Thoughts from the sky.


When you're flying from London to Nairobi you can watch a random film, pretend to sleep, eat chocolate that's gone soft in your bag…..and reflect on all things great and small.


Journal entry 8/9/13- JB:

‘In a gentle way, you can shake the world’ – Gandhi


I’m just wondering, did this gentle radical always see himself as a shaker’n’ mover or was there a time in his life when he felt like a plain old grain of sand on the beach of life? How did Gandhi grow himself into a tiny-giant? How did he discover the power of gentleness and the mighty strength of non-violence?


‘Blessed are the peace-makers’, Jesus said…. Blessed are those who don’t give in to their desire to force their opinions on others in an aggressive way. Blessed are the gracious and humble and those who know how to keep the other person held in mind, in any and every situation. Blessed are those who ‘shake’ the earth with passionate, radical thinking, underpinned with love and kindness.


The cocky, aggressive, bulldozer does not benefit the world; no mention of them ‘inheriting the earth’! The angry heart is not offered a blessing, for anger is too easy an emotion. It comes like an indulgent flood. Anger is not pretty; nothing blooms in its soil.


A world that is shaken by anger is left a desolate place. We are made to focus on the voice(s) behind the anger and not the reason for the rage.


It’s a tough ask to keep cool and react with gentleness when your very bones are yelling out for justice and there’s a burning desire to be heard and understood (sheeeesh, I certainly recognize that in myself….)


Gentleness is not weakness. It is so important not to confuse the two. The quiet, gentle individual has the power to rock the universe, says Gandhi.


We have just started reading QUIET - The Power of the Introvert in a World that can’t stop talking, by Susan Cain. It already looks like it’s going to be a fascinating read. Check her out on TED talks and Youtube, talking about the power of the Introvert (by the way, one third of us are classified as introverts, living in a world that really would like us to shape-up and get loud)

All my life I’ve battled with a shy sense of self, but after reading Susan’s book I can see myself investing in a spot of mindset change. I could be ‘coming out’ as an official Introvert, ready to step up to do her small bit to shake the world.


Let’s shake it together…with gentleness! x

View from our new back garden

From the pen of Trevor

A “prayer”

When I breathe

                  deeply

I long for the lungs

             of my soul to be

filled

       stretched out

                 to the fullness of

their potential capacity.

I long that if God is

                  breathing

that His mercy will be

        His opening of my mouth

and that He will breathe

          the kiss of Life

into every seen

                and hidden part of me.

That today I will draw

                 off of this new

                       deepest in-breath

to breathe out into my day

             new ripples of

Inspiration

         Compassion

                    Gentleness

                            Insightful wisdom

                    Courage

           Vision

and yet more Courage.

May today be a mystery

                 full of all I know

                               and can be

and yet woven

           through with the

silent, gentle, enticing

                              mystery

of a life that

          is somehow

                     bigger than me.

Jane at our home for the autumn