn't mind too much. It did leave the Dumbledore of the movies rather more of a teflon character, and a lot less complex and interesting, than the Dumbledore of the books - not to mention his relationship with Harry being far more straightforward because Harry was never given a reason not to trust him.

They also skipped a lot of Harry's obsession/hunt/quest for the Deathly Hallows - they included it but it was much less of an element than in the book. The focus was on Harry and Voldemort, the final showdown, and the Battle for Hogwarts. And the battle scenes were epic.

It was almost exactly as I had imagined it, but seeing Hogwarts getting completely trashed by acromantula, giants, Death Eaters, and anything and everything else nasty was still pretty shocking - piles of rubble everywhere reminded me uncomfortably of Christchurch. I thought they used the special effects departments quite well during the battle scenes, and there were some nice changes of pace with the trio down at the dock with Snape (location changed from the Shrieking Shack, but it worked well), Ron and Hermione in the Chamber of Secrets (this was only referred to in the book and they made a great fist of it in the movie - also nice to have an on-screen kiss between these two!), and Harry in the Forbidden Forest.

I loved the way they did the Forbidden Forest scene - much my favourite part of the book. Seeing Harry talking to his dead parents, Sirius, and Remus Lupin, after using the Resurrection Stone was really poignant, especially thinking that it was the first time that Harry had seen his parents since he was a year old.

I also think that the legendary Alan Rickman did a truly wonderful job as Professor Snape: this was his finest hour in that role, and he carried it off with his usual aplomb. I found the scene with Harry down by the docks well-balanced and beautifully acted by both Dan Radcliffe and Rickman (quite incredible seeing Harry there trying to save the teacher he hated most of all, with Snape's blood all over his hands), and the scenes in the Pensieve with the adult Snape were really well done. I also liked the addition of Snape arriving at Godric's Hollow just following the death of James and Lily a good one - it worked well in terms of conveying the depth of Snape's love for Lily and how much he felt her loss.

They also handled the Malfoys' shifting alliances well, and it was the first time that I actually felt that Narcissa Malfoy (Draco's mum) was a proper character rather than just a cipher. Some nice cameos from Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall) and John Hurt (Ollivander) too. Matthew Lewis did a great job as Neville Longbottom, and was finally given a chance to come out of his shell a bit. I loved the bit when he was facing off the Death Eaters and blew the bridge, but did think that the hanging off the end of the bridge and got back on was a really dreary seen-it-a-million-times-before cliche coming out to play, but I loved the speech they gave him in front of Voldemort. Nice touch, given Neville's family history with You Know Who!

Where I think it was weaker was around some of the emotions - the death of Fred Weasley was downplayed, and I almost felt that Ron wasn't that worried about it later on when he was talking to Harry - the emotional connection there seemed to be quite weak. Hagrid only popped up in the Forbidden Forest with no explanation of how he got there and didn't seem to be at all bothered that he was carrying "dead" Harry back to the castle. I also thought they stretched out the confrontation between Harry and Voldemort a bit much. I know they were trying to make it a really epic event but having them fall off the castle wall and live - seriously? Voldemort can fly, but Harry can't! He should have been smashed all over the courtyard! Come on, already... Jo never suspended the laws of physics in the books!

I also got frustrated at how many times the snake popped up: in the book, Nagini was wrapped in a magic shield, and then she was hunting with the Death Eaters before Neville killed her, before Harry and Voldemort started their fireworks. They made it part of the battle. The problem was that the explosion of the snake with all the souls of people she'd killed coming out (hey, I thought she was just a snake, a reptile, nothing more?) was so dramatic and visual that the final death of Voldemort was anticlimatical.

However, these are fairly minor criticisms. I think that, of all the Potter movies, this one was the best. And best by a long long way. I really want to see it back to back with Part 1. They will dovetail beautifully - they were planned as one movie and filmed together (Peter Jackson has a lot to answer for there!) and it shows. The story arc is consistent, the acting is great, and the storytelling is the best it's ever been for a Potter movie. The books are still better, but for the first time this actually works as a movie rather than as a pale, weaker echo of the book. Took them long enough!

4 stars.

News and views

2011-07-16T22:12:00.000+12:00

Things are happening in my world again. The last post was a bit of a random collection of not very much because not much was going on, but I have things to say now!

Small daughter has finished her first term of school (well, part of a term as she started part-way through) and has loved it. She's really happy at school and doing very well, and I must admit that it's really nice to have her reading me stories, as well as me reading stories to her! She had her first five-week evaluation a week ago and did extremely well overall - there are areas to work on (there always are!) but we were both very proud of her.

Work has also been interesting: I've been involved in developing some tools for a new service that we're launching (on quite a terrifying scale, with some of NZ's biggest companies!) and we had the first big meeting with all the prospective clients on Monday. It went extremely well and everyone was completely enthusiastic about it. It may mean some changes in my role with the company over time, which will be good.

I'm also really happy with work because they decided that my old "steam powered laptop" (as in takes ages to start up, goes with a hiss and a roar, and rapidly runs out of puff!) was a bit decrepit (I'd decided that long ago!) and upgraded me to a completely brand new one straight out of the box. Nice. I'm still figuring out what some of the functionality is for, and the change from WindowsXP OS to Windows 7 was a bit of a shock to the system! Fortunately I was using MS Office 2007 so Office 2010 is not such a jump. However, it's blindingly fast, it has wizzy toys, and it's got some great functionality in the programs that I know I'll find a use for so I'm super happy. Not to mention a battery life of longer than half an hour....

And I've seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 and my Rugby World Cup tickets have arrived so I'm happy. I would have loved to go to an All Blacks match but wasn't prepared to fork out the several hundred dollars a ticket that it cost to go even to a pool game. At least these two could be reasonably well-matched - I followed Sphenodon's comments on the Six Nations before I made my pick of the minnows in the pool games and tried to get some that would be reasonably balanced.

Not much to say, but checking in anyway

2011-07-13T22:42:00.001+12:00

Long silence on the blog recently, simply because I haven't had much to say. The weekend was a busy one, with the pre-synod meeting for Belmont Archdeaconry - the usual bumpf but the interesting bit was an initial discussion around the Anglican Covenant and its implications for the Diocese. We have to vote on it at Synod in September - I'm anticipating some quite robust debate in the Synod chamber (which we haven't had for a while) for a couple of reasons:

Two of the Hui Amorangi (the Maori Dioceses of Aotearoa) out of five have already voted against it, and our Three Tikanga structure requires all three Tikanga (Aotearoa, New Zealand's eight Dioceses, and the Diocese of Polynesia) to affirm it before the Church in this Province accepts it
It will be a vote in Houses (Bishops, Clergy, and Lay) and I'm guessing that the different houses of this Diocese will have very differing opinions

We'll see.

On other fronts, I spent Monday in Auckland at a meeting regarding a new initiative we're hoping to launch through work that I've been pretty heavily involved in developing - it was really exciting to see a number of very large companies getting really excited about this initiative. Everything seemed to fall into place pretty well, and all the tools went down well (some minor tweaks but we expected that).

Not much else going on - weather is nastier than usual (there was a little tornado in Waikanae!!) - the whole country has had massive thunderstorms, hail, and a huge dumping of snow down south. This was wanted as the skifields had nothing on the mountains, but now Queenstown is more or less closed because of snow, and all the southern passes are questionable.

Monastic

2011-07-03T22:21:00.000+12:00

I have been doing a lot of musing lately about what makes a "monastic". The simple definition, of course, is anything that relates to monasteries - monks or nuns - but in practice it is much more than that. It is a way of being, a thinking, a placing of self, in the way of stability, conversion of life, and obedience.

One thing that I have come to realise is that if I can't look myself in the mirror in the morning and say, "I might be a bit rough around the edges, but in the end, I love myself because I am loved and lovable" then I am not suited to the monastic life. I need to accept myself, flaws and all, and open those flawed places to the conversion of life that I have vowed myself to accept - which means that I need to examine my life to find those flaws. It's not an invitation to obsessive introspection, but to consider my actions and my life in the light of God's loving concern for me and for those around me. All of this is framed by my obedience in the Community, my love and respect for those who journey with me.

The Tattooed Rock

2011-06-18T20:42:00.003+12:00

Regular readers of my blog may remember my hugely excited reporting of the re-discovery of the Pink Terrace back in February. Well, there is more exciting news on that front. Te Tarata, the Tattooed Rock (the White Terrace) may have also been found! This sonar image was released a few days ago from GNS Science:

Te Tarata, the Tattooed Rock: sonar image from GNS Science

They actually took this image back in the same exploratory mission in summer that found the Pink Terrace, but apparently it needed some further analysis before they realised what they had. The lead scientist, Cornel de Ronde, is quoted as saying, "The two places on the lake floor [of Lake Rotomahana] where we encountered hard, up-standing crescent-shaped features correspond to the locations of the Pink and White Terraces before the Tarawera eruption [of 1886]. The rounded terrace edges are standing up from the lake floor by about a metre in some places. The sonar images of both sets of terraces are strikingly similar."

This contemporary photograph of the White Terrace, also in black and white, pretty much convinces me that they've got the right beast:

Te Tarata, the White Terrace - contemporary photograph (just prior to 1886 eruption)

So exciting, and so wonderful to know what actually happened to the Terraces. They weren't found the day after the eruption (10 June 1886) - my guess is that they were covered with ash, which we know was at least 2m deep at Te Wairoa (now known as the Buried Village) and may have been deeper on the mountain side of Lake Rotomahana; and then the lake returned and ended up covering a much larger area than the three pre-eruption lakes it replaced, drowning the Terraces.

My only regret is that I'll never see them....

Strangely heavy...

2011-06-13T21:30:00.000+12:00

I am a happy camper. I might be breaking my back carrying it, but I'm happy. My copy of Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity: the first three thousand years turned up on Friday and I'm loving it. It's not been without it's problems though: the copy arrived from Amazon.com damaged, but Amazon has been amazing and is replacing it free of charge and in the meantime, I get to snuggle down with the damaged copy!

