Gingerbread House

A lot of different things happened this Christmas. One of them was the creation of a gingerbread house to the highest standard of imagination, colour and sweetness. We have a very special friend who took it on herself to make it for our family this Christmas. We knew about it but we kept news about it as a surprise. It was fun to see their faces when they saw it.

A little angel holding a heart welcomes the traveller to the door. There is a lot of meaning in that heart. Barb has been recognising hearts in so many random shapes during this year that it has become well known. It is almost an expectation that Barb will find a heart each day... somewhere. Icing sugar makes very good snow drifts and the assortment of lollies make excellent decoration over the house. Oh Noddy, eat your heart out. This is a house that rivals yours.

Our present challenge is to widen the sharing of this gift. It is such a marvellous creation that we must pass it around. Importantly, they will help us consume it. This gingerbread house could feed an army of sweet-toothers. We used a long all-purpose serrated knife to find our way into the interior where we found it full of chocolate snacks. Where's that army!

Christmas at the Hut

A perfect day
the perfect way
to awake to
in yet another stay
at Gembrook

The sky is fine
the birds on time
to tap at the window
in vain expression
at Gembrook

We have no gifts
but for the moment
and the warmth
of the rising sun
at Gembrook

We must remember
the gift of love
and loss from God
the everpresent Spirit
at Gembrook

Drawing Nemo

Piper our grandchild, has shown a keen interest in drawing and has recently drawn the story of "Finding Nemo". This collection of pictures are a gift to us from her this Christmas. Those of us who know the story well will appreciate each drawing and what it means. We think that Piper, not yet five, has drawn magnificently and creatively. See for yourself.

Marlin, Coral, the eggs and the barracuda (underneath)

Nemo (on the stingray) was going on an adventure. But it wasn't an adventure that Marlin want him to go on, because it was the drop-off and the drop-off wasn't safe.

Nemo swam up to touch the bottom of the boat (above) and a diver caught him.

After losing the boat in the distance, Marlin chances across Dory.

Marlin and Dory meet Bruce the shark.

Meanwhile, Nemo is placed in an aquarium and meets Puff and Gill.

Dory is stung amongst the jellyfish tentacles.

Marlin and Dory are saved by the sea turtles and are carried on their backs.

A whale (in the distance) moves in and swallows both Marin and Dory.

Marlin and Nemo now united and spreading the word in the tuna fish net to all unite together to help free themselves and Dory.

(Addition to the story) The stingray helping Nemo and Marlin to get back home.

Marlin and Nemo talking to each other in their home, the sea anemone.

(A conclusion deviation) The barracuda ate all the eggs, but not Nemo, and Coral escaped because she was so quick, and this his her swimming back.

Soon there were two more babies in the family!

Nativity Story

Let us pause to reflect on this ancient story. It has been told to us so often that we can become indifferent to its deep meaning and significance.

Let us begin with a teenager named Mary and a carpenter named Joseph. An angel had told Mary that she would conceive miraculously and bear the saviour of the world. In response, she allowed God to do this because even at her young age she desired action from God for the sake of this fallen and corrupt world about her. She was indeed waiting like so many faithful people, waiting for God to turn the world upside down. She was in a pre-marriage contract with Joseph, so when he was told of her pregnancy he thought she had been with another bloke. An angel appeared this time to Joseph in a dream to convince him to believe her story and marry her.

This happened to be the time when the Roman Caesar called for a census of the empire. Every man and his family had to return to the place of his birth to be counted, so Joseph took his wife, then in the late stages of pregnancy, to Bethlehem, hundreds of miles to the south. At Bethlehem they found living space almost non-existent because of the so many travellers had come in for the census. It was in the stable of one of the places there that Mary gave birth to her son and they named him Jesus as directed by the angel.

Shepherds were the group that God announced the birth to. They were keeping watch over sheep that were likely destined for sacrifice at the temple, not far from them in Jerusalem. God wanted to tell them about the birth of the lamb that will take away the sins of the world. They were an appropriate group to be notified and God's host of angels made a great impression on them.

Far away in the east, a totally unrelated group of people had noted a travelling star that indicated the birth of a great king. In faith they set out to find the young prince. After many years of travel and causing a flap amongst the authorities in Jerusalem upon arriving, they were further led by the star to Bethlehem itself. It was there that they found the boy with his mother. Their gifts turned out to be gold, frankincense and myrrh – gold fit for a king, frankincense for priestly use, and myrrh for anointing a dead body for burial. Each gift had a meaning that one had to ponder over.

