BREATH OF LIFE

photo : Ann Phillipson

KEEPING YOUR CRAYONS

RAINBOW WARRIOR

“Daddy, I want to colour!” These are the first words out of my daughter’s mouth every day when she dashes in our front door after playschool.

I can tell she has something in her mind that needs to get on paper. She doesn’t have time to take off her jacket or sit down, or even go to the bathroom.
Watching my daughter, I have come to believe that my college psychology teacher was wrong. The fundamental human drive – what it is that we most want to do and need to do – is not to have sex, nor to have power. It is to create. That’s what “soul” is.

That’s what makes us human.
To create is to be happy.

The only unhappy ones among us are those who lost their crayons somewhere along the way.

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Tim Keiderling

PRAYER FOR JAPAN

Last March 11 th, at 2.46pm (JST) a massive earthquake of magnitude 8.9 hit the Pacific Ocean near to Norteastern Japan causing a huge tsunami that rolled into that country with devastating consequences. Whole cities were wiped off the map with huge loss of life and Japans nuclear power plants at Fukushima have been badly damaged with the ongoing danger of meltdown and the potential release of high volumes of radiation. The situation is so overwhelming and the immediacy of the rolling news coverage is so graphic that it is easy to be numbed into inaction by the sheer scale of the horror. Fr those of us who profess belief in a God of love there are challenges in the scale of the human suffering and misery unleashed by these events and there is the absolute necessity to get on our knees before the Lord and pray for the stricken people of Japan. Of course our words must be tempered by our actions and we should help in any way we can in the enormous task of recovery.~GOSh~

GOD SAVE THE PEOPLE

Almighty God, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, come to the help of the people of Japan and deliver them from this difficulty that besets their nation..

I believe, Lord, that all trials of life are under your care and that all things work for the good to those who love You. Even in this dark hour of hopelessness may your light shine and your love move amongst those who have lost everything.

Take away fear, anxiety and distress. Help those afflicted to face and endure their difficulty with faith, courage and wisdom. Grant that this trial may bring people closer to You, for You are a rock and refuge, a comfort and hope, a delight and joy.

I trust in Your love and compassion for those ravaged by the tsunami and fearful of the radiation fallout. And Lord may we who view these terrible events be moved to practical acts of compassion so that your name will be honoured and glorified throughout the earth. Blessed is Your name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

FOR THE JOURNEY

A STILL SOUL

May you have a still soul that
goes murmurless like water
in the deep of rivers;

And perchance you wander
silent amid the din of the world's
grinding barter like one journeying
in strange lands.

You, too, with the still soul,
have your mission, for beneath the dashing,
noisy waves must ever run the silent waters
that give the tide its course.

Max Ehrman