It's a beautiful book. Funny, very interesting, beautifully written, and capturing both the "big story", the metanarrative, and the smaller, more personal stories. He also has a lovely, light, almost wry sense of humour which is very modern and makes it definitely not dry in any way. It's more like reading a novel and it is in no way like reading a textbook - but it is richly erudite. It's got enough referencing to keep the scholars happy but he's hidden it away in the endnotes so you don't have to look at them if you don't want to, and he's stacked it with a lovely selection of colour plates and maps. These are necessarily small, with nothing like the grandeur of the cinematography in his BBC series, but enough to support his points. But if you want to see what he saw, watch the TV programme!

Very inspiring!

Completely recommended!

Strangely warmed

2011-06-09T22:36:00.002+12:00

I am feeling curiously heartened tonight. I have spent a very quiet evening in Palmerston North watching the final episode of Diarmaid MacCulloch's wonderful A History of Christianity, which I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. In the final episode, 'God in the Dock' (named for CS Lewis' book of that name), he looks at Christianity post-Enlightenment: the effect of the advent of "natural philosophy" (science) and doubt on the church in the West (curiously, he does not look at the effects of this period on the Orthodox church - maybe because the effect of the Enlightenment was not so strong there?).

In some ways, it's a very grim chronicle: wars and rumours of wars, loss of faith, doubt, fear, pride, revolutions, collusion with power; French Revolution, Catholicism in bed with Mussolini and Franco, the Holocaust and national socialism, doubt. Where is the God of love and compassion, the God of hope, the God who made humans in God's own image and likeness to care for each other and the world God has made?

A wise old pastor once said to me that "Doubt is not the opposite of faith; unbelief is the opposite of faith". Professor MacCulloch finished his series wondering if Christianity was dead in the West. But he visited St Martin-in-the-Fields, which besides being famous for its stupendous church music, has also been a church that has consistently explored what it means to be the face of a loving God in a changing world - ranging from pacisfism through to protest against apartheid, through to feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. As the vicar of St Martin's said, "Yes, we're firmly part of the British Establishment [it's an Anglican/Church of England parish], but we constantly find gentle ways to undermine that establishment' in the name of a God of love and justice.

Some may believe that the Church, the institution, is dead or dying, and maybe in some places it is (not where I worship though!). But God, and faith in a God who is love and who inspires us to live lives of love and kindness, compassion, humility and gentleness and justice, who was born in a stable and lived part of his life on the streets with 'nowhere to lay his head', who called the religious establishment hypocritical whitewashed tombs full of decay, that God, and that faith, will not ever die.

So, my heart is strangely warmed. I must just seek to live in that love, that justice, kindness and compassion, to be open to being challenged and changed by it, to hear the call of Jesus the Jew, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. Easier said than done, perhaps, but Professor MacCulloch has reminded me that Jesus asks that of all of us.

The rain it raineth every day

2011-06-07T22:42:00.000+12:00

So saith Lear's Fool. I often think he has a definite point: it's been raining here for most of the last 5 days and right now it's so loud I can hardly hear myself think. But then, it is the beginning of winter, there is an occluded front sitting over us, and it's still quite warm for this time of year (about 16degC today).

It raineth in other ways too. We had minor panic with the party, when our venue cancelled on us two days beforehand (they had good reason: they'd been closed by Regional Public Health due to a gastro outbreak), so I spent most of the Friday morning before the party running around trying to find a new venue. Fortunately our church hall was not booked so we were able to move the party to there, and were able to get hold of the guests to let them know. It all went very well: lots of small children had lots of fun, lots of food was eaten, balloons were enjoyed, games were played, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Small daughter cheerfully departed for school the next day accompanied by proud parents (I'd taken a couple of days leave to help settle her into school) and she seems to be having a good time - I'm enjoying a slight respite from reading duties as she is now reading slowly to me! We're still exploring some good stories together though. She's been deeply fascinated with ancient Egypt recently (following reading some of the Old Testament Exodus stories) and we've been reading about building pyramids, and making a few of our own - we now have a small Lego pyramid at home to keep her Pharoah minifig happy.

Pachyderm - party planner

2011-05-26T11:23:00.000+12:00

I seem to have acquired a new career, just as I'm making inroads into my professional life! Our small daughter turns five next week and I've been organising a birthday party for her. She is obsessed with Lego, so it's a Lego-themed party, up to and including a cake shaped like a Lego brick. Well, that's the plan: I have to concoct this cake tonight or tomorrow morning, and then ice it to look like a Lego brick. Here's hoping!

We've also themed all the usual kids' party games to have a Lego twist, such as "Stick the mouth on the minifig" instead of "pin the tail on the donkey" etc. Will post photos.

Quote of the day

2011-05-21T23:40:00.000+12:00

"Bellringers, an absolutely sterling and splendid group of folk, but with a tendency to think of churches as rather puzzling additions to church towers." - Prof. Diarmaid MacCulloch

A History of Christianity

2011-05-20T21:34:00.001+12:00

There's been a bit of a blog silence from moi for the last couple of weeks. No particular reason: just nothing significant to write about! After Graduation last week, I plunged into a huge amount of training and work - I think it's been two days in the office in the last fortnight. I've also been training a new colleague, who's been following me around watching me deliver training and getting a feeling for our style of delivery, which I found mildly intimidating at first! However, it's been quite good so far and he's going to co-deliver with me next week, so that could be interesting (I've never co-delivered training so am not sure how it works!).

However, the prompt for blogging has come from my brother. He has sent me the absolutely fabulous A History of Christianity BBC series by Diarmaid MacCulloch, the Professor of History of the Church at St Cross College, Oxford. This sumptuous series is beautifully filmed on location in some of the most important sites throughout Christian history, including China, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Rome, Spain, Mexico, all over Europe ... in fact, I am completely and totally green with envy over where he went to! It is engagingly presented by Prof MacCulloch, who is one of the world's foremost experts on the history of Christianity, and he definitely knows how to tell a good story and keep people interested. I spent years studying church history when I did my BMin but I've learnt things from his series that I never knew, including about the "Church of the East" centred in Baghdad and their mission to China and Japan in the 8th century!

The series is based on his magisterial A History of Christianity: the first three thousand years, which was a bestseller (and not just to church history nuts!) in 2009 on release - the Archbishop of Canterbury has called it the "definitive work" in the field - which is something coming from a scholar like Rowan Williams! A good story well told... to the point that I have just ordered the book from Amazon. Can't wait - but think it might not be one for lugging to work for lunchtime reading as it's over 1200 pages....

Some personal highlights from the first four episodes of the programme: the rediscovery of a Christian church in China dating from the 8th century (now being used as a Buddhist monastery); his extremely clear and lucid discussion of the causes of the Great Schism in 1054 between Orthodox and Roman churches; the Church of the East; nearly a whole episode devoted to Orthodoxy, looking at it in Eastern Europe, Russia, and other places. I am waiting to hear his treatment of monasticism - I've seen four of the six episodes (the other two are on their way, I'm told!) and so far he hasn't dealt with monasticism at all and you can hardly trace the history of Christianity without looking at the influence of monks!

This is fascinating, beautiful, interesting history. Even if you're not into God, church, or anything else "religious" it's worth watching because he investigates the links between Christian history and the political landscape beautifully, and the locations are just stunning. Thank God for the BBC, is all I can say right now!

Graduation

2011-05-10T21:03:00.001+12:00

There are not that many days in one’s life where it is allowable to wallow in one’s success. Yesterday was such a time. I was admitted to the Graduate Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health at Massey University: my third graduation ceremony and third institution, so am getting slightly confused as to which of the three is officially my alma mater – I guess it’s probably Victoria University of Wellington where I did my Bachelor of Arts all those years ago...

But back to Massey. This has been a tougher qualification than either the BA or the Bachelor of Ministries (BMin) – although both of these were degrees, I was a full-time student and had less distractions (I won’t say “none” because I always seemed to have some stuff going on outside of uni!) – with the GDipOSH, I was also holding down a full-time job, married, and our gorgeous small daughter arrived part way through. But I’m glad I persevered!

Yesterday was a bit of an odd day in some ways. Being an extramural (distance) student, I didn’t have the connection with the other students graduating – with my degrees, I knew a fair number of the others, and for the BMin I knew everyone very well as it was a smaller group, we had all lived on-campus, and gone through most of the same courses together. This time, there were only three Diplomates actually present (quite a lot more graduated in absentia) and everyone else in the ceremony was a total stranger. But the two others that were there were both people I had studied with, although that in itself is a bit odd as we all did the qualification at different rates! It took me five years (with a 16-month break in the middle when our daughter was tiny), and my wonderful husband and my parents were also there.

After graduation, I also had to attend the College of Business prizegiving as well, so it was a fairly busy day. Some of the great bits were having a good chat with one of my lecturers – more a friend and colleague, after all these years! – and the parade after Graduation. The Regent Theatre in Palmerston North where it was held is one of those lovely old theatres with gorgeous stone and woodwork - usually used for live theatre, it was a great place for a graduation (rather prettier than the Michael Fowler Centre where I graduated from Victoria!) and felt very intimate.

Okay, this is getting slightly ridiculous....

2011-05-07T22:32:00.000+12:00

I have been waiting on a recount of results for the International General Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health that I did in November last year. I went for a recount because I was scored at one mark off a pass with Distinction. Hubby talked me into it - he said that I had nothing to lose because if the mark went down it would still be a pass with Credit, and if it went up it would become a Distinction.

I'm glad I listened to hubby. I got my results from the UK tonight and it went up, so I have passed with Distinction. This is shaping into a good week....

Officially big

2011-05-06T21:22:00.001+12:00

My small daughter is officially big. Today was her first school visit to her new school. They have three Fridays where they attend for the morning before they actually start - today it was from the beginning of school (8.50) to what they call "Fruit Break" (11.30). They have two morning breaks, at 10am and one for fruit-eating later, with lunch very late (12.45). But it seems to work.

She had a great time, her teacher is really lovely, the classroom is very nice, and she was very excited about it all, which is good.

So now I have a big girl....

Ready for the off?

