I enjoy watching people’s faces. Before you go and haul me before the local magistrate of common decency, hear me out. People watching, right? We all do it, we all enjoy it. Some more surreptitiously than others. And so when I’m out on a walk and seeing so many walk past me from the other direction…of course I let my glance brush their faces. I’m not prying into their innermost thoughts, though that is what fascinates me so. What are they thinking? What are they pondering? What images kaleidoscope within their minds? For just as my thoughts race to and fro in the frantic tossing of the neurons of my brain, all the people that pass surely have lives just as full and varied and yes even scary as my own. Hence I wonder…how many grocery lists tumble? How many blushing daydreams of crushes blossom? How many replays of cringe moments blare forth? I smile to myself as I think thus and then wonder – how will they interpret such? For yes, surely some of their glances touch me. I fear to live in a place where all fear to look at the face of another, to inhabit a society in which only a cold screen can truly receive our full blooded gaze. I wish to express just a bit of joy that we live in a moment where we all – me and that jogger over there and that mom and stroller ahead of me and that singing biker behind me – walk this small patch of vibrant growing singing earth. (Well perhaps the earth is paved over just here, but you get the point) I smile knowing that I walk with fellow men and women and little children that are souls as full formed and image bearing as myself. It is a wondrous thing to let myself ponder. So yes, next time you’re out and about and surrounded by people? Give it a whirl, watch some people. Don’t be creepy about it. Just be a person. And while you’re at it, say a prayer.
Tag: musings
the Table is quite Well Laid she Remarks quietly
What does one say on a Sunday afternoon when the light fades and it feels that all that can be said has been said? Surely that is untrue, yet sometimes imagination runs away and decides to play in a sandbox in a different place and I am left forlorn and abandoned, unsure of what is true. But perhaps the thought should simply make me dig in towards the center and look for this other place, that land for which my imagination yearns. If I am left alone, perhaps I am not in a position of authority to state that this land which I call my home is in fact the homely house for which my soul desires. But really, my thoughts spiral in on themselves and would collapse if it were not for the green and flowering arrow of reality that pulls my thoughts tight around it and points me towards that higher altar of light blessed truth. And so I turn once more my head and gaze upwards and slightly to the west.
Wind roars Over the Highlands now
Hey all – happy Friday! I realise this is an odd time for me to post an update. But you won’t be surprised when I say where I’m writing this from…Starbucks! I’m meeting someone in about half an hour and this Starbucks is a very convenient place to wait at…so I simply couldn’t resist. Something else I just couldn’t resist was a hot chocolate. Even though it is approximately 90 degrees outside. I don’t care. It is creamy and chocolaty and delicious. And now it is mine.
In other news…I have been thinking about how I really am not a fan of the proliferation and prominence of social media these days. There are definitely some positive uses of online social spaces, but as I gaze into the void that is social networks(whether it be the facebook, the twitter, the tumblr, the instagram, the snapchat, the etc, etc, etc….), it seems the main goal and purpose is to project yourself into that void and indeed, to promote the idealized image of yourself. Of course I can understand the allure of presenting yourself in the most flattering of surreal light…indeed, I’m not always happy with my “real” self either, nay – may it never be! But too often, these online forums are used as mechanisms for propping oneself up atop the bones of all others. Our arrogance and pride is such that every action we take in the hyper-glare of the net is taken with the end goal of self love above all. And that self love comes in so many different forms…depending on the user’s preferred image to project to the audience…world-weary ideologue, earth-loving naturalist, quirky free-loving spirit, hyper attention-seeking adventurer, sarcastic filter-shunning individualist. There is a space for all and for all there is space. And each user feels self-righteously good about who they are…except for those who don’t. For there are those that drown in the maelstrom of lies and deceit, yet they too long to achieve a modicum of normalcy and so they too strive to be known – even if it is only as a depressed soul. And my time is quickly spinning away. I will write more at a later day. But for now, it is fascinating and not at all surprising – we all long to be known. And so these new media? That is what we use them for – to project the song of ourselves to the world. And we consume the songs of all others and out of these songs we revel and we despair and we are desperately, exceedingly envious. Are we now entertained? Oh so superficial. Oh humanity. We dance and sing in the marketplace, fearing to look to the sky.
Meditating
There is a peace and quiet relaxation that comes with trusting God in all things. Too often we rush through life frantically scrabbling for control of our own destinies and fearing for our own future, but we need not do this! Just as Abraham was able to believe God in the promises God had made to Him, so should we. Seek the heavenly Father in all things, be continuously meditating on the glories of Christ and be reliant on the power given us through the Spirit and so live as a child of God. For such we are. Trust in the Lord and seek His face – long for Him above all else, and all will be well. For truly, we have a hope that is above all this world has to offer. Raise your eyes to the heavens and recall this higher hope we have. Let your mind feast upon the thought of living with God forever. Let your soul be blessed by the grace poured out to us by the Spirit through the ministry of the Word given to us. Ne’er be so distracted by this world that you forget the love of God. We are children of God. We are loved.
I am now chilling on my bed, feeling in the mood to write, but not sure what to write. Should I write a poem? Or a short story? Or a random musing? (Oh wait, that’s what I always write here) Or…what? Give me a prompt, someone! I need creativity, but it has fled from me. Oh muse, heed my call and return! Return on the wings of the moonrise and in the chariot of the sun…or else I will die from sporadic poetical random outbursts! Like this one.
..oh, I’m doomed.
Something Weird 