For unto [us]...

We are not angels, but are pleased nonetheless to bring you good news of great joy. If you please, to the Hallelujah chorus:
For unto [my brother and his wife Megan] a child is born [around about November of this year...] Unto [them], a son [or daughter] is given... And the government shall be upon his [or her] shoulder[s] [though the mother will do her best to hold the reigns in the meantime...], and his [or her] name shall be called [a wonderful name, no doubt, yet to be finalised].

Congratulations Tim and Megan. We are most excited for you, and for us too! Thank you for ushering in this next stage in our family life. “Uncle Duncan” has a nice ring to it, I feel.

Recovering

I am not Homo Postmodernis. [I don't think anyone is, yet.] But with a growing sense of familiarity over recent months, from reading blogs and McLaren books, I am willing to stand up, grasp my 12-step plan, and say, “My name's duncan, and I'm a recovering modern..."

Last night, bronwyn and I went to ⁄forward slash, the tallskinnykiwi's latest offering being toured this year. For some of the people at my discussion table, it seemed they were really relating to the fact that andrew jones was describing the “kids” that they work with. For me, he was just describing me.

The thing itself was good. Just as interesting though was to talk for a short time to fellow kiwi andrew jones, as well as to jonny baker... With the obvious antipodean connection, andrew introduced us to a couple of friends of his who recently got married, (australian) maggie and (her husband) phouc-tan. There was a slightly surreal perspective shift about 20 seconds into the conversation as I realised I knew a little about their wedding previously—from andrew's blog. Blog people become real people. Distributed community becomes relationship. People (who are not bloggers) have said to me they worry that online communication is substituting for “real” face-to-face community. I think cyberspace warps real space to actually bring people together.

What did I graft into my thinking then?

• co-authorship is where it is at. A recent comment on this blog questioned, how many people read this blog? [Not many. Do I care? Well, probably a small slice of me does. May that slice shrink.] The thing is to write, and to have others engage. So I wish every single person who read things here would post meaningful thoughts in response... [and you define meaningful, not me.]
• layers. the emerging person doesn't say who they are now, they describe the layers of their history that build up who they are today. [Inscrutable ancient saying: your denominational history is like a layered Photoshop document with alpha channels.]
• rest is maybe now more attractive than activity. “Maybe instead of running programmes we just get together and do nothing?” That is so what I need...

At home in bed last night bronwyn reflected, “No one prayed... no one talked to the God we were all talking about...” Huh. I wonder why?

7 down [cryptic]. Swift progress to Cajun lifestyle goals?

If variety is the spice of life, I must be Cajun. Life has been all that lately. We're not convinced that this is all a good thing, but at least it's far from boring. Bronwyn's seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There is only a few days left in this half term, then another seven weeks till the end of the school year. My work continues, currently (he says ominously). After spending most of Saturday, and two hours on Sunday evening, doing "work" work, I am wondering about where my lifestyle balance is. (There is no question I could find a less demanding job.) Lack of blogging is another clear barometer of pressure around here too. However, it's not all doom and gloom. This coming weekend is a bank holiday weekend, and we'll be spending a couple of the days visiting Brent & Megan, ex-Palmy people, who now live a little north of London. Then Wednesday next week will find us in Rome for four nights... Tough. Life. Is. [Grin.]

I've written previously about my recent habit, started last November, of writing Stalin-style "3 month plans" of goals I wish to achieve. Like trying to look at my lifestyle balance, this is another example of me deciding to apply the things we tell our clients to my own life. (Housemate Nick would say, “eating your own dogfood”...) The second three month period expired a week ago, and I took the opportunity to again review my goals (many not achieved!) and set new ones for the three months ahead. I'm finding this a quietly useful process. I'm also finding that particularly over the last week this goal-focussed thinking is permeating my daily consciousness more and more. Realising how pushed I've been for time and overloaded with projects, I'm more carefully evaluating whether things I'm doing are achieving my goals or not. It's not to become mercenary—some of my goals would say the opposite! But it is helping me be more thoughtful about how I spend my time. I'm liking that.

The Swifts arrived back at our house today, after a winter's absence. I really like these birds, which spend their entire lives on the wing, landing only for breeding (not sleeping, not eating, not anything else!) in nests they made from grasses, leaves, and feathers, all collected while flying. They nested in the roof of our building last year—hopefully they will again this year—and it's quite a sight to see them fly into the otherwise invisible gaps just under the roof, at full speed... Their return is a practical reminder that the seasons have turned full circle for us now, if the warm weather, sunglasses, and sunburn wasn't enough of a hint. This is a great time of year. With apologies to Wellington, you can't beat London on a good day.