2011-05-01T19:54:00.000+12:00

Today was a mixed sort of day for me. Low Sunday, the conclusion of the Octave of Easter, the first eight days of the Great 50. We decided to celebrate it by enjoying some family time wandering around Wellington, including a visit to Capital E!, which is a children's theatre and play area - small daughter loves it because it has giant Lego blocks. And when I say "giant", I mean that the 8-blocks are about twice the length of my hand and are made of some sort of thick resilient spongy plastic foam. But they are genuine Lego blocks - the exact same shape as a regular Lego 8-block, just huge with the Lego logo on the little bumps. And they build just like Lego blocks. And you can build a Lego house large enough to sit in. Very cool.

Anyway, this afternoon we went to the farewell for my closest friend, who is going overseas to work. She's actually been overseas for a few years now but she's going a bit further afield this time and we won't see her anywhere near as often as we have in the past. I was doing a bit of maths and realised that I've known her for about 16 years - we met in our first week at university and have been friends ever since. She was one of my bridesmaids, gets on extremely well with my hubby and is godmother to our daughter. It was actually a bit sad - I realised how much I will miss her! Thank goodness for skype....

Letters to God

2011-04-26T21:23:00.000+12:00

There’s a charming article in today’s Times by Alex Renton, a non-believer who sends his six-year-old daughter Lulu to a Scottish church primary school. Her teachers asked her to write the following letter: “To God, How did you get invented?” The Rentons were taken aback: “We had no idea that a state primary affiliated with a church would do quite so much God,” says her father. He could have told Lulu that, in his opinion, there was no God; or he could have pretended that he was a believer. He chose to do neither, instead emailing her letter to the Scottish Episcopal Church (no reply), the Presbyterians (ditto) and the Scottish Catholics (a nice but theologically complex answer). For good measure, he also sent it to “the head of theology of the Anglican Communion, based at Lambeth Palace” – and this was the response:

Dear Lulu,

Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –

‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.

Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.

But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’

And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.

I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lors of love from me too.

+Archbishop Rowan

From http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100084843/a-six-year-old-girl-writes-a-letter-to-god-and-the-archbishop-of-canterbury-answers/

Great 50: day 1

2011-04-24T20:00:00.000+12:00

And it was good. It was very good. It was fantastic!

I got to read the Exultet at the midnight service last night after kindling the New Fire and lighting this year's Paschal candle (another name for "holy barbeque"!) which took some doing in the wind last night - fortunately the rain held off long enough!

Now, time to relax after catching up with both sets of parents today, a great dinner with hubby's parents, small daughter in bed. Pottering. Good book. And the Great 50 starts now!

Professionally speaking

2011-04-21T13:55:00.000+12:00

Most of my regular readers will know that I work in occupational health and safety and risk management as a consultant/trainer, and that I've been working on a Graduate Diploma in OSH from Massey University, which I completed late last year. Graduation is on 9 May this year.

I got a surprise this morning when I logged on to my email and discovered that I am also invited to a special prizegiving after graduation becasue I'm the highest-graduating student from the qualification this year. I am officially stoked! And stunned.... my hands didn't stop shaking for over an hour this morning!

Yesterday was also a good day: I heard that I have been accepted as a Graduate Member of IOSH, the world's largest H&S professional body, which means I'm now on my way to Chartered status.

Easter message from the Archbishops

2011-04-20T08:35:00.000+12:00

Tena Koutou, Malo Elelei, Namaste, Talofa Lava, Ni Sa Bula Vinaka.

Warm Greetings to you all. Grace and peace to you from God.

The message of Easter is a story of the victory of God in Christ over the power of sin and death.

The life, the wisdom, the mission, the trial, the torture, the death and the resurrection of Jesus bring a oneness with God, an “at-one-ment.” In Jesus, God builds a bridge over the deepest chasms of life – some of which we dig for ourselves.

Everyone knows loneliness, isolation and despair at times, everyone is afflicted in their hearts or their bodies by wounds and sins which can make us outcasts, outcasts to all but Christ. The cross of Jesus and the empty tomb overcome this chasm and brings wholeness.

On the cross, Jesus shares all of our agonies and the consequences of our sin. This means that through the terrible human capacity for prejudice, ignorance, violence, malice, abuse; all manner of oppression was thrown onto his shoulders by the very nature of his betrayal, capture, trial, torture and execution.

he crucifixion of Jesus was a political, cultural, spiritual, psychological and physical tragedy of the worst possible kind. On Good Friday, Christ endured the most fundamental of all suffering. He had endured what seemed like utter separation and desolation and was overcome, to his death.

However, even though all these forms of evil penetrated him so comprehensively, in the end they totally exhausted themselves. They had done their worst.

Miraculously, God the author of life and hope, was not ultimately overcome by this sacrilege and total destruction.

On Easter Sunday, Christ’s life in all its fullness was completely, unexpectedly raised to become the centre of God’s new creation.

This radical, unprecedented victory over sin and death was once, for all, because Christ is the archetypal representative of our humanity in God.

Our fundamental sin, as a profound separation from God, died with his death, so that our life might rise again in his eternal life.

Christ on the cross is the first and ultimate place in all of human history, where a dying victim becomes the means of overcoming his oppressors’ sin, completely transforming this evil into the greatest good the world has ever seen.

This was only possible through the death defying, life-giving grace of God. The power of Easter began the healing of the world. The conversion of the penitent thief and the watching centurion at the foot of the cross, are the first fruits of this victory and the first signs of a new hope for all people.

Christ’s death was a kind of blood-red sunset on the tyranny of sin and death over us, bringing to an end their fundamental life-denying power.

By raising Christ from death, God brings in the liberation of a new sunrise of grace in resurrection, new creation and hope. By following in this Christlight, we are all shown the way to peace.

It is this peace, which the world cannot give, which can sustain and bless those left crushed, bereaved and homeless by earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear disasters.

We know this because God in Christ endures these things deep within the Godhead at Easter.

Even death is overcome: Christ is risen, He is risen indeed.

Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and, while it is still dark, begins to sing.

Wishing you a holy and blessed Easter, from us all.

++ Brown Turei
Pihopa o Aotearoa

++David Moxon
Senior Bishop of the NZ dioceses

++Winston Halapua
Bishop of Polynesia

Shadows

2011-04-19T21:36:00.000+12:00

Tenebrae. The service of shadows. Silence. Candles, going out one by one as the Passion is read. Reflections. Prayer. Allegri's Miserere.

Pouring oil on him: my gift of myself, my life, my substance. The chink of coins changing hands as I sell him out for my greed. Kissing my master in betrayal. Torches and violence. Sneaking along after him and watching from the shadows. Do I know him? "No, I've never met the man!" A cock crows and I remember and weep for my weaknesses.

What has this man ever done? I wash my hands of his blood. I take the blood on myself, my guilt, my loss, my fear and my tendency to run away. I hold the whip and flog him. I carry his cross. I nail him to it and laugh at him there: "Come down from the cross! You said you'd save us: save yourself!" I watch and weep. I hear his compassion to those around him. I see him die. The temple curtain is ripped as his body is ripped. "Surely this man is the Son of God."

Things and stuff

2011-04-18T22:20:00.000+12:00

Lots of things going on since I last posted, including attending a glorious performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion sung by the hugely talented Orpheus Choir under the baton of Michael Fulcher - for the final time. Michael is sadly leaving Wellington Cathedral and the Orpheus for the warmer climes of Brisbane. It was really beautiful - I hadn't heard the Passion in one sitting before (well, not sung like this!) and it was amazing. Also very appropriate to hear it on Passion Sunday.

Seems to be quite a few things going on - last week was really nuts with five days training back to back, in three different cities (including the hop to Nelson again).

However, all of that faded into insignificance yesterday at the Palm Sunday liturgy, the beginning of Holy Week. The joy, the exaltation, the procession into Jerusalem following the donkey, waving palms, hosanna to the Son of David.... entering into Holy Week. I can't formulate my own reflection on Palm Sunday, so here's one from Mother Catherine CP. Reading small daughter the story of Jesus in the temple with the moneychangers changing $2 into 50c of temple money to buy a sacrificial pigeon for $5 of temple money....

A grey Fforde

2011-04-14T21:37:00.000+12:00

I have blogged before about Jasper Fforde, the comic literary genius author of the Thursday Next books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels, and the latest TN One of our Thursdays is Missing), Nursery Crime (The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear), The Last Dragonslayer, and Shades of Grey. Jasper is an amazing author: he is steeped in literature and his books ooze literary allusions, but they're not stodgy - they are laugh-out-loud funny (particularly The Well of Lost Plots).

I have been re-reading Shades of Grey, the first book in a new series set in a dystopic England - well, it's the same geography but not the same land! Most dystopias start off with the event and look at society's spiral to disaster - Jasper has what he refers to as "the Something that Happened" 700 years in the past, and no-one really cares about it! The key premise of the book is that in this society, people are categorised by their ability to see colour: Purples are at top of the social scale, followed by Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green, Red, and then Greys who can't see any colour at all. There is an organisation called National Colour who artificially colour things with "univisual colour" that everyone can see. The society is completely hierarchical, but underneath the strict social patterning there is a veritable nest of nastiness discovered by our hero Eddie Russett. Colour is used for healing, for social status, to determine marriages and social engineering like who can have children, for all sorts of things.

The story is brilliantly constructed. We are led into Eddie's world bit by bit, until it even seems normal to think that people can only see one kind of colour (I have a friend who is severely red-green colourblind so this concept was not completely alien). I recognised elements of classic dystopias like 1984 and Brave New World, but it was so much cleverer and funnier than either of them! Highly recommended, and I really can't wait until the sequel comes out - apparently it's to be called Shades of Grey: Painting by Numbers (technically the first one is Shades of Grey: the Road to High Saffron). Interesting to see where he takes this world!

Quote of the day: universal laws

2011-04-08T09:42:00.000+12:00

Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll need to go to the toilet.
Law of Gravity: Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
Law of Probability: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
Law of Random Numbers: If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.
Law of the Alibi: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tyre, the very next morning you will have a flat tyre.
Variation Law: If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).
Law of the Bath: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
Law of Close Encounters:The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
Law of the Result: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach of your arm.

Safe play

2011-04-04T12:14:00.000+12:00

Two stories in the news this morning bothered me somewhat. Firstly, this one about a bouncy castle that took off and injured two children in Arizona - why was it not tethered? It's standard practice that all inflatables should be anchored! Even worse is this story of a 3-year-old boy who died after falling out of a rollercoaster in Chicago. Awful. Apparently he "got under the safety bar" - how was this possible?