Afterward, the wise men went a different way home and Joseph was clued up, in yet another dream, to quickly leave Bethlehem with his family. The authorities in Jerusalem were stirred up enough to attempt to stop the predictions and extinguish the life of the prince. Joseph's family slipped away to Egypt, the gold helping pay for a passage by sea to Alexandria.

We enacted this story during a Sunday worship time at Gembrook Retreat, utilising the fine outdoor setting.

The Eagle Has Landed

After just three grueling days on the road from Melbourne, Mon arrived in Atherton. His drive from Canberra onward took a turn for the unlikely. When he found the planned motel stop would not respond to his knocking, he just kept on driving till daybreak. That was somewhere south of Rockhampton. There he slept in a airconditioned cabin all day and started again to drive through the night.

So at 7 o'clock the next morning, Peter saw him at the door. He and Peter brought breakfast up to their mum and dad, and did they get a surprise. In hindsight, Peter realised that their mum's heart was not at its best and the surprise might have stopped it. But all went well and the renuion was super.

Mon old Nimbus carried a load of stuff. Every square cm was accounted for. Peter's mum is sure that there were angels holding that car together the whole way. Absolutely.

Air Ambulance

Peter's brother Phil and Shellie, Harley and friend Daniel showed up to say good-bye to Peter who has now got only a few days left in Atherton. Mon is soon to return and resume as carer. At the same time, a government hellicopter brought in a patient to the Atherton Hospital. When it lands and takes off it churns up a storm of leaves for the gutterings of all the nearby dwellings. Phil and Shellie decided to wait till it took off before leaving themselves. Lots of other people stopped to watch the take off. Peter's little camera just was not good enough to focus and catch the thing as it sped off into the blue yonder. You get what you pay for. Oh for a SLR.

Seven Sisters Yungaburra

The road from Atherton to Yungaburra passes between seven volcanic cones or mounds. Further on past Yungaburra, are the two more well known crater lakes, Barrine and Eacham, so the whole area points to having been a volcanic hotspot some time ago. The volcanic mounds have been called the Seven Sisters even though Peter feels there is an eighth. Maybe it was decided it should be seven to be in keeping with the constallation Pleides and all the folk stories that go along with it.

Peter's mum has her hair washed in Yungaburra each week, so the Seven Sisters are seen and appreciated fairly often.

Angry Rain

It's raining. So what so special about that? Nothing. Who cares about rain when we have a government elected in good faith and after one year in power it is sitting on its fat arse concerning renewable energy, and our solar and wind energy technology is going offshore. That's crap.

Perceptive Faith

The words of an unknown Carthusian monk, first published sixty years ago.

From time to time God allows peace to well up from the spiritual depths of the soul and to pervade our sensitive nature, where it finds expression in sensible sweetness. But it is only felt at certain times because it is the habitual atmosphere of that secret part of ourselves that we call the summit of our soul. There is, as it were, a sudden up-spring which makes us conscious of it, because it then invades the more superficial parts of the soul, to which our gaze can penetrate more readily. Its presence in the depths of the soul is much more difficult to perceive, and to apprehend it calls for a faculty adapted to the purpose. This faculty we have, but we are not sufficiently accustomed to using it: it is faith. It is by faith that we perceive divine Truth, and in particular the presence and action of God within us; just as the eye perceives colour and form. Faith introduces us into another and higher world, that of God of which it is the light. Ask Jesus then, to make this wonderful light shine more and more in our hearts - this light which, little by little, becomes love, and which is the true life, the lumen vitae.

An Orrery

Peter's dad has a formidable project on his hands. It is a slow one too. It may take a year to complete since the parts are coming at a trickle pace because they are part of a magazine subscription. Though the marketing seems dodgy, the parts that come are real precision engineered brass and go together very well.

An orrery is a model solar system, usually clockwork, showing the relative positions of the planets in our solar system, but not in true scale both in size and distance from the sun. That would need a football field. Yet, the gearing is fascinating and the design remarkable both for what it is and for the way the marketers can supply a trickle of parts and still allow the machine to grow, using all the parts that come at one time.

These devices are named after the fourth Earl of Orrery, Charles Boyle (1676-1731), who in 1712 commissioned an artisan to copy an early clockmaker's version.

