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Text of the page (random words):
david s blog david s blog my personal blog initially started in 2008 to describe my experience following stephen cottrell s book do nothing for christmas an advent calendar with a difference i repeated this in advent 2011 it s advent again so i m going to try to do another advent calendar with a difference what is the meaning of christmas no particular theme just an eclectic mix of thoughts and ideas from me and i hope from my friends tuesday 24 december 2013 24th december the manger waits from this evening s crib service at st peter st paul great missenden and here s my tower and moon will we see this at the midnight service tonight posted by david at 21 28 1 comment monday 23 december 2013 23rd december ts eliot journey of the magi this is ts eliot reading his poem journey of the magi dr rowan williams selected this poem in his journey of the archive he wrote another sort of birth meditation this time about a particular birth that of jesus christ it begins famously with a passage from a seventeenth century sermon all poets imitate said eliot great poets plagiarise and ends with a carefully calculated set of anticlimaxes very eliot what happens when a birth jesus s birth as the poet starts re discovering christian faith changes everything the bizarre fact is that it can feel as if nothing has really changed except that you have a sense that no one else has noticed what has happened because something certainly has birth or death a new start that is felt only as the death of all that has been familiar and yet the old world goes on galloping aimlessly like the old white horse eliot never wanted to present religious faith as a nice cheerful answer to everyone s questions but as an inner shift so deep that you could hardly notice it yet giving a new perspective on everything and a new restlessness in a tired and chilly world the flatness of the rhythms and phrasing the utterly prosaic way of describing a miracle all contribute to what turns out to be an intensely imagined and challenging poem that i first read as a boy and that still moves and disturbs me as much as it did then posted by david at 11 59 no comments saturday 21 december 2013 21st december solstice today is the shortest day the winter solstice is actually at 5 11 pm this afternoon so tomorrow the days start to get longer but don t hold your breath daylight on sunday is only 1 second longer than today by christmas day however things are a little better daylight lasts 20 seconds longer than on christmas eve you can see the full record of daylight times here posted by david at 00 00 1 comment friday 20 december 2013 20th december christmas tree decorations here are some of the decorations on the trees at the recent christmas tree festival at st peter st paul great missenden posted by david at 10 07 no comments thursday 19 december 2013 19th december another of jo laurie s cartoons worried about over eating over christmas posted by david at 08 40 no comments tuesday 17 december 2013 18th december benjamin zephaniah talking turkeys benjamin zephaniah was on you and yours yesterday lunchtime he recited his poem talking turkeys benjamin is a vegetarian so don t expect a recipe be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas cos turkeys jus wanna hav fun turkeys are cool an turkeys are wicked an every turkey has a mum be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas don t eat it keep it alive it could be yu mate an not on yu plate say yo turkey i m on your side i got lots of friends who are turkeys an all of dem fear christmas time dey say benj man eh i wanna enjoy it but dose humans destroyed it an humans are out of dere mind yeah i got lots of friends who are turkeys dey all hav a right to a life not to be caged up an genetically made up by any farmer an his wife turkeys jus wanna play reggae turkeys jus wanna hip hop havey you ever seen a nice young turkey saying i cannot wait for de chop turkeys like getting presents dey wanna watch christmas tv turkeys hav brains an turkeys feel pain in many ways like yu an me i once knew a turkey his name was turkey he said benji explain to me please who put de turkey in christmas an what happens to christmas trees i said i am not too sure turkey but it s nothing to do wid christ mass humans get greedy and waste more dan need be an business men mek loadsa cash so be nice to yu turkey dis christmas invite dem indoors fe sum greens let dem eat cake an let dem partake in a plate of organic grown beans be nice to yu turkey dis christmas an spare dem de cut of de knife join turkeys united an dey ll be delighted an yu will mek new friends for life posted by david at 23 36 no comments 17th december madonna and child eric gill will gompertz chose this christmas card by gill in his article about christmas art on saturday although gill spent much of his career just up the road in speen this engraving was made in 1922 when he was living in ditchling near lewes in sussex posted by david at 00 07 no comments sunday 15 december 2013 16 december mary did you know another track from ken harratt ken has recorded another great track he writes it s mary did you know a beautiful song with a the christmas message presented in an innovative way and one that is very effective i ve re printed the words but the arrangement i have done is just the band no vocal i hope that this leaves room for the listener to ponder the words mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new this child that you delivered will soon deliver you mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod and when you kiss your little baby you kiss the face of god mary did you know the blind will see the deaf will hear and the dead will live again the lame will leap the dumb will speak the praises of the lamb mary did you know that your baby boy is lord of all creation did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations did you know that your baby