Welcome to our world

2011-04-03T21:41:00.000+12:00

Today was a good day, although it began very very early for a Sunday: 5.40am, to be exact.... We had a Community conference call scheduled, and rather inconveniently, NZ's daylight saving time happened to finish last night too - so what would have been a 7am call became a 6am call. Well, at least my body still thought it was 7am! And it was a beautiful morning, and at 6am silent, still, and very peaceful. Fnding a time that works for everyone when we're taking into account the time zones of most of the world is always a bit tricky but I didn't mind, because this time I was able to call into the conference call. We were trialling some different software for online conference calls and it meant that I could talk as well as listen.

The awesome thing today was that we were admitting a new novice to the Community, which is always a special time. This time, I was one of the leaders of the admission ceremony, my first time as a member of Guardian Council, so it was particularly special. It brought back some precious memories of my transfer to the Community.

It was also the fourth Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday, Refreshment Sunday, Mothering Sunday - the feast of our Lady as theotokos and traditionally the "rose day", when the vestments of the Church were rose-coloured (read pink!), one of only two Sundays in the year when this colour can be used (the other is Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent - the names come from the first words of the Introit from these Sundays, meaning "o be joyful" and "rejoice" respectively). It's the day when traditionally there was a break from the Lenten fast, often marked by making and eating of simnel cake - a gorgeous once-a-year cake made with powdered almonds.... However, I've often wondered about this because no Sunday in Lent counts as part of the 40 days anyway!

Quote of the day

2011-04-03T21:04:00.002+12:00

Michaelangelo is known to have said that he didn't create his sculptures, but merely freed them from the rock in which they were imprisoned. Vocation, it seems to me, is a lot like that. The discernment process doesn't make a priest or a monk or a nun or a friar any more than bishops do, but merely helps to uncover and discover what God created from the beginning.

Courtesy of a nun friend on Facebook.

A balanced view

2011-03-30T21:56:00.000+13:00

I have been doing quite a bit of thinking about balance lately. Partly it came from an internal discussion within the Community of Solitude, because balance, and balanced living, is a peculiarly Benedictine trait. St Benedict in some ways was the first great moderate - the first Anglican even, as we Anglicans walk the via media, the middle way between Catholicism and Protestantism, integrating the best of both and making something beautifully different. But partly this thinking about balance has come from my own life and my reflections on my own faith and lifestyle.

What Benedict was after was for us to keep work, prayer, and study/other parts of life in balance, so that no one bit of life takes over. This to me seems to be an eminently sensible idea and very very modern - strange to think that Benedict died in 547AD! We have a tendency - I have a tendency - of focusing on one part of life to the exclusion of others, which is not what Benedictine living is all about. It's about putting everything in its proper place.

Benedict says that prayer is our work, and everything else flows from that. I have been thinking about that for a while now: if prayer is my work, I do all my other living from my prayer - my life is bracketed and contained and expressed in my prayer, my openness to seeing God's loving touch in all things.

I had lunch with a friend I haven't seen since my schooldays today, and we were catching up on a rather frightening number of years since we last saw each other (but like all true friends, the intervening time didn't seem to matter all that much!). As part of me catching him up on what I'd been up to, I talked about the Community and the way it has changed me, and the simple expression of the habit (black and white) I use when I'm not actually wearing my full habit (like for work for example). He asked whether I miss wearing colours, and I can honestly say that I don't. Black and white has become part of my prayer, part of my life - and the colour is all around me anyway. Green grass, blue sky (very blue, that wonderful autumnal blue), white gulls - the world is full of colour and light and I seem to be more aware of it because I don't partake of it. I am thankful for the light of God that shines through the world, the breath of God that gives it life, the love of God we find as we serve one another.

Finding balance for me is about finding prayer. Not just praying the Office (which I do every morning and night) but finding prayer in all things - being prayer in all places. I'm not that good at this, but the hesychasts have some good ideas that I like, and it's all about trying. The Western tradition talked about the "practice of the presence of God" which seems an overly complicated way of saying that God's fingerprints are everywhere if I will only look.

Much of this reflection has come about because I have been feeling like a bit of a failure this Lent, despite what I wrote last Lent about letting me be me and God be God with me. I made a couple of decisions about Lenten practice and I haven't been disciplined about them. But what I am finding is more balance. And maybe that's closer to what God has in mind for Lent. "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me" - into a balanced life of obedience, conversion of life, and stability in my life of prayer. However, there are times when I still agree with Stephen Fry: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is a bin liner full of yoghurt"....

The announcement

2011-03-26T21:59:00.000+13:00

Yesterday was the feast of the Annunciation, one of my favourite feasts of the church year. It's the day we specially reflect on the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, and her response to God's invitation to be the theotokos, the God-bearer, the woman who carried Jesus under her heart, whose DNA became part of the Son of God.

I have often wondered what would have happened if Mary had freaked out and said, "No thanks!" Would God have found another person for the incarnation, or would it all have stopped? Would God have found another way for Jesus to be here? But her faith, her love, was enough. Somehow Mary's faith was enough to accept that God was doing something and she had to accept it, co-operate with it. Her love was enough.

Is my love enough?

Finding Atlantis?

2011-03-18T08:25:00.000+13:00

I spotted this story on Stuff that suggests that a team of archaeologists think they have found Atlantis in a Spanish swamp using satelite imagery of a drowned city, and they think it was drowned by a tsunami. Having just watched with horror the power of the tsunami that washed part of Japan off the map, I can believe that whatever they found could have been destroyed that way, but whether it's the city Plato called Atlantis, who knows? However, I'll keep an ear out for the National Geographic program that they're going to put together.

Lent

2011-03-14T22:44:00.000+13:00

It's Monday of the first full week of Lent.

I always find this an interesting season in the Church's year. I have blogged about this before, many times (one of my favourite reflections on Lent was one I wrote for the Community last year). Lent is always a mixed time: at work, this time of year is often one of our busiest (prompting me to advise the training administrators that I was not available for out-of-town travel for Holy Week way back in September last year!); but it's also the time of year when we try to be most open to listening for the whisper of God in all the "muchness and many-ness" (Richard Foster).

I am not part of a Lenten study group this year, mostly for logistical reasons, but I have chosen a Lenten study book. Merton and Hesychasm is a series of essay studies and papers of how Thomas Merton's thought was influenced by the Eastern Orthodox church and thinkers. Besides being a really serious theological read, it's also a very beautifully written book with a great deal of depth. Basically, the point the writers are making is that hesychasm (the "prayer of the heart", the regular use of a short simple prayer such as the Jesus Prayer, "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner") can, over time, become both a point of focus for the heart to come back to, and a source of inner deepening and conversion of the heart.

There's a lot of Eastern Orthodox theology here that I'm not that familiar with, but I have experimented with the use of the Jesus Prayer (for me, often linked with the rosary - I have started to move to using the Jesus Prayer instead of the Hail Mary for the decade beads) and am finding that it is a wonderful way of helping me stay centred. It doesn't always work - well, more honestly, I don't always work at it! - but I am reminded of the suggestion of one of the Community Guardians when I was formulating my Rule of Life. He suggested that I try to not only pray "in my cell" (in my inner prayer space inside), but I try to live and work from there too.

Alongside this, there have been the horrific events in the world. Christchurch's earthquake and casualties from 22 February is all too close to home; but now, there's also an unbelievable M9.0 earthquake and 10m tsunami in Japan that has literally obliterated huge parts of the country - whole towns have simply disappeared. More scary still (if this is possible) is the fact that three of Japan's nuclear reactors are in a critical state, damaged by the earthquake, and one of their major oil refineries is burning down. I find it hard to believe the photos: they are terrifying. I keep returning to something Dean Peter Beck of ChristChurch Cathedral said, "This isn't an "Act of God". This is the planet, doing it's thing. The Act of God is in the love and compassion we show to each other." (paraphrased).

Epic

2011-03-13T21:52:00.001+13:00

I went to the Fill the Basin for Christchurch benefit match at the Basin Reserve today - I was actually working for some of it, but then got to sit back, relax, and enjoy an amazing afternoon of Twenty20 cricket with some serious legends of the game (and a few hangers-on...!).

The teams were quite astonishing line-ups:

Wellington Legends XI: Martin Crowe (captain), Andrew Jones, Bruce Edgar, Chris Nevin, Ewen Chatfield, Gavin Larsen, Jason Wells, Jonathan Millmow, Matthew Bell, Richard Petrie, Roger Twose, Tana Umaga (and The Stig).

Canterbury Invitation XI: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Geoff Allott, Marc Ellis, Mark Greatbatch, Sir Richard Hadlee, Rod Latham, Craig McMillan, Dion Nash, Adam Parore, Justin Vaughan, Shane Warne.

It was an absolute delight to see some of the legends of cricket that I used to watch when I fell in love with the game having another bash on the Basin - seeing "the Naenae Express" (Ewen Chatfield) and "Paddles" (Sir Richard Hadlee) having a bowl was just fantastic. And I was super-impressed with Prime Minister John Key, facing up to an over from Shane Warne, the best spin bowler the world has ever seen (I have to be honest, even if he is an Aussie!). Even more impressed that John Key survived all six deliveries, and even managed to put a few over the boundary! Also just hilarious to see Tana Umaga (better known for his rugby!) to bash a few boundaries and to get Craig McMillan out (not to mention a stunning catch the next over!).

Fantastic day all round really.

Letters from the dog

2011-03-13T21:17:00.000+13:00

Let me give you a list of just some of the things I must remember to be a good Dog.

I will not eat the cat's food before he eats it or after he throws it up.
I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, etc., just because I like the way they smell.
The litter tray is not a biscuit tin.
The sofa is not a facecloth.
The rubbish collector is not stealing our stuff.
I will not play tug-of-war with Dad's underwear when he's on the toilet.
Sticking my nose into someone's crotch is an unacceptable way of saying 'hello'.
I don't need to suddenly stand straight up when I'm under the coffee table
I must shake the rainwater out of my fur before entering the house - not after.
I will not come in from outside and immediately drag my butt across the carpet.
I will not sit in the middle of the living room and lick my crotch.
The cat is not a squeaky toy so when I play with him and he makes that noise, it's usually not a good thing.

