30 Second Reflection - Out of the Box!

'To think outside of the box you must be outside of the box.'

- Alfreda Doyle, Poetry about Creativity

30 Second Reflection - the Gift of Creativity

'We are ourselves creations. We are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves. This is the God-force extending itself through us. Creativity is God's gift to us. Using creativity is our gift back to God.'

- Julia Cameron, Heart Steps

30 Second Reflection - Creativity and Bravery

'The creative process is also the most terrifying part because you don't know exactly what's going to happen or where it is going to lead. You don't know what new dangers and challenges you'll find. It takes an enormous amount of internal security to begin with the spirit of adventure, discovery, and creativity. Without doubt, you have to leave the comfort zone of base camp and confront an entirely new and unknown wilderness.'

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Vicar's Sofa - Faith for the Faint-hearted

I seem to have found myself in a rather difficult business. What I'm selling, a lot of people just ain't buyin' and I spend an awful lot of time wondering why that is so. Perhaps it is just out of fashion. There are a million and one things to do on a Sunday not to mention the sweet temptation of a lie in with the Sunday papers so why on earth would people go to church?

Perhaps it is the church itself, old fashioned, not for the young, stuck in the past as if we are all still in the 1950s frolicking about the green and pleasant land humming 'Jerusalem' to ourselves. Perhaps God really is dead and we have all moved on to more rational views of the world. That faith is just pie in the sky when you die and we are done with that, thanks very much.

But then moments happen to me like this week as I walked home from work. Someone stopped me, said he had never been into the church but he needed a prayer. More than that, he needed God. Some guidance...or something. And this happens all the time these searching people who do a double take when they see me in a collar or cross the road to ask me a question.

And then I have my own story, the reason that I am wearing a collar in the first place to be sopped in the street. That overwhelming experience that took me from agreeing with all of the above to being not just in church but at the front leading the flippin' thing.

I routinely find myself wondering what on earth I am doing. I haven't lost my desire for a lie in. I haven't become immune to some of the truly naff bits of church. But I have found something, under all that, that has given me life. There isn't really any other way to put it than that. It is like my spiritual heart has started beating, loud and true, right in the centre of me and it is giving life to every part of who I am.

And sometimes I wonder if the naffness and the difficulty and the plain obscurity of a lot of what the church does is part of the problem. The church has thousands of years of tradition and history and my goodness that is truly a wellspring of life if you dig down into it. It is riches beyond measure.

But it means that this is a great hulking ship that takes a long time to turn. Our society is moving on at the rate of knots and the church, quite frankly, is not keeping up. What scares me, deep down, is that people might be missing out on this joyful and life giving spiritual life that I know Christianity has to offer not because they don't want it but simple because the church is failing to explain itself in words that people can understand.

So that's why I want to write a new series for this blog. To do a bit of decoding, a spot of translation, to offer you something of what have been transformatory for me in my own words. And then, well, you can take or leave it. It is yours to reject or cherish. But if you are one of those people wondering about life, the universe and everything, well, I hope you will find something for the way.

30 Second Reflection - Potential

'Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.'

 

- Michelangelo

 

 

 



30 Second Reflection - Creativity

'Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.'

- Ericc Fromm

 

 



Vicar's Craft Corner - Sewing Table Revamp!

When we moved into our new house I naturally quickly claimed the second reception room as a Sewing Room. We have an old fold down table that was now a bit too small for our dinning room which makes a perfect cutting table and my little rolling sewing storage unit fits perfectly in one of the many nooks and crannies of our oddly shaped little house.

Just as I had everything pretty much sorted a new surprise emerged, the gift of a whole load of lovely sewing stuff from a very generous lady in church who couldn't make use of it any more. This included a sewing machine (a Bernina no less!), an overlocker and a whole load of threads, patterns and needles as well as a brand new sewing table.

 

 

Suddenly the possibilities of the sewing room were rather exciting all over again. A pot of eau de nil Laura Ashley eggshell and a couple of hours with a paintbrush and suddenly I had a new addition to the sewing room which now gives me a cutting table and sewing table in my little den.

 

Masking tape the handles, the key to a clean finish

 

I just can't help myself when it comes to wooden furniture, I am just itching to get at it with a paintbrush. It does mean, though, that any new additions blend nicely in with what I already have because I can change the colour to fit in with what is there. This, after all, has to be better than it ending up in the skip because it isn't the colour that is in fashion for homewares right now. And the range of colours available to paint furniture seems to be getting larger by the day so the options really are greater than ever.

 

 

For the board at the back I just bought a cheap pin board and pinned a piece of fabric I picked up in a Vintage shop to the board using white ribbon as a border and to make the pockets to hold handy bits and pieces.

 

The lamp is an ebay purchase and the little desk tidy and pen pot are from WH Smiths. The letter organiser is perfect for keeping my patterns so that I can see what I've got. I used a storage basket from H&M under the desk for all my large bits of fabric and the floral basket was another charity shop find that I use to store wool.

 

 

The next investment I am hoping to make is a dressmakers dummy, naturally covered in some lovely fabric. Now to get down to some hard graft needed to make progress in my dressmaking course. It's just all that bit easier in a gorgeous space though right?!