“Blessed is any season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love”
Hamilton Wright Mabie
When I heard that online retail profits in Britain were down for December I was very encouraged. At last it seems like we are getting our priorities right and cutting back on our excessive lifestyles. I'm tired of being told that any down turn in the economy is tied to Brexit. Is it not possible that the people of Great Britain have lost their appetite for mass consumption and have returned to valuing good old fashioned contentment? I mean really, give us some credit, the reason I don't buy new clothes every season is because I have perfectly good stuff that will last me for 5 - 10 years. Why should I be bullied into buying more? Everything in the photo above is from a charity shop. Are we not supposed to be looking after the planet by recycling and not continuing with the hedonistic mass production?
But I have to be careful with the self righteousness. Someone recently told me that he found Christmas cards intimidating, a form of bullying by the super organised and outwardly respectable. He also declared his dislike of glitter which surprised me, but as he is a top London lawyer maybe I should be taking his comments more seriously. So I will take the correction and shut up.
We are drawing to the end of a very unusual year and it is too easy to point the fingers and complain. One thing we seem to have very quickly forgotten is what a spectacular summer we enjoyed this year! 3 months of nearly solid heat and sunshine.
Photo Credit - Chapel lane
Drawing towards Christmas and the New Year is always a time of reflection. Looking back over my year I have enjoyed watching the artist Charlie Mackesy reach out with humour & hope to the thousands of people following him on Instagram. What started as a little scribble involving a boy and a mole, turned into a huge amount of material with enough demand that a book will be published by Penguin at some point in the future. For more from Charlie's Instagram feed featuring a boy, a horse, a fox and a mole looking at the main theme of KINDNESS click on the photo below.
Photo/Drawing Credit - Charlie Mackesy
This year I have also enjoyed getting to know Jonna Jinton through her VLOGS on Instagram. It all started with a photo of herself welcoming in the Spring weather by putting her washing out to dry in a pretty sundress in waist deep snow. It caught everyones attention and the rest is history. What followed over the unfolding summer was a sharing of her artistic life in a beautiful remote part of Sweden. Click on photo below for a link to her Instagram feed.
Photo Credit - Jonna Jinton
Sadly her most recent VLOG tells us of the devastation that European policy has brought to her area with the god of mammon and capitalism bulldozing down much of her precious and beautiful surroundings. A wind farm of around 200 wind turbines is planned on her land to process electricity for Germany! No more Northern skies empty of light pollution. No more silence. The global economy marches on consuming forest and nature in its bid to keep economies growing ! That is why I am not keen to monitor our countries success by its economic growth.
But I was trying to make this post positive, so here is some good news I found out last week through my church that sponsors hundreds of thousands of children through the charity COMPASSION that a massive milestone was recently passed. The charity recently passed the 2 MILLION mark with regards to the sponsorship of children in economic hardship.(Click on the photo below for more.) Two million children given the opportunity to go to school & parents given a helping hand by those of us with much. Why doesn't this ever make the news? Two million children being helped out of poverty by Christians. That is a huge statistic.
Photo Credit - Hillsong Guildford
Let me say that number again, it is so large it is hard to get my head around it .... 2 MILLION!!!
This is just one tiny positive statistic to focus on, in reality there are far too many to talk about in this post. Just this past week a Syrian family arrived at Heathrow to begin their new lives in Woking sponsored by a hundred people paying £15 a month for their living costs. They are just one of many refugee families that local churches have funded to start a new season away from war and chaos.
It's not hard to find fantastic people when you start looking for them. I chose the photo above because I totally adore the little girl, beautifully attired and making her determined way in to my church on a summer Sunday.
I stumbled across an inspiring family living on a farm named BOTELET down in Cornwall many years ago. Ever since finding an article about a vintage caravan on their farm I have been visiting and staying in their wild meadow during the summer. I have watched their family grow and the twins are now cheeky little angelic beings. Over the years they have developed their farm and alongside the yurts and cottage accommodation they host workshops, breakfast clubs and seasonal feasts. This year seems to have been particularly fruitful with a new energy & many collaborations with other creatives. Click on the photo below for a link to their Instagram account.
(Me in the meadow pasture )
One last person I have been influenced by this year is Jamie (& her husband Kevin Burg ) and Ann Street Studio. Click on photo below for a link to her Instagram account.
I have been inspired by her images of life in France and her gorgeous pictures of her pregnancy.
The world is not spiralling out of control, these are good days and they are getting better. There is a reason to be cheerful. If this year has taught me anything it is that there are new people awaiting us just around the corner and they are fun to be around, inspiring and hugely kind and generous.
Photo/Drawing Credit - Charlie Mackesy
“Blessed is any season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love”
Hamilton Wright Mabie