A very productive Saturday

2011-03-12T20:51:00.000+13:00

Did grocery shopping. Took daughter to church fair. Played with daughter. Did four loads of washing (only three got out on the line because I ran out of pegs!). Put first coat of white paint up on the eaves and windowframes of kitchen side of house. Vacuumed house. Had dinner with parents and picked up daughter (who spent the afternoon playing there). Washed daughter. Put daughter to bed. Folded washing. Feet up.....

Celebrating

2011-03-08T21:50:00.000+13:00

It's been a while since I've posted. There's lots of reasons for that, not a few of which are related to work and my prayers for Christchurch following the earthquake there on 22 February.

However, I do want to reflect on something that happened recently, not related to the disaster. On 24 February, my lovely husband and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. It's quite incredible - 10 years seems to have gone past in a flash! I can mentally account for about four, but 10 seems a little excessive...! Well, we decided to celebrate our anniversary and go away together. Our small daughter stayed with her grandparents, we popped the cat into kitty prison, and headed away for a few days.

We went up to Taupo and Rotorua in the centre of the North Island, which is old turf for us: we had our honeymoon 10 years ago based in Turangi at the bottom of Lake Taupo and explored the area quite thoroughly, but wanted to do it again. We took a very leisurely drive up, stopping fairly regularly every time hubby saw something he wanted to take a photo of - and there were quite a few stops! The first one was on the lovely Kapiti Coast just out of Wellington to get a stunning shot of Kapiti Island, and then just up the road we stopped at the chocolate factory and Prenzel's liqueurs, where we finally found Blizzard (well, it's called Peppermint Ice Liqueur now, but it tastes the same)! We used to have some years ago and it's gorgeous, especially very cold, and mixed in hot chocolate it's amazing. More photo stops on the Desert Road, part of NZ's high alpine environment, to get some beautiful shots of Mts Ruapehu and Ngaurahoe "naked" (Tongariro was slightly hidden from where we were) - it's so weird to see them without any snow at all. Apparently they have some now following a cold snap!

It was lovely to be in Taupo again - I like the great lake area and it was particularly beautiful under a very high sky. We had a bit of a wander around the city that evening, and liked some of the changes that had happened up there.

Saturday was another travelling day: we went up to Rotorua, arriving at Waimangu Thermal Valley in time for their 8.30am opening, with the lovely early morning side-light through all the mist and steam from Frying Pan Lake. We had the place completely to ourselves for nearly an hour before we saw another human being. It was so still, and quite eerie with the cool morning and the hot steam. Waimungu Valley is the world's youngest thermal zone, and the only one in the world where the exact date of formation is known - it was formed from the eruption of Mt Tarawera on 10 June 1886. It spawned the Waimangu Geyser (Waimangu means "black water" in Maori, and the Waimangu Geyser was the world's largest geyser, erupting from 1900-1904, and was known to send rocks and mud over 450m in the air), and now Frying Pan Lake has filled what was part of the Waimungu Geyser crater. We followed the valley downhill, more or less following Hot Water Creek, to Lake Rotomahana on the shores of the brooding Mt Tarawera.

The lake and valley is an amazing ecosystem: the area surrounding Mt Tarawera was blasted to bare rock following the eruption, which split the mountain and created a massive chain of craters that run for 17km, and then covered with ash and other ejecta. All of the plant life in the area has seeded itself since the eruption, and the whole area is protected so scientists can watch the natural recovery process of the earth. There's also a lot of really lovely thermophilic plants that are only found growing around geothermal vents, and most are only found in New Zealand (and some only in Rotorua!). The lake was very serene - unfortunately the closest we got to the lost Pink and White Terraces was sailing over the spot where the Pink Terrace lies drowned, over 60m under the surface.

The afternoon was spent wandering around Rotorua, and then we indulged at the Polynesian Spa: I've blogged about this before, and it was just as good this time - even better in some ways! This time I had hubby to share the experience with me, but also while we were soaking in the gorgeous Priest's Pools at about 37degC, the heavens opened and we had a massive thunderstorm! Last time I was under the stars at night; this time slowly poaching in the hot waters and having cold fresh water falling in torrents on our heads! It was hilarious. Everyone else was hiding under the covered area - we were sitting out in the rain enjoying the contrast.

Sunday was a much more leisurely day: we went to Lava Glass in the morning and watched a master glassblower making these cool little starfish. Watching the hot molten glass come out, and then seeing how he added colour and shaped them was fascinating. That afternoon, we went on a cruise on the Ernest Kemp on Lake Taupo, out to the rock carvings in Mine Bay. The carvings are about 40 years old, and they are amazing. This huge face towering over the lake, looking out serenely into the distance of Moana Taupo (the Sea of Taupo - a good name for the lake!), eyeing the mountains. I wonder what he thinks about, the chief? Maybe he wonders when Taupo will erupt again - maybe he hopes it never will! He's like a great guardian of the lake, and it's fitting that he's surrounded by taniwha.

Changing names

2011-03-06T22:55:00.000+13:00

An interesting reflection on the religious name from a new novice in the Passionist community in Kentucky that I am friends with.

Thinking

2011-03-06T22:52:00.000+13:00

The last two weeks have been interesting. I have been doing a lot of thinking about a lot of things. Chief amongst them, of course, has been Christchurch and the incredible losses there: at time of writing, over 160 people are confirmed dead, with a projected death toll of around 200, and there has been terrifying damage to the city buildings and infrastructure. Beautiful Christchurch that I was falling for through my various trips down there since September last year is no more. The city as we knew it has ceased to exist.

Last year, the earthquake was larger, but further from the CBD and there were no casualties - a few injuries but everyone agreed that a 7.1 magnitude quake with no fatalities was some kind of miracle. 22 February was different. This time it was afternoon, lunchtime.

Small miracles out of the pain: Christ Church Cathedral, which was hammered this time (the spire came down and the Cathedral roof was smashed by all the masonry) was expected to have over 20 bodies inside - last night we heard that there were none. That's incredible: lunchtime, people climbing the spire, people in the Cathedral - and no-one died.

The Very Revd Peter Beck, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, had this to say: "God is in all these people" says Beck, as his sweep takes in Civil Defence people, reporters hunched over laptops, police and army personnel in high-vis vests. God is in the midst of all this. God is weeping with those who weep. God is alongside those who are finding the energy to just keep going. God is in the people who are reaching out and seeking to sustain one another. God is about building community, about empowering people." Yes, but where was God was when offices pancaked and burnt and hundreds died?

"Well," says Beck "we live on a dynamic, creating planet that's doing its thing. For whatever reason, our forebears chose to build this city on this place. They didn't know we were on this faultline. God doesn't make bad things happen to good people. We make our own choices about what we do.

"At the core of my faith is that life is stronger than death, and love is stronger than hate. I bring that sense of belief in life into situations like this, which are dire and awful and deadly. At the moment I don't really need to think theologically. You just do it."

Quote of the day

2011-02-27T23:01:00.000+13:00

"Foolproof systems don't take into account the ingenuity of fools" - Gene Brown

Oh, no, not again!

2011-02-23T21:53:00.001+13:00

I was delivering some training yesterday with Air New Zealand when one of their staff burst into the room and said, "Have you heard about Christchurch? It's been flattened!"

6.3 on the Richter scale, right under the lovely little port town of Lyttelton, just 10km from the city. And this time, just at lunchtime. Enormous damage to one of New Zealand's most beautiful cities, and this time, casualties. Lots of them. Urban Search and Rescue swarming over the city, combing for survivors. Confirmed deaths. Extended family confirmed safe, but they're the lucky ones. Lots not, and many people I know are waiting for news of loved ones. Major buildings pancaked, and many of the lovely heritage buildings that survived so far are now just rubble. Christ Church Cathedral hit hard this time.

Worse than September because shallower, but also under buildings that are already weakened and suffering significant strain. Just awful.

How to pray? I offer my hurting heart for those who are hurting. NZ's leaders say this is likely to be our worst disaster in our nation's history. How much more can NZ take? Christchurch in September, Pike River in November, now this? We are reeling, but we will carry on. We will never give up.

Glad that's over

2011-02-16T20:10:00.001+13:00

I'm home again after a ghastly trip to Hamilton. It wasn't a trip I was supposed to do: I got a call at about 3pm on Friday afternoon asking whether I could deliver training in Hamilton on Monday and Tuesday this week - which of course means that I have to travel on Sunday (something I try hard not to do, as it means I lose about half my weekend and most of my Sunday). I agreed because we were desperate - someone had pulled out and there was no-one else available.

Our training team arranged for the box of goodies to come down from Auckland and get left at the motel which was already booked, and I sorted flights and a rental - there was only one car left in Hamilton, a Toyota Camry (bigger than we usually use but I wasn't moaning!). However it turned out that only one night had been booked there instead of two - we got this sorted in the end.

I arrived on Sunday evening, found my motel, then went for a drive to find the Wintec campus in Avalon Drive where I was supposed to be delivering the course. What a nightmare! The signposting in the city is just awful and it was already dark which didn't help. Also, it is definitely unclear that the new north-south bypass is also Avalon Drive and there were signs pointing to Avalon Drive in another direction altogether, so all in all I spent about an hour cruising the streets looking for this wretched place. I got there eventually but was somewhat displeased.

Worse was to come. I found the venue itself on Monday morning and got set up in the room I had been told we were in. I was just about ready to start delivering when the organiser of the venue popped up and said she'd changed the room - I refused to budge until the following day. It was about 28degC that day and hugely muggy (thank God for airconditioning) - and I wasn't the only one who got lost on the way. Most of the trainees got lost too and were late. And I snagged my nice new work shirt (that I only got on Friday) on some sharp thing on the doorframe and it ripped. Just a little rip and fortunately nowhere naughty, but I was peeved because I liked the shirt.