Peter's dad has reached earth's mechanism which has the extra gearing designed to move the moon in its own orbit about earth, hence the wide engraved brass piece in the picture to manage this additional rotation. Some of the grub threads are very hard for dad to screw in so Peter (or Mon) will help.

Recognised

On a rare excursion outside the unit, Peter's mum recognised a face she had not seen for eight years and before that possibily only at her sister's wedding.

"Are you Ray's sister?" Peter's mum said.

"Yes, and who are you?" said the surprised lady.

"I am Gloria's sister" (put another way: "I am Ray's sister-in-law").

Peter was not keeping up with it at the time but had the presence of mind to take a snap of them together.

Joan was her name and she was the baby sister of Peter's Uncle Ray. Peter never knew that his uncle was the only son in a family with four sisters. Joan shared that Ray called her his tennis racket. "Why?" Because when the children of the family were told by their mum that there was going to be something very special coming for Christmas, Ray naturally thougth it was going to be a new tennis racket. He was actually unimpressed that it was a baby. Ray was twelve and gung-ho for tennis at the time and never quite warmed to his new sister.

Joan was with her husband and only daughter and they came along presently. "This is Gloria's sister!" Joan exclaimed. Peter met them too. There is a surprise around the corner most days.

Gate of Heaven

In a mysterious way we are the house of God. We are God's church as we become willing servants. And within this house of God, there is found the gate of heaven, a stairway of exchange. This is another name for prayer. If we have truly opened our hearts, God will be in this place and we may only know it in hindesight. As we stop thinking about ourselves, we become truly open to the world (God in creation), to revelation (God in words) and to redemption (God in history).

There is mystery to prayer. Sometimes we cry out from the depths of our souls, and something miraculous happens. We may realise it only in hindesight. Thus, there can be no clear-cut formula to prayer. It is interesting that the Hebrew verb 'to pray' has a reflexive stem added to the verb 'to achieve a settlement'. This reflexive addition can give the sense of doing the mediation personally and points to prayer as intercession. Prayer is to think of the reality outside of ourselves.

Prayer ought to be more an act of listening than of speaking. We must ask what our God of the universe wants of us. What will we discover when we listen in the silence of our souls? We are here because God wants us to be. God is calling us into a transformed life. Prayer changes us. We reach a new awareness as we journey beyond ourselves.

We cry out to God to make peace in our world. For our part, this peace must grow from the ground up. Let us plant seeds of peace and make an effort to understand the other, hearing the anxieties and resentments of people on the other side. And let us give to God our own anxieties and resentments because the burden is greater than our human hearts can bear.

As the house of God, we are privileged to have available the gate of heaven, and through it God calls us into service. We uphold God's creation, we share God's word, and we live out lives that lead to God's redemption of life. This is a place like no other.

Royal Poinciana

This is a magnificant tree and there are a lot of them in Atherton. Just nearby Peter's parents place is a very good specimen, and on a recent fine day he took a few snaps of it for the blog.

The Poinciana is a native of Madagascar and it thrives in the Queensland tropics. Each year it blooms with bright red flowers for four to eight weeks.

The Poinciana provides broken shade so grass can grow right up to he base of the tree, underneath the house sized umbrella shaped canopy. It has no pests and is a favourite for shady outside living.

Out of Steam

This old train languishes in Atherton today. New life had been lovingly given to her in the 90's when many devoted volunteers pulled her apart piece by piece. They cleaned and reassembled her as good as new. They cleaned up the tracks from Atherton to Herberton and for a while ran a train service there and back. There just was not the interest generated to keep the effort viable and most trips ran at a loss. Coal, and fire wood supplements, were expensive for the hungry engine, but what was the final killer was stiff government regulations on track upkeep. Without the right standard maintained, insurance cover would be non-existant. So everything had to stop. That was about seven years ago.

It is sad because the rail trip from Atherton to Herberton is worth keeping as a heritage rail at least. The train has one tunnel to pass through. It was in this tunnel back in 1945 that George kissed Peter's mum so none could see. How romantic is that! We meet George 63 years later in the previous blog. They are still great friends.

School Reunion

Every year Peter's mum has an opportunity to join in with a class reunion. She is part of a couple of grades of children who did their sub-junior and junior years (today's grades nine and ten) in Herberton during the war years. Herberton is on the south western edge of the Atherton Tableland and was noted for its good schools. She boarded there at the Methodist hostel. Peter was particularly interested to meet George, his mum's boyfriend of these highschool years. The picture above is of George and his wife Lorna with Peter's mum and dad. Each year it becomes just a little bit harder to get to these reunions and those who make it are becoming fewer, but it was worth the effort. The day was cool with the occasional light shower. Nice.

