Down the garden

If you're wondering why it's gone a bit quiet here, I'm spending more time in the garden and with our chickens.

Why Israel must stop the attacks on Gaza

When you say something unkind, when you do something in retaliation, your anger increases. You make the other person suffer, and they try hard to say or do something back to make you suffer, and get relief from their suffering. That is how conflict escalates. (Thich Nhat Hanh)

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. ( Mahatma Gandhi)

Why don't the Israeli government and army learn?

The Jewish prayer book tells them to 'Seek peace and pursue it'. The Jewish Scriptures offer much wisdom on the matter, if only they would listen to it.

I learnt today that there are 750,000 people in Gaza reliant on food aid from the UN. I also learnt that Gaza, the whole territory, not just Gaza city, is one fifth the size of London. No wonder so many civilians, including around 265 children, are being killed when Israel carries out it's 'surgical' strikes on Hammas members. Even if they wanted to Hammas could not go to an area that was not close to civilians and the civilians have nowhere else to go. They are not being allowed out of this tiny, over-crowded area.

I have signed a couple of petitions that urge for an end to the attacks but I have not joined in the protest in London. Perhaps I am being apathetic, but I don't believe Israel cares about what people in London think. I think they will only take notice if the US threatens to cut off its funding, and if it stops supplying them with weapons. Even then they may take no notice because they cannot sustain their Western-style lifestyle in the cities very easily if they share the water, land and other resources fairly with the Palestinians.

All I think I can try and do at the moment is to try to seek peace and pursue it in my own life, which means trying hard not to impose my views on others however wrong I think they are and trying to understand other people's points of view. I could also try to support those who continue to seek a peaceful way forward in Israel and Palestine.

Voices for Peace in Cologne

We saw this display just in front of Cologne cathedral when we were there mid-December. We didn't realise what was about to happen in Gaza.


















Click on the images to see them full size.

Voices for Peace in Palestine

From Jewish Voice for Peace:

Dec. 28, 2008: Jewish Voice for Peace joins millions around the world, including the 1,000 Israelis who protested in the streets of Tel Aviv this weekend, in condemning ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. We call for an immediate end to attacks on all civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli.

If you want an end to the violence in Gaza as well as the violence coming from Gaza sign the Avaaz petition.

Peace at last?

We had a lovely Christmas with mother-in-law staying with us, but we are probably all glad to have the house to ourselves again now.

We have lovely weather. It's beautifully sunny, if somewhat cold, although it wasn't too bad yesterday when I took my gloves off to pop broad bean seeds in the holes I'd made to plant them. Some things can't be done well with gloves on.


If only the peace I now feel could spread to the rest of the world. The news today is not of peace, but of death and destruction in Gaza. I wouldn't like living next to people who fire rockets in my direction, but is indiscriminate bombing the answer? How would I react if my country was a prison state, if I couldn't get in and out to sell my produce on a regular basis, if I didn't know if I would have access to clean water, flour for bread or gas and electricity today or tomorrow? Would I resign myself to my fate and sink into despairing depression or would I become so angry I wanted to murder the people who did that to me and my family, and harm anyone associated with them?


At this time of year I wonder how the Christmas story would be told if Jesus were to be born in Bethlehem today.











War on Want Christmas card















Olive wood carving of the Three Kings coming up against the Separation Wall on their way to Bethlehem, which was on display at Greenbelt.

Grant me the grace of love this day
that amidst the pain and disfigurement of life
I may find the treasure that is unlocked by love,
that amidst the pain and disfigurement in my own life
I may know the richness that lies buried in the human soul.

(From 'Sounds of the Eternal: a Celtic Psalter' by J. Philip Newell

RIP Nikki

Christians get depressed and sometimes Christians commit suicide. None of this means they lack faith or that they are unusually sinful.

Depression is an illness, which is hard, if not impossible, to 'snap out of' or cure yourself of. Depression is an illness that can have all manner of causes and it can be difficult even for experienced professionals to help some people. Depression is an illness that distorts the thinking and makes the outlook seem far more negative than it really is for those suffering from it. It can therefore make those who suffer from it more prone to apathy and to thinking it's not worth trying to make the effort to get better. Sometimes it causes someone to feel so negative that they think they will be better off dead. It is never anyone's fault that they have become depressed and they should not feel ashamed if they have.

Last Saturday morning, the burnt body of a woman was found near to the parish church and it seems to have taken the police a while to work out who she was. This Friday her identity was on the front page of the local paper. Her name was Nikki, and she went to the church I used to go to. I sometimes said 'hello' to her when she came to the place where I work. We didn't say much to each other as we didn't know each other very well, and I was meant to be working, but I thought she seemed a cheery person. Little did I know. According to what her minister told the paper, she had been struggling with depression for some while.

I'm not sure I could have got to know her better under the circumstances. I think she may have been lonely, but that might not have been the cause of her depression. Perhaps no-one could have helped her, but perhaps her tragic death is a reminder to us all to make the extra effort to ask the people we know how they are and make a habit of listening to their response properly, so that they will know that if they do want to unburden themselves there really is someone who will listen to them and not judge them.

May the arms of the God of love enfold you, Nikki,
May the peace of the Son bring you eternal peace,
and may the healing love of Holy Spirit bind all your wounds.

A Blogging Break

The lack of blogs recently may continue for a while longer as I wait for the iron tablets to work their magic. In the meantime everything is such an effort I don't have much time left for blogging and I'm finding it hard to think, which is why I've run out of anything else to say.