Day 2 we moved into the new room - which had an antique airconditioning system with three settings: "loud", "off", and "deafening". I opted for "loud" as it was over 30degC and we desperately needed it, but it made it hard for me to hear their answers and sometimes for them to hear me. The room was also unsuitable for the number of people we had and all in all it was a bit of a mess. However the training went well, which was good.

The complete disaster started when I was leaving. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare to be told that "we're not checking anyone in for your flight yet". I left my baggage with the attendants and tried the Koru Lounge, but found it even hotter and stuffier than the general airport areas, so gave up and went to the cafe. Hamilton Airport is a dump: it has a bookshop, one very overpriced cafe, and car rental cubbyholes, and that's it. You'd think for a so-called "international" airport it could do better - even Napier and Palmerston North airports are better.

I waited ... and waited ... and waited. No information. No announcements. Time was creeping on, and rumours were flying amongst waiting passengers that the plane had been turned back to Wellington. I asked the staff but they were singularly unhelpful. I waited some more. And then, ten minutes after the last Auckland flight left, they announced that our flight to Wellington was cancelled and we had to stay the night - had they told us even 20 minutes earlier I could have flown to Auckland and picked up a flight home. So they arranged accommodation for me at the Airport Inn, with vouchers for dinner and breakfast. The one bright spot was the lovely man at the Hertz cubbyhole who extended my rental on the car for another night quite happily (essential because Hamilton Airport is about 30mins from Hamilton city).

I checked in. I ate dinner (very nice). I went to see Black Swan (review to come). I came back to the motel - to find the driveway literally crawling with huge black insects about an inch in size, that look like some bastard offspring of a grasshopper and a weta. And there were hundreds of these things: and guess what? They were in my room too... the first time I have ever contacted reception of a motel and asked for flyspray to be delivered. I have no idea what they were, but they were huge, ugly, and in horrifying numbers.

Air NZ had refused to rebook me on a flight until after 10am (so much for preferential treatment as a Koru Club member!) and the flight was nearly 45 minutes late, so I wiped off the whole day - by the time I made it back to lovely Wellington it was almost lunchtime and I was hot, frustrated, and desperate to be home. So I came home and worked from home - and caught up on my laundry.

And I have to do it all again this weekend: but to (the hopefully slightly more civilised) Auckland. Another Sunday departure, another loss of half my weekend. I only hope it's not such a fiasco as this one.

Royally speaking

2011-02-12T20:24:00.000+13:00

We went to The King's Speech last night. I was looking forward to a night watching Colin Firth, but instead I was drawn into the world of Bertie, the prince who wasn't supposed to be King, the insecure stutterer, friendless and frightened, who found in a commoner a friend who believed in him.

It was a masterful performance by Colin Firth - you forgot he was even there and there certainly weren't any "Darcy-in-the-lake" moments - he was totally absorbed in the character and he made him live. I also thought Michael Gambon delivered a very assured performance as the old King George V. I have to admit I wasn't so keen on Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth -she was very good but not quite as good as some of the others. Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, the elocutionist, was astonishing - light, gentle, funny, and encouraging.

It wasn't all dismal and sad though: the practice rendition of the first speech of the war had me rolling in the aisles - when the new King was practicing, he was swearing to help him relax, and he did a few words of the speech then a whole lot of "additions" - it was hysterically funny.

All in all, definitely recommended. The question isn't whether it will win an Oscar. The question is how many.

Fit for purpose

2011-02-09T22:20:00.000+13:00

An interesting day today. I got home from work slightly early as I was working much closer to home than usual. I was planning to go to the gym and was collecting my kit, but as I walked past the open front door on the way to refill my waterbottle, I noticed that our lawn was looking a little shaggy (due to the grotty weather in the weekend, it didn't have its regular haircut) - so I decided to do that instead! When hubby and small daughter got home about 20 minutes later, the look on hubby's face was gorgeous: startled, pleased, and slightly confused! I got a workout, hubby was happy, and the lawn got shorter - result!

This evening I headed off to a silent prayer meeting which has recently started in the home of one of our parishioners, and it turned out to be really beautiful. There is something incredibly powerful about shared silence: concentrated listening to God. We were focusing on the parish vision for the year which is about being hospitable, when it suddenly occurred to me that prayer is extending hospitality to God: opening the door of our lives for God. I've been thinking a lot about the image of our lives as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and maybe prayer is opening the door of our temple and making God welcome.

Something to think about some more, I think!

Found?

2011-02-02T13:38:00.001+13:00

Hugely exciting article in the news today: the famous Pink Terrace on Lake Rotomahana has been found! It was thought lost after the Mt Tarawera Eruption of 1886 - smashed to smithereens by the eruption - but a GNS Science expedition has found the bottom two levels of the Terrace at the bottom of the lake, along the original shoreline! This is spectacular news! Even pictures taken underwater! This photo comes from Stuff.co.nz:

Underwater photo of the drowned Pink Terrace from GNS Science

This is unbelieveable! I wonder if they could drain the lake to the original shoreline and reveal the Terrace again?

See my earlier entry on the Pink and White Terraces here.

Quote of the day

2011-02-01T22:29:00.000+13:00

Someone sent this one to hubby, and I have to say that I approve!

A moment

2011-01-30T20:58:00.000+13:00

Just happened to look up from my computer for some reason to notice that the light coming through the front door had suddenly changed. We just had the most amazing golden sunset - literally streaks and splashes of brilliant shimmering gold across the sky, and all the houses and hills washed with the most incredible light. It looked almost stripy, but was outlining every ridge on every cloud. I regretted the absence of the camera for about 5 seconds, then decided I would far rather just stand there and enjoy it rather than trying to "capture" it. It only lasted about 5 minutes but it was amazingly beautiful - in fact, beautiful isn't really a big enough word.

It's moments like these that I just stand stunned by God's artistry. The science of how and why it happens are unimportant - I understand them, but I would rather appreciate the beauty of what I have just seen, and give thanks where it is due.

Games

2011-01-30T20:19:00.000+13:00

Small daughter and I have been playing a lot of games recently. She's now old enough to understand that games have rules, and so we can play some "proper" games. We started with Operation (the Toy Story 3 edition), some simple card games, and tonight, an old family favourite of my family: Yahtzee. It's a great one for small children: the rules are quite simple, there's lots of rolling of dice, it's fun, it's easy to learn, and it's really good for their maths skills. I'm slightly regretting my decision now though: I taught her the game about an hour ago, we played two games, and she completely thrashed me. In both games.

I'm hoping that this is just beginners' luck....

The monster in the cupboard

2011-01-26T22:12:00.000+13:00

When I was very small, I used to have the nightmare about The Monster in the Cupboard. You know the one: you think that there's a monster of some hideous description hidden somewhere in your room - for me, usually the wardrobe, occasionally under the bed. I was always waking up in the middle of the night thinking I'd heard footsteps or burglars or something, and getting up and creeping around the house to check everything was okay. I became very good at moving silently, and cased out which of the stairs creaked so I could get downstairs without waking anyone.

But if it was a Monster in the Cupboard, I would creep up, pick up something large and hefty (usually my hockey stick), and turn on the light. I'd then creep up to the cupboard, stick firmly in hand, and then throw open the door - to stand blinking in the light, slightly embarrassed because the Monster was my schoolbag. Or the cat rustling around. Or something else I recognised.

Sometimes life is a little like that. Opening the doors, turning on the light, looking the monster full in the face, and we find that it's different. Not that it doesn't exist. Not that it wasn't terrifying, horrible, evil, but that we know what it is now. It has a name. A form. A shape. We can see it full in the face. Once we know what it is, we can do something about it - like whacking it with a hockey stick.

Quote of the day

2011-01-20T20:17:00.000+13:00

I spotted this on the back of a Wicked Escapes van in Ashburton today:

"I went down the road less travelled - and now I don't know where the hell I am!"

Christchurch again

2011-01-15T20:45:00.000+13:00

My first week back was a fairly busy one - I had just one day back in the office and then four days in beautiful Christchurch, doing similar work to the last time I was down there, working with one of the major organisations involved in the recovery efforts. This time I got out into the field and had a look around, which was very interesting - now I know what to look for in terms of earthquake damage in houses, and where the likely stress points are in houses, which is very helpful! It was also good to be able to do my bit in terms of the recovery effort.

Christchurch looked different this time: all the blossom gone but the beautiful mature trees everywhere, and Hagley Park looking like a paradise of green grass and cool shade trees. I still can't get over the wide avenues lined with trees, and how easy it is to get around the city. Comes from being on a flat plain with multiple ways to get everywhere, rather than one in and one out for Wellington!

Chillin'

2011-01-07T21:48:00.000+13:00

Sitting here in the cool of the evening listening to Eric Clapton playing blues after a long, hot, and fairly humid sort of day. It was my last "official" day of summer holiday (weekends don't count!), so we went over to Porirua for lunch at the Peppermill Cafe, had a wander around the art gallery there (some really nice art glass!) and then for a walk at the Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve - something we've been meaning to do for ages. It's easy walking along board tracks to the bird hides, and even though it was mid-afternoon we still saw quite a lot of birds. I spotted two black swans, heaps of shags, a royal spoonbill, a pukeko, and a shelduck in the wetlands, and a couple of tuis, a waxeye and fantail on the path (pictures of our NZ birds can be found here). We also saw a little mud crab next to the path hiding under some grass, which small daughter was quite fascinated by - she was less impressed by the bumble bee that was sitting in the middle of the path slightly further on!

More decorating

2011-01-07T21:31:00.000+13:00

I thought that since my house has had a makeover, my blog should too!

New Year decoration

2011-01-05T19:57:00.000+13:00

The longish blog silence has been because we've been enjoying some wonderful post-Christmas weather, and finishing the interior painting of our little house. The hallway now matches the living room and dining/kitchen in a fresh coat of blue, with rich red doorframes and skirting. We've also put a new freestanding cupboard in the hall today as we're desperately short of storage in this house (we only have 3 built-in wardrobes, not including the kitchen cupboards, in the entire house!). We've also been reducing the amount of stuff we need to store by doing some fairly serious decluttering over the past few days. I'm looking forward to getting some pictures back up in the hall again!