We

We are still here. We have been away. We have come from somewhere else. We are moving on. We are risking burnout. We are working late. We are rising early. We are sleeping in the afternoon. We are eating out. We are staying home. We are heating up. We are chilling out. We are pushing on. We may give notice soon. We are.

An M-Day tale

I thought I was going to be doing my first shift as a Sunday School helper today, after being co-opted onto the roster a few weeks ago. In fact, I'd received a phone call yesterday arranging for me to swap with someone due to do it in a a couple of weeks. My working theory (*grandiosity included at no additional charge) is that my mind is so vast that, even travelling at the speed of light, information from my past experience cannot always reach the part of my brain doing current planning. [cough.] Anyway, I had headed off to church this morning expecting some serious cutting-and-pasting.

Earlier this morning however there had been an “interaction” between me and our housemates. Today is Mothers' Day in the South Pacific, and I believe the States, but not here. Calling of mothers was in order. Nick and Hayley had been out last night and quite reasonably had thought Bronwyn and I had made our calls then. As it turned out I hadn't. Anyhoo. An interaction became an exchange. (Physically I may have “low tone", but verbally...) Ultimately, I did try to ring but could not get through. Unfortunately I then left for church on, “I don't have time to discuss this now."

Sitting through the worship time on autopilot, feeling less than good about how I'd behaved. (Bronwyn doing an excellent job of leading on her own, from the guitar—she'd been at church preparing during all of the above.) Feeling like I'm not in a space to take communion, but then it's time for Sunday School to go out, saving me the decision. As I'm on my way out I realise suddenly I'm not on Sunday School, and I sit back down somewhere else, confusing Bronwyn.

As the communion was being handed around I slipped out the back of the church, confusing Bronwyn even more with a simple, “I've got to go. I'll explain later.” Walked back home. Apologised for my behaviour and sorted things out there. Back to church in time to catch the end of what seemed to be an interesting sermon, by a visiting couple from India.

Mum, I never did get through to talk to you on the phone today. But know this: 10,509 miles away, on the other side of the world, I am the man I am today because of your loving nurturance. Thank you for introducing me to Jesus, who is leading me to be a person I could not be by myself. I pray I can be the man you dreamed for me. Thank you for your love. You have mine and nothing will change that.

So the moral of the story: Live within easy walking distance of church?

May Day: weekend review

Weekend predictions have been partially fulfilled. Saturday I bit the bullet and forced myself to stay in bed most of the day... I hasten to add it was a most productive time of sorting and filing papers, preparing letters for posting, and didn't involve any entertainment-driven web surfing, snoozing, or similar. Ahem.

Sunday though and it was time to get our teeth into the weekend. After going to church we hooked up with Nick and Hayley and headed into the Natural History Museum. I've been wanting to go there for a while; I'm the only member of the household who'd never been there. Also, the much-advertised T-Rex exhibition was closing after this long weekend, so it seemed a good time to go.

The museum is free, but the T-Rex exhibition cost £3.50 each. Let us just say that overall the entire afternoon was good value for money, and leave it at that, shall we?! Highlights for me were:

• Seeing blue whale skeletons and a full-sized model—most impressive...
• A rotating-table thing you could spin around which demonstrated fluid dynamics, making a tornado in the liquid inside (Nick and I plan to get one for a coffee table, the only downside being the cups getting flung around the room I guess.)
• This enormous sculpture of the Earth, that you travelled up into when going to one part of the museum. (I never knew the music inside the Earth was so cool!)

Today has not dawned bright and clear as hoped, though to be fair the weather forecast from yesterday is on the money. The planned trip to Hampton Court Palace will have to wait till the next fine Saturday I think. That gave time for a leisurely brunch of Nick's outstanding pancakes complimented by my patented Summer Berry Sauce™. All going well the afternoon will give way to an extended and ultimately successful game of the Lord of the Rings game. There are many (many, many...) Lord of the Rings games being flogged out there, but I've not seen any others like this. It is a true board game, not a role-playing game, but it is collaborative. All the players have to work together to attempt to defeat Sauron (who is played by the game, not any player) and destroy the ring. The illustrations are by the artist who did the artwork for the movie. If you like board games, we'd definitely recommend it. Be warned though, we've never succeeded in destroying the ring yet!

Before all that though, I'm off to bleach the bathroom ceiling. London, you know. Damp. [Memo to self: wear old clothes.]