boy is heavens perfect lamb this sleeping child you re holding is the great i am posted by david at 23 37 no comments friday 13 december 2013 13th december two christmas tree poems a busy few days so i m a little behind here are two christmas tree poems to go with the christmas tree festival christmas tree laurence smith star over all eye of the night stand on my tree magical sight green under frost green under snow green under tinsel glitter and glow applied with baubles silver and gold spangled with fire warm over cold christmas tree stanley cook stores and filling stations prefer a roof for christmas trees away from the pilfering children and set the cost against their income tax florists sell them at something a foot and like the rest of christmas illuminations they use electricity in off peak periods enough to make steal an honest tree from a forestry commission planting isn t there somewhere in the woods a fir beneath whose natural pagoda of branches deer bivouac that dredges silver from an accident of moonlight and roofs the moss from snow that falls on higher ground isn t there a the child beneath the presents we heap upon him that we are fond of posted by david at 22 05 no comments wednesday 11 december 2013 11th december evening star another jmw turner the evening star a bit early for the christmas eve star posted by david at 20 44 no comments monday 9 december 2013 10th december choir of angels another of jo laurie s cartoons i m tempted to ask for suggested captions for this posted by david at 23 37 no comments 9th december a child of the snows gk chesterton s poem a child of the snows seems to resonate with a northern advent although we don t have sleet or snow yet the poem shows us the christmas story in a very different way there is heard a hymn when the panes are dim and never before or again when the nights are strong with a darkness long and the dark is alive with rain never we know but in sleet and in snow the place where the great fires are that the midst of the earth is a raging mirth and the heart of the earth a star and at night we win to the ancient inn where the child in the frost is furled we follow the feet where all souls meet at the inn at the end of the world the gods lie dead where the leaves lie red for the flame of the sun is flown the gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold and a child comes forth alone one explanation of the poem says that chesterton was inspired by dickens a christmas carol where near the end of the crachet family christmas dinner we read all this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round and by and bye they had a song about a lost child travelling in the snow from tiny tim who had a plaintive little voice and sang it very well indeed posted by david at 09 18 no comments saturday 7 december 2013 8th december the world waits ken harratt has provided today s advent calendar page ken writes i have specially composed this arrangement for solo piano of two advent carols o come o come and the angel gabriel my thinking was simply footsteps either the journey we are all on in life or the journey that mary and joseph made to bethlehem or anything else that involves waiting to arrive or waiting for an arrival posted by david at 23 39 no comments 7th december a new dawn nelson mandela brought a new dawn to south africa here s a poem by dennis brutus more about him below christmas 1965 through the bruises and the spittle the miasma of invective and the scaled refractions of our prejudice painfully man emerges straw shavings hay and the mist of the cows cloudbreath and through it flickered the lambence of man s inherent divinity dennis brutus 1924 2009 born in salisbury now harare in southern rhodesia now zimbabwe of coloured parents grew up and educated in south africa he taught english and afrikaans in south african high schools because of his opposition to apartheid he was fired and banned from teaching and eventually jailed on robben island where he served 18 months hard labour he was allowed to leave with his family and became an active campaigner you can read an obituary here tomorrow ken has arranged music for advent the world waits posted by david at 10 12 no comments older posts home subscribe to posts atom followers clifton suspension bridge about me david view my complete profile links i church wikipedia entry for waterhouse jw waterhouse iht international herald tribune david hockney john updike reads jesus and elvis barak obama s speech in full how to comment on this blog pdf file gt missenden church web site my it friend web site help with your pc niccolo machiavelli quotes climate change links stop global warming finding solutions to the climate crisis al gore in english on a french web site blog archive 2013 72 december 19 24th december the manger waits 23rd december ts eliot journey of the magi 21st december solstice 20th december christmas tree decorations 19th december another of jo laurie s cartoons 18th december benjamin zephaniah talking turkeys 17th december madonna and child eric gill 16 december mary did you know another track fro 13th december two christmas tree poems 11th december evening star 10th december choir of angels 9th december a child of the snows 8th december the world waits 7th december a new dawn 6th december a poem by ursula fanthorpe now for something very different peace advent as a journey the meaning of advent oscar romero november 2 june 2 may 8 april 5 march 12 february 13 january 11 2012 97 december 23 november 5 october 4 september 3 august 1 july 4 june 2 may 1 april 11 march 26 february 12 january 5 2011 84 december 23 november 11 october 2 september 4 august 4 july 2 june 7 may 4 april 5 march 11 february 6 january 5 2010 87 december 9 november 5 october 8 september 8 august 11 july 9 june 3 may 6 april 7 march 6 february 9 january 6 2009 143 december 19 november 5 october 6 september 6 august 20 july 4 june 7 may 4 april 18 march 28 february 15 january 11 2008 30 december 29 november 1