Now we've finished the inside, we need to finish off the fourth wall outside - we tried to paint the outside of the house last summer and got three of the four outside walls completed before the weather closed in at the end of March (we also had a really wet summer last year which didn't help!). Now the hall is finished, we can prep the outside and get that done too, and housepainting will be finished - well, this round anyway! We've been in this place 6 years and we've been decorating slowly all that time - it will be good to just be living in the house now!

Not much else to tell - we've had a few little trips around, a couple of good swims, games, and lots of fun family time. Hoping to do the beach at some stage soon now the water has warmed up a bit, although the shark sighting in Lyall Bay today bothers me somewhat!

Playing the game

2010-12-30T23:24:00.000+13:00

I made a mistake yesterday. I'm a bit of a Facebook fan - I find it a great way to keep up with some of my friends that I don't see all that often, particularly the ones on the other side of the world. About this time last year, I discovered the Zynga games - in particular, FishVille. Grow your own cute tropical fish, collect tanks, decorate them - you know the drill. I liked FishVille. It was fun, and the fish were really cute. I played it somewhat obsessively until about May this year, when I decided to give it up because it at level 62 I didn't have too many places to go.

However, there was another reason I gave it up. It was taking too much of myself, my time, my passion. It was a distraction from what I really needed to do with my time. My mistake yesterday was finding another Zynga game (CityVille this time) which I played for a day - I got caught up in it, and could see myself getting trapped into it, so tonight I deleted the app from my Facebook account.

It's not that I'm against games - but when the game takes over, or I allow myself to fall into it and let that obsessive side of my personality to find a place where it can wallow, then it's a problem - maybe it wouldn't be for other people, but it is for me.

Post-Christmas

2010-12-26T20:16:00.000+13:00

The Christmas Eve service at the Cathedral was lovely, as always, although I think that they sounded better on the 9 Lessons and Carols last Sunday - their voices are starting to sound a bit tired. Bishop Tom preached a great sermon, and we got home about 1.30am.

Christmas Day was a bit bitsy: beginning (of course) with a spot of present opening at about 9am - small daughter was so tired after the Christmas Eve service that we had to wake her up (not that we were objecting to a sleep-in!). Morning tea was at my parents', and then we scooted home again to see hubby's dad (his mum is overseas at the moment), followed by lunch. Prawns, cold ham, fresh berries, and salad - the only concession to a so-called "traditional" Christmas lunch was a Christmas pud with custard, brandy butter, and my own brand of home-made icecream.

Everyone had a rest afterwards, and then we went over to my sister and brother-in-law's for a very leisurely barbeque on their deck in the sun, enjoying the glorious weather - the first really beautiful Christmas Day we've had in several years. Good enough that we needed to break out the sunblock and hats...

Today, we braved the Boxing Day sales, emerging with 32" of plasma goodness, to replace our ancient and slowly dying 21" tv. I love 60% off! We spent the afternoon constructing small daughter's new trampoline and unplugging and replugging endless wires, sockets, and sorting out various electronica, and now small daughter is in bed and we're watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on tv and discovering how much of the picture we've been missing all these years!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T16:52:00.000+13:00

And here we are again, Christmas Eve. The tree is lit, the presents are wrapped (with the exception of the book that arrived for small daughter from Amazon today, just in time!), the house is clean (well, the important bits, anyway), the food is organised, the Christmas Day diplomatic negotiations undertaken and resolved. I have managed to skewer myself in several places on my fingers cleaning the pot that my kitchen cacti live in, despite wearing a glove for the operation - the cactus in question has several million very tiny hair-like prickles that break off and stay in the skin, so my fingers feel like they have prickly heat...

Small daughter is currently playing with our beautiful white porcelain and gold nativity set, which she is very fond of. She is being very careful and gentle. The "stable" is ready and the shepherd, two sheep and ox are there. Mary, Joseph and the donkey "arrived" this morning - the three kings are still journeying around the living room and will probably arrive at the stable on St Stephen's Day as we tend to put our Christmas decorations away at Epiphany when they are supposed to arrive!

Tonight, we go to Wellington Cathedral for the Midnight Mass - they're singing Charpentier's Messe de Minuit which I don't think I've ever heard before. Looking forward to it. The Cathedral Choir is in very fine voice at present: I went to their Nine Lessons and Carols last Sunday evening (which was also recorded for tv on Christmas Day) and it was spine-tinglingly good. I'm hoping to get a copy of their latest CD soon.

The wind is also beginning to drop and the sun has come out - the first time we've seen it in a couple of weeks. The forecast is actually quite good for Christmas Day (I'll believe it when I see it - we haven't had good weather on Christmas Day for years!).

And that feeling that Christmas Eve always has, that still anticipation and excitement is beginning to show. I can feel it in myself. The Christ-child is coming: let us adore him!

Video link

2010-12-12T17:28:00.001+13:00

Here's the link to my solemn profession video.

Physicality

2010-12-08T22:00:00.000+13:00

In response to a Community meditation about eucharist as bread of life and contemplative pleasure.

I love the concept of "you are what you eat", thinking of the eucharist as the bread of life. The eucharist quite literally saved my sanity and my faith from the deep dark murky waters of the dark night of the soul many years ago. We are what we eat: we take God in through our physical senses, the taste of the bread (or wafer, or matsos, or whatever you use) and the wine, the smell of beeswax candles and (maybe) incense, holy oil, the feel of water. Each of our sacraments is thoroughly "embodied", completely connected with our physicality. The world God made is shot through with God's loving grace, God's fingerprints are everywhere. Sometimes it even seems to shine from the inside, as though God's light is sneaking through the spaces in the atoms...

I completely believe in contemplative pleasure. For me, it's often in the feel of wind on my skin - the cold, sleety winds of winter laden with horizontal rain, the warm, teasing equinox gales of spring, the soft gentle caress of the summer breeze, the fruity, rustling coloured winds of autumn. It's the feel of cold water in the middle of summer. The smell of baking bread - or baking anything, for that matter! It's the taste of fresh blue cod with pepper and hollandaise sauce. The feel of a raspberry balanced on my tongue, still warm from the canes, and the fresh sharp-sweet taste lingering down my throat.... The softness of my cat's fur as he snuggles up to me. The soft lips of my daughter as she kisses me goodnight. The feel of my husband's arms around me. All of these things are food for contemplation, and fruit of contemplation too.

God made us physical. We experience the world physically. Even in prayer, there is physicality - the sensation of warmth, of being held, sometimes of pressure or of being touched by God's secret hands. And because we're physical, contemplation has to embraced our embodied-ness too. The incarnation. God's body, warmed by the sun, blown on by the wind. Each thing to be given thanks for. Each human pleasure a reflection of the pleasure God takes in us.

Newsy and viewsy

2010-12-07T21:39:00.000+13:00

Just thinking it's been a while since there's been a newsy blog post, so, inspired by Sphenodon, here we go.

I'm currently back in Nelson (again - how many trips over here does that make this year?!) doing some more training, this time with a new-to-me forestry client. I like working with the forestry guys: they're very down to earth and they get safety, something to do with the interesting hazards they work with. Even managed to squeeze a discussion around radiation and non-destructive testing into a Reps course today - first time I've managed that!

Work is insanely busy for me right now: trying to finish work for existing clients, and new clients, and a whole project that only started Monday to be done by Christmas - and oh, by the way, I've only got 4 office days between now and Christmas.... not quite sure how that's going to go but I'm sure we'll make it somehow. Roll on summer holidays!

I'm also rather pleased that now Massey and the IGC are finished I've been able to put at least some of my attention into Christmas preparations. We're in my favourite season of the year: Advent, the time of preparation, of waiting, of getting ready. I love that we're also preparing for summer here in NZ: the weather has been absolutely amazingly beautiful for about the last month (tonight in Nelson is the first time I've seen rain in a month, and it's officially a drought in Northland and Otago), and to me it's the perfect preparation for the coming of the Light we welcome at Christmas: long, long days, sun, summer, beauty everywhere you look: the light of the sun and the Light of my days. Perfect. But I've also got some more practical things happening: the Christmas shopping has begun and is actually progressing rather well, thanks to a bolt of inspiration tonight in Nelson. And we put the Christmas tree and Advent wreath up on Sunday and so when I do evening prayers with our daughter we're lighting the candles and reflecting on hope and peace, the first two candles.

Not much time for much else to go on!

Suscipe me, Domine

2010-12-05T09:49:00.001+13:00

Tonight I made my final, solemn life profession as a Sister in the Community of Solitude.

In the sight of God and the face of this congregation, having left my previous community in goodwill and charity according to their provisions, and desiring to deepen my vocation by continuing to offer myself to God in the company of the Holy Angels, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Benedict, Saint Romuald, Saint Thérèse my patroness, and all the saints of God, I, ... known as Sister Therese, do consecrate myself to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ, to spend the rest of my life solemnly vowed in the service of God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church as a Solitary within the Community of Solitude. I voluntarily take the vows of Obedience to the will of God, Conversion of Life, and Stability to a life of Prayer as recognised in the Benedictine tradition of our Community, having discerned and recognised the implications of such vows. I accept the invitation to surrender to the privilege of Love in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

May God be my help and my guide.

Accept me, O Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live. Do not disappoint me in my hope.

It was a profound moment, lying on my face in front of the altar as a sign of my total surrender to God, and then being robed in the cuculla (the big black cloak of a professed Benedictine) was like a shout of joy. I have accepted God’s invitation and vowed myself to it: now I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what the ride is like!

We videoed the service, and here's the link. Thank you to all who have supported me, prayed for me, loved me into this place. I am who I am meant to be: a wife, a mother, a nun – all of those things in the eyes and sight of God.

May God be my help and my guide.

Solemn profession eve

2010-12-03T20:29:00.000+13:00

Well, tomorrow is my solemn profession in the Community of Solitude. I will make my life vows as a Benedictine, vows of Conversion of Life, Stability in my life of prayer, and Obedience.

This week has been crazy, with exams for the IGC on Monday, training two days, IGC practical exam this morning, and trying to fit a week's work into my one office day. In and around all of that, I have been very aware of my profession ceremony: finalising the liturgy, organising readers and organists, having final fittings for my cuculla (the big black "cloak" that a solemnly professed Benedictine wears in prayer and "in choir"), getting vows ready for signing tomorrow and so on. So many little things to organise.