Before they disbanded, the three eighty-year-olds posed for a photo: Max, Hazel and George. Hazel and George went to the Herberton School and were one year ahead of Peter's mum. In another year, almost all of the group will have passed eighty.

Death of a Cow

When a cow becomes a pet and lives for twenty years, it is inevitable that sometime along the line one would have the difficult task of seeing her demise.

Here is one such story just recently happened in the hot humidity of North Queensland. An old man now 82 has been raising a few head of cattle from the time Peter was just a boy. In those days, this man would take his children and Peter and his two brothers to the Boulders in the back of his truck. The Boulders is the classic, cold and wild swimming spot amongst the rocks, and the truck ride was part of the fun.

Just last week, one of his old cows fell into the creek and was stuck there. This fellow and his neighbours tried various methods to coax her out but to no avail. She lacked the wherewithall to move. They searched for her most recent calf, but it could not be found. They tried molasses since she was a molasses junkie, but even that did not work. The best they could do was prop the head out of the water so that the yabbies would stop nibbling at one of her bulging eyes.

On the third day, there was a terrible bellowing from all the other cattle. They had come to her as she lay in the creek. Their normal lowing had changed to a mournful and constant barrage of sound, one long forceful wake. Everyone about knew she had died.

When the old man came with his neighbours to the place, they found all the other cattle standing about her lifeless body. As soon as they saw the humans approaching, they stopped their bellowing . They were released from the Spirit that held them there, from their focus on her, and the wake ended abruptly. Two of the bulls hung about agressively, but the old man, only in his speedos and gumboots, shooed them away. These bulls, one mature and one still growing, were two of hers.

The way to the creek was completely overgrown, and fallen trees had not been removed since the destruction of the last cyclone. It took three more days for a path to be cut through for the tractor to reach her. By that stage, there was a very strong odor and he and his neighbours had to cope with this as they whinched her out.

The conclusion to this fairly gross saga was the great pyre prepared for her on a hill, some distance away from the creek. There the old queen of the jungle was lost amongst the ashes.

Tropical Rain

Greening the green
Wetting the wet
Cleansing the air
Answering prayer
..
Cooling homes
Clearing drains
Rincing sand
Refreshing the land
..
Splashing paths
Washing roads
Delaying the wash
Filling the trough

..
Simplifying lives
Quietening souls
Desolving resist
Returning the gift..

Wow, three inches this afternoon.

Shepherd Storytelling

There is a further story to tell about our Good Shepherd enactment from earlier this month. We left the golden box with the story props in it with our family at Gembrook. When we did, Peter first showed them how the story went. The four kids - Caleb, Piper, Miriam and Jasper all watched how it went and then had a go with the story themselves (not Jasper though). They then had another go and this time began to alter the story, like having the ordinary shepherd chase away the wolf and every sheep becoming lost!

And this story was offered to a Bible study group the following week. Bec sent an email describing what happened:

"Caleb used your props to tell the story at biblestudy last night - pretty good - everyone was listening. Then the kids made their own good places and shadowy places, and had a turn with the shepherd... That was interesting to watch too. So thanks againfor bringing it round, cos it's been really ace..."

We are realising just how much potential this Godly Play teaching method has with multi-generational groups. Fantastic stuff Caleb, and what a keen memory you have.

Bedroom Meals

There was a time not too long ago when no body was allowed to eat in the bedrooms. Necessity has altered this rule and Peter (camera eye), Mon, Mum, Dad and Phil shared a memorable and rare family lunch together in Mum and Dad's bedroom. It is becoming less and less common to see either of the oldies downstairs these days. Old age is taking its toll and we all have to adapt to our present conditions.

Peter has flown up to North Queensland again, this time for a slightly longer stay. His brother Mon had a real need to return to Melbourne to wind up his affairs there. When Mon returns, it will probably be for a very long time... like Atherton will be his home. Mon overlaped a full day with Peter in order to show the many details required to be a carer for both old parents. Peter was on a high learning curve. If he makes a mistake Ma and Pa (as they are known by our children) will forgivingly correct him.

Peter drove Mon to Cairns Airport and saw him off in the dropoff zone. My goodness Cairns is hot at the moment! Mon was off on his new adventure, the main part being emptying his unit in Melbourne and driving back with loads of stuff. May God give him travelling mercies.