Be Prepared

 

Here we are with part two, gazing once again at sleek and shiny machines. Mercedes Benz World is located in Surrey, England. Here you can learn how cars work, take advanced driving courses, or just have a go in a fast car. You can even step inside a grounded Concorde and look around.

Because I am housebound, Amanda holds the keys to the family car. That’s her in the red jacket. I haven’t been able to drive since I became disabled, and I miss it a lot. During the work and school runs, every red light was an opportunity for a silent prayer. Every long traffic jam, a chance to catch up on some reading. Phone calls were private, and I always got to choose the music that best suited my mood – bonus.

When I was a boy scout, a very long time ago, I was told a story about a boy who took the trouble to ask himself how he might respond if he should witness an accident. It happened that one day, when he was riding in a bus, it crashed, and although he wasn’t hurt, many elderly passengers were. It was he who ran immediately to the nearest telephone, and called 999. He then administered first aid to the injured passengers – using shirts for bandages, and neckties for slings, etc. He worked until the emergency services arrived. Tributes aside, I feel that this boy’s greatest reward was in the satisfaction of knowing that he had successfully marshalled an effective, and well prepared response to the emergency.

In my job, I worked with injured and disabled people every day. I met many good folk whose active lives had come to an abrupt end. And, as I mentioned some time back, I grew up with a severely disabled brother, (who is coming to see me later today to celebrate my 66th). Therefore, and not that I don’t complain aplenty, I do endeavour to face my own trials perhaps more stoically than I otherwise might have.

Ok, I hope you enjoyed our two parter, and that you are also enjoying things in general. The world may be a sad place today, but nothing lasts forever. ‘For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave’ – and universal balance will return. We know this because circumstances have called us to stand firmly in the light of humanity’s highest values. The darker the shadow, the brighter the light. Those who know that heaven is real, can love their way across the battlefield, and then we, as one family together will light up the skies of dawn.

I think I’ve written enough for now. Thank you to all who read, follow, and comment. I hope to return soon. Until then, peace from Amras.

Do not place treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moths and corrosion disfigure and where thieves break in and steal. But place treasures for yourselves in Heaven, where neither moths nor corrosion disfigure and where thieves neither break in nor steal. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also.

Matthew 6 – 19

 

Photography ©Amanda Moloney.

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At All Times

Greetings from Amras. Today we are trying out a new background, while departing temporarily from our usual depictions of green, and living things. Instead we want to focus on shiny horseless carriages – with a trip down London way.

Our son treated Amanda to a day spent gazing at new, and historic cars. They visited Mercedes Benz World, which is a great place for a family day out. He ushered his mother from one car to another, at all times uttering quips. That’s him in the last pic, sampling something expensive. Please enjoy, there will be another, slightly longer post to follow.

Until then, as far as possible, strive to be at peace in all circumstances.

But who of you, while taking pains, is able to add a foot and a half to his stature?

Matthew 6 – 27

Photography ©Amanda Moloney.

Green, Red, and Gold

Greetings. Autumn’s finest, as viewed in various corners of our garden throughout October. With leaves so red beneath a sky so rarely this blue of late, what a blessing it is indeed to enjoy the garden on a sunny day. And although it’s becoming bitterly cold at times, well, there’s always Christmas to look forward to.

When the sun still shines in our hearts, on even the darkest of days, then we can always see the road ahead. The sun never shines in anger, or in judgement. It never shines for one, and not the other. It harms none but those who aren’t prepared.

The poet Charles Causely wrote “I am the great sun, but you do not see me”. May we never be so blind – because the sun is an example of the ways of heaven.

I will just insert a note here, to say that I am having technical difficulties when attempting to like some of my favourite blogs. I find great value in all of your works, and always wish to show my appreciation by liking. So please accept my apologies.

Having said that, I hope you enjoyed the pics – and now it’s Namaste, and peace from me.

 

  In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church
where I kneel.

Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.

Is there not a region of Love, where the Sovereignty is illuminated nothing,

Where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost,

Where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body?

In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church
that dissolves, that dissolves in God.

Rabia of Basra (c.717-801)

 

 

Photography ©Francis Moloney.

Turn Off – Tune Out.

Namaste to all our readers, we return with pics taken this time somewhere in the English Midlands. These calm waters lie within the boundaries of the city. Defended by riparian trees. So calm and beautiful, yet close to industrial estates. A space perhaps coveted by uncaring developers, but a safe place to turn off, and tune out, (if not to drop in as well.)

Some working folk come here to fish, and enjoy the tranquility, and sheer contrast away from the fumes and concrete close-by.

For those inclined, this oasis can mirror the state of inner stillness, and reflect the potential of the mind to reveal its true nature – which is clarity.  Inner stillness grants clarity, silences the world’s all-encompassing cacophony, and is our victory. If this part of us is not worth defending with firm personal boundaries, then nothing is.

May you hold firm your sacred boundaries, and swim daily in the cooling stillness of the borderless lake.

Peace from Amras.

When a long train of abuses and usurpations, all pursuing invariably the same destructive goals, threaten the very fabric of organic life and the serene harmony of the planet, it is the right, it is the organic duty to drop out of such morbid covenants and to evolve new loving social structures. ~ Dr. Timothy Leary.

 

Photography ©Amanda Moloney.

Jiggery Pokery

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Greetings once again, to one and all. Here are the images that my friend, Chris sent to me from his communications tablet, while staying in New York City. The pics, though small, pack a pleasing visual punch, quite reminiscent of Shorpy photos, I think. I enjoyed too his tales from the streets, and from the bars that he visited. He clearly had a great time; especially considering he was there to work.

Chris and I have been friends since 1969. We have played in the same bands, achieved Black Belts, camped in the wilds, and climbed mountains together. We have also helped each other to get through tricky times. So I am delighted to feature his photography. And I am also a little bit surprised, because once long ago, he declared that photography was a branch of ‘jiggery pokery’. “A Black Art” he opined, though to be fair, he wasn’t being in the least bit serious.

As for me, I have just endured my final visit to hospital for this year, and I need a few days more to recover from the aftermath of all that has just passed. But for now, I am grateful to be back with my friends on WP. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed Chris’s pics; and, thanks to the prayers and good wishes which I have received, I hope to be back again very soon.

 

Peace, and Namaste, from Amras.

 

In order to be sane and adjusted as a human being, 

an individual must realise that he cannot know all there is to know.

It is not enough to understand this limitation intellectually;

the understanding must be an orderly and conditioned process, ‘unconscious’ as well as ‘conscious’.

Such a conditioning is essential to the balanced pursuit of

knowledge of the nature of matter and life.

A.E. van Vogt.

 

 

Photography ©Christopher Hammond.

 

 

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