But bigger than all of the small details is the knowledge that tomorrow I will finally make public vows to God that supersede the ones I made in 2003 as a Franciscan, vows for life. I will publicly declare the promises that I made privately to God at the age of 15, one sunny Sunday morning in the garden centre where I worked.

And I am so glad. I am finally feeling ready to do this. The cool breeze is coming through the front door after the heat of the day, and there is peace on it, peace in my heart, the knowledge that this is the right thing for me, here, now, in this place, in this Community. Deo gratias.

IGC exams

2010-11-29T22:27:00.000+13:00

Well, that's almost all over. Had the IGC exams today - management systems in the morning and then hazards in the afternoon, 4 hours all up. Now only the hazard ID exercise to do, probably on Friday morning, and then it's all done too.

Still waiting on Massey results....

My hand is sore!

Practice makes perfect (hopefully)

2010-11-27T22:57:00.000+13:00

I have spent most of this glorious sunny day inside with my books, studying for the exams on Monday. At least my washing got to enjoy the lovely warm weather as it waved around on the washing line; unfortunately I couldn't! Tonight I did another mock exam under exam conditions and hubby is going to play the grumpy NEBOSH examiner and mark my script for me (we were given a complete marking scheme for this exam).

I am now awaiting results, and nursing a very tired hand. Two hours solid writing under pressure is hard work....

Congratulations, you've been NEBOSH'd!

2010-11-26T20:12:00.000+13:00

After two rather busy weeks in the classroom, I have officially been NEBOSH'd: all I now I have to do is sit the two exams on Monday and complete the practical hazard assessment, and (providing I pass, of course) I will hold the International General Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health in addition to my Graduate Diploma in OSH (Massey - again, providing I've passed!).

I found it a good refresher of what I already knew from Massey. There were a couple of new things: I now know rather more about machinery guarding than I did, and I can now draw an independently-tied scaffold - and recognise when one is not legally compliant!

Where most of my issues have come were in interpretation: NEBOSH (the National Examinations Board in OSH - UK) have a particular way of phrasing questions, and of course because it's an international certificate, referring to NZ legislation is a bit pointless. We had to learn a lot of new terminology in order to swim in the world's seas rather than in NZ's little pond. I've had to get my head around the new terminology and ways of thinking, and learning how to answer a NEBOSH question (which is a bit of an art form). However, I've been doing well in the homework questions and the mock exam we did, so I'm reasonably confident. In fact, if I don't do well in this, I might as well hang up my consultant's hat right now!

I guess the difference for me is the level and speed. Massey has taken me 5 years, part time in my own time. This was 2 weeks in the classroom - but it was definitely not at the same level as the Massey Grad Dip and nor is it intended to be. I wasn't working as hard as I had to at Massey, but on the other hand there's less time to revise for the exams so I guess it call comes out even in the end!

Anyway, it's all nearly over. Come Monday night, I'll be happy... then I'll be able to turn my attention to my solemn profession next weekend!

Pike River

2010-11-24T23:00:00.001+13:00

The last few days have been incredibly difficult. I haven't been able to blog for a number of reasons, but tonight I have to.

On Friday there was a gas explosion at the Pike River Coal mine. Two miners were able to escape by some miracle, and one dragged the other over 800m up the 2.2km-long entrance shaft to the entrance to safety. 29 other miners were trapped.

New Zealand watched with horror and heartache as the rescuers tried to stabilise the situation enough to send in rescue teams: essentially it was one giant confined space entry, as the main shaft is 2.2km long, and about 3km underground. The main shaft then opens out into a network of tunnels that pierce over 3km into the side of the hill. It's really remote country on the West Coast and access is very difficult. They couldn't get good gas readings (my suspicion is that the gas monitoring equipment built into the mine was damaged in the initial explosion), and using breathing apparatus wouldn't have worked either as rebreathers would have been out of the question due to the gases, and tanks wouldn't last long enough. They were drilling down to get other readings and try to get a team in today (6 days later).

When the probe got in today they found that it was very hot and that there was a huge amount of methane in there, suggesting that the coal seam may be on fire. Then this afternoon, there was a second explosion, and the announcement was made that it was not survivable. All of the 29 missing men were presumed dead.

One of my friends/safety colleagues is the safety manager at Pike River. His oldest son was the hero who dragged out the other man, but unfortunately his younger son was also in there and is now dead. It is so awful. 29 men, 29 families and their friends, torn apart. A community smashed up. A country grieving. Almost everyone knows someone who knows someone - NZ isn't that big.

It's doubly awful as a safety professional as this is the kind of thing that I'm trained to try to prevent, and now of course we have to ask the difficult questions about why it happened. But right now, I'm dealing with the pain, the grief, and the hurt of my friends. I can only take it to where I always take it. 'As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for your rod and your staff, they comfort me.' May God be their comfort.

European Masters

2010-11-21T21:52:00.003+13:00

Yesterday was an interesting day. We went to the European Masters exhibition at Te Papa: 96 paintings from the Stadel Museum, mostly German artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, but some earlier stuff too. Favourites: the little Monet, Houses on the Banks of the River Zahn, the Renoirs (including After the Luncheon, wow this was lovely)

Renoir: After the Luncheon

The Degas (Orchestra Musicians):

Degas: Orchestra Musicians

And a most stunning Dahl, The Eruption of Mt Vesuvius in December 1820.

Dahl: Eruption of Mt Vesuvius December 1820

The one that completely captivated me was Carl Lessing Die tausendjährige Eiche (The thousand-year-old oak) 1837 - unfortunately I can't find a picture of this.

And I saw my first Picasso.

I liked the exhibition and some of the paintings were stunning. However, I did learn something about me, or rather had it confirmed. I like landscapes, I liked some of the neoclassical work, but I didn't really like the modernists. I have to admit that I was not impressed by the Picasso. I couldn't get what it was trying to say.

I liked the representative things more, and the Lessing was stunning. I kept going back to it. The thing was huge and the detail was incredible. It had this little twisty river heading into a gap between rocks and I really want to go and exlore that space. If ever I've wanted to do an Alice Through the Lookinglass with a painting, it was the Lessing - and Constable's Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds, of course.

NEBOSH'd - or not

2010-11-10T22:11:00.000+13:00

So here I am, having finished Day 3 of Week 1 of the International General Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health (the IGC), as I mentioned I would be doing. Thoughts so far? This is the "management week" and so far there have been no surprises. The homework has not been terribly demanding: I have read over the notes from the day's work and done the questions requested. I have also gone back and thought through things that weren't clear. Today's work was around H&S representatives and training. This is an area I am completely comfortable with - I train H&S reps! - and I did one of my Massey papers on Human Resource Development (what makes a good training programme, how to tailor it to your audience, good and bad elements of different styles of delivery etc). My colleague told some good stories but there was nothing new in there for me.

I suspect that the kicker for me will come when we hit Week 2: some of the hazards we will deal with are ones I'm less familiar with (eg radiation) so I'm looking forward to looking at these from a practical point of view.

Sitting in a classroom all day for a whole week is pretty rough - not used to this! I'm usually on the other side of the desk and so sitting down all that time is a bit tough on the anatomy, but today we finished a bit early so small daughter and I went for a long walk when I got home (yay for warm days with lovely long evenings!). We went up to the old cemetary not far from our place and walked around: no small feat for her as it's on the side of a hill and parts of it are quite precipitous, and good exercise for me to stretch out those calf muscles that were getting a bit tight from sitting.

More to come on this front, I think!

Religious Life Advisory Group meeting

2010-11-07T21:04:00.002+13:00

This past weekend I’ve been attending the Religious Life Advisory Group meeting in Hamilton. The group is hosted by Archbishop David Moxon, who besides being the Primate of New Zealand, is also the Liaison Bishop for Anglican Religious. Present were Bishop Victoria Matthews (Bishop of Christchurch), and representatives from the Community of the Sacred Name (Christchurch), Sisters of the Love of God (Hokianga), Third Order Society of St Francis (dispersed), Urban Vision (Wellington), Society of St Francis First Order brothers (Hamilton), a Benedictine oblate who is also a member of a small group of retreat masters, and Associates of the Holy Cross, as well as me representing the Community of Solitude.

Bishop Victoria led a retreat in the Saturday morning and she asked some very interesting questions:

What identifies Jesus as Lord and Messiah for me?
What makes Jesus’ identity secure?
What makes my identity as a disciple and minister of Christ secure?
What anomalies have I decided don’t matter so my identity is secure?

Once we’d meditated on those questions for a while, she asked some more:

How do we invite interruptions to change us?
Where do interruptions bring us closer to the breaking in of the Kingdom of God?

She talked about the “rooted life” rather than the balanced life (Benedictines like talking about balance), rooted in prayer, study, and adoration of God, that allows grace to break into conversation, and forming a space where we can live so we can accept interruptions with grace.

Once we’d had midday prayer and lunch, we launched into the meeting proper, chaired by Archbishop David. Each representative shared some of the joys and challenges of religious life as it is lived by their community, and the sharing was not perfunctory. There was deep sharing, laughter, tears, and storytelling in the most graced sense of the word.

Some highlights for me:

Getting to know some of the other religious orders in New Zealand, and meeting some of their leaders
Getting to know two bishops in a very relaxed environment!
Sharing prayer with everyone

We finished yesterday with evening prayer, a glass of wine, and dinner. We also had a chance to look at the chapel at Te Ara Hou (which is where we were staying), which had been set up by the Romanian Orthodox congregation that use it on Sunday mornings. It was glistening with icons, shimmering with candles and by this afternoon it would have been oozing incense as well.

Today, we shared communion (led by Br Brian SSF), and picked up some of the key issues that we had tagged from yesterday’s sharing, and batted around some ideas on how to work them through. A number of them centred around communication of our work, vision, and vocation to the wider Anglican Church in NZ. We finished with midday prayer, and then Archbishop David did a very lovely thing. Two of the members are having surgery this week, and he asked them if they would be happy to be anointed during the midday prayer – it was the most beautiful, gracious, gentle anointing I have ever seen. There was a very strong sense of God’s healing presence there as he laid hands on them, prayed for them, and anointed them with the holy oil.