bright star.....

i watched this movie last night..about the poet John Keats.......i loved it..it was beautiful..artisic...romantic...tragic.........the movie title was one of Keats poems....as someone who studied english literature and a romantic at heart i highly recommend this beautiful story....



Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art
by John Keats


Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient sleepless eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors;
No yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever or else swoon to death

favourite things *11

we cut our lawn today for the first time this spring....freshly cut grass is one of my favourite smells......instantly taking me back to childhood memories of carefree days playing games on the lawn with my friends.....

fitness....

hubby and i played some more squash today......all in the pursuit of fulfilling the vision..........must learn to be more technical as sheer strength alone is not winning me matches against my 6ft6 hubby.......must get strategising for the next squash date....



since my exercise love is returning....inspire me...what is your favourite way to work out?....

how to design a bridge....

a few weeks ago i came across this quote...sorry i can't remember who said it.....

never ask a designer to design a bridge..ask them to design a way to the other side

since reading this quote i have thought about it quite frequently....i wonder why.....last night as i thought of it again..i thought of the country in which i live..northern ireland.....and thought afresh its not the questions as a country that we are asking that is the problem ..it is maybe how we are asking them, that keeps giving us the same boring result.....maybe we need to begin asking some of the same fundamental questions in a different way...to let us to come up with creative and innovative solutions to enable us as a nation to finally begin to move forward....something to think about as we are drawing closer to elections....

one more day....

one more day left of annual leave before i have to return to work.....i have been off for a week...a much needed week of R & R...but the frustrating thing for me is it takes me until about two days ago to begin switching of and really begin relaxing.....and now i have to gear myself back up again for action.........note to self...learn to unwind faster.........

time to prioritise life......

over the last few weeks i had to prioritise my life afresh...after allowing many things to slowly gather up and begin to fester in my life...until God in his faithfulness....caused me to stand still and have a fresh look at me...to recognise the reasons why i had allowed stress to creep in and begin to ebb away my peace.... the most important thing was taking time to climb the mountain and get alone with Jesus... allowing Him to speak into my life...reminding me that i am carrying things i was not designed to carry..choose to ....leave them with Him...thus enabling me to journey down the mountain back into life, without the weight of burdens he said he would carry for me.....the second thing that required an important place again in my life was exercise.........for many years i was super fit...it was a natural by product of my then career working with horses......so i took all its benefits for granted and it wasn't something i ever had to shedule in.........
for about two years God has been placing on my heart the desire to run .....i have spent moments enjoying the image in my imagination of me running with the greatest of ease feeling the wind in my hair

'me in my imagination' :-)

...but that's as far as it ever went i pushed it into the background and got busy with life again....until lately .....i have realised in a very real way the need to exercise on a regular base...i am made body, soul and spirit and i cannot ignore looking after all of these areas that make up me......so the vision is going to be brought into a reality, and it has begun this week.........i have dusted of my bike ...booked in regular squash matches...and yes i am gearing up to begin starting to run.................if only i would be obedient quickly and stop putting things off life would be simpler......definitely a work in progress....

what have you been challenged to make a priority in your life?...

Blind Side....

stuart and i saw this movie yesterday ..i loved it......by the end i was holding back the tears ...and to be honest if i had been in a room alone i would have balled my eyes out like a little girl...why?...not because the movie was sad..the very opposite..it was so uplifting....it was the family snapshots in the credits of the real people the movie was about..that set me of...i think it is because we are adopting from Thailand and will also be a multi racial family..that it really struck a cord with me on one level...while being apart of a family from your culture and race is important on some levels..at the end of the day nothing is more valuable than being loved, accepted, wanted and believed in...on another level i was challenged ...as this young guy joined the family in the movie as a 17 year old..having had the most difficult start in life....after many years in youth work i have heard many say 'it's too late for him to make something out of his life'...that he was too 'damaged'......but thankfully no-one is out of the reach of God moving and changing their lives.....as christians there is no one we should think is to far gone to reach out the hand of help and hope to open our homes and lives to......i know we say all the right things but do our daily lives really reflect this belief..........so as i said before....i shed some tears at the end of this movie... it both uplifted and deeply challenged me.....