Coincidences.

Psalm 104, especially vv.15,18,19,23,26

I've just got a new camera - it cost about £50, and I can't even remember what kind it is - a Canon something or other, small, black.... and it does all kinds of things that I will probably never use, such as detect when the subject is smiling and click all by itself when this happens. Honestly! But when set on 'auto' it will decide when a subject is a close-up or not, and focus all by itself, so this is great for working quickly, which I am usually wanting to do. In the old days I was a big fan of my Olympus OM1 SLR, over which I had total control - everything could be set up manually, so what you saw was what you got, and there was no 'the camera does it for you' aspect. It did a really big, loud click too, which all added to the experience. It lies gathering dust somewhere, in a kind of forgotten shrine.

The new one will be put through its paces on the bridge soon, but just now here is a close-up it did all by itself of my latest bit of work, which might be the best work I have ever done, of Psalm 104.

Person 2

Coincidence 1. My next task is to apply myself to Psalm 133. There are great coincidences in life, and it happens that our 3 sons recently arranged a great little holiday for us all in the Peak District, and it was so good to be all together under one roof, and provided me with just the feeling I needed to start to think about the psalm. I did one of those thought-experiments they do to kick off conferences and break the ice and said to t'owd man, 'If the boys were the Trinity, which Person would they each be?' and we agreed exactly on what the answers would be! I'm ridiculously proud of the boys, even though they were so easy to make (we were very lucky in this respect).

Persons 1 & 3

Coincidence 2. Other recent coincidences have been sinking into a bath with the Church Times to read, and into the water plopped a leaflet about the lack of water in Kenya, and how the charity Practical Action hopes to help by the application of some very simple technology requiring nothing fancy to do it. http://practicalaction.org/smoke/kenya 

Coincidence 3. Then on the Sunday when we celebrated my birthday with a glass of champagne, a local teenaged out-of-work lad knocked at the door and asked if we had a bike he could have. We didn't, but that evening I had a request put out at evensong, and within 3 days, the lad was fixed up with a mountain bike. I was pleased that the church could step in like this; practical action of a kind. (Next week I'm going to see if they can do the same with a pogo-stick for me.) But the idea of a teenaged lad without a bike.... awful. What a world we live in. As he stood in our hallway there were the new rucksacks that t'owd man and I have just got, and I'm saying we had nothing for him, and I felt ashamed at the big gap between what we and our boys have, and what he had.

Cloth Q

Psalm 133 - it's all about trickle down, but not the Thatcherite kind, far from it, quite the reverse I think, but I don't mean trickle up. Everything wants to gleam and glisten. Trickle round, up, down, all over the place. It starts with dew, then I think goes on to rivulets, torrents. The oil too. So I have to get on and find all the shiny threads in the right colours, and something to look like oily hair. I got some years ago when I made the doll that is Cloth Q, and this will do fine.

Here's Cloth Q. I'm not sure he is a morning person; all that going on about work, I think he's trying to persuade himself to get going, like I do. He looks a bit shocked by the flash I used on him. You'll be telling me there is nothing about windsurfing in Qoheleth; I beg to differ.

Onwards....