Word on the Street

Really love this video, filmed on a mobile in the streets of New York and Sydney. Not true just for those cities.



Is it enough just not to look away?

Does buying my copy of the Big Issue make it better?

Or rather, as today chatting to the guy selling them saying I only had 30p in cash and wishing each other a "good day" make a difference?

Well I think the sharing of humanity with someone can make a lot of difference to people who feel ignored but without other help its effect is not enough.

I have the Wycombe Winter Night Shelter in mind at present at that which inspired it in London. Its not part of my call here at present but I may have to make some fish cakes this week out of nostalgia!!

What is chaplaincy?

We've just had our first two weeks of active involvement in the school chaplaincy, following weeks (if not months, in fact) of working out what it means for us and for the school. We have a carefully crafted document which states what we'll do and what we'll not do. we want to focus on the young people in more pastoral terms rather than the more lesson-based style of schools work. So our plan is to begin with what my first vicar referred to as "vicaring about" (or dyo-ing about in my case and curating about in the case of two members of our team!). It's a detached model really but within the school setting, mostly the canteen. For us it seems to have been a good start. We've met the young people in their informal setting rather than in the class-room. I hope to keep you posted about how it goes.

It's got me thinking about it all. There are all kinds of full-time chaplaincies out there but part-time chaplaincies in schools, hospitals, sports clubs, shopping centres and town centres are on the up. However... what is chaplaincy? What does it mean?

Well Bishop Alan posted this fantastic definition of what a chaplain is:

"Someone who learns and listens carefully to the languages people use to express themselves, a spiritual interpreter, someone who can hold the lines and ask key questions of any and all, including themselves."

Any thoughts and wisdom on that one people?

Snow Roo

Snow Roo full length
Originally uploaded by Sarah Brush

I was endeavouring to do a snow dog but it metamorphosed into this Snow Kangaroo.

Interesting moment when I heard some people walking past our front garden and was caught in a moment of panic - should I let myself be seen, as a grown woman in her 30s, playing with snow... Yes I told myself I totally should!

25 random things

Ok so this is from Facebook but it will be heading there too...

Rules: Once you've been tagged, write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. I was born in Belgium
2. I married Michael in 2006 after we met through an internet dating agency
3. I've just finished a painting which I almost can't stop looking at
4. Last year I had to read some Anglo-Saxon at a Cathedral event - this was part of my studies I was convinced I would never use.
5. I jumped out of a plane a few years ago but had the foresight to be attached to a parachute and have a long list of sponsors in aid of the hospice charity that looked after my mum when she was ill.
6. For a large period of my childhood I believed I was born in a tent (for some rather odd reasons)- I am not sure when I realised this was not the case!
7. I like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
8. I bought all the Harry Potter series with the children's cover as I didn't feel the need to pretend I wasn't reading a children's book!
9. I've been learning to draw dragons since Michael finished his book which features them.
10. Last week at work I claimed to have instituted a "nearly clear desk" policy in contrast with my VERY untidy desk at home.
    
11. I love painting with the colour cerulean. Well I love painting as it brings me closer to God but this is a colour which really makes me smile. I also use a lot of yellow!
    
12. Taize always feels like home when I get there.
13. Cooking for people makes me happy and I love to cook new things. This week I cooked with seaweed for the first time.
    
14. Often I get songs stuck in my head - these range from the ridiculous ("peanut butter and jelly" song my American friend Debbie taught me over 10 years ago, the moonpig advert and spider pig) to the sublime (Beati Quorum via, I was glad, Mil e tre etc.)
15. I fulfilled a lifelong dream by seeing Niagara Falls a few years ago and might get the chance to see the Nascar lines next year (which were also "on my list")
16. When I was teaching Latin, my student feedback forms included comments on the accuracy of my drawings on the board - cows were good but hands needed work. I also took up the challenge to teach the gerundive through the medium of song using the Beatles and Hildegard of Bingen.
17. I had a lovely Christmas in 2008 because my niece got on so well with my dog Eddie and LOVED her Peppa Pig umbrella.
18. I love Peking Duck pancakes.
19. I support Oxfam through regular giving and we had an Oxfam wedding list alongside our normal gift list. Michael claims this was to determine how many camels I was worth - the answer was NO camels but a toilet, teaching packs, goats and lots of plants (among other things).
20. During my revision for my A levels I relieved my stress by doing a jigsaw puzzle which featured a large number of smarties. It seemed they really DID have the answer.
    
21. I've recently started in a role as chaplain to a secondary school and really enjoyed it. Being asked if I was a sixth-former was not the only reason.
22. I was giggling yesterday because our dog Eddie got very excited about his new toy - a large red plastic ball.
23. Now Barak Obama is President I can stop pretending it's Jed Bartlett.
24. Michael and I discovered a new game called Carcassone which we bought with some Christmas money and we love it A LOT.
25. This year I made a new year's resolution without really meaning to - I'm not buying a new book until I have read a book I already own but have not yet read. Since making this commitment I have read two books and bought a new one!
    

Snow go

Couldn't resist this gadget from Bishop Alan's site. I'm contemplating whether or not I can get to and around London for a meeting on Wednesday.

Genesis completed

Genesis completed
Originally uploaded by Sarah Brush

So in the snowlight of this afternoon I managed to persuade myself finally that Genesis was finished. There are still things I would tweak but I know I would be tweaking them for all eternity The finalising included a rather unnerving editing of the wave with the addition of some cerulean, some adding of red to the sky around the birds and some filling in of green in the tree where it was a little thin. There is also a little silver on the wave now. I decided that the birds are now as they are even though they're not as perfect as I'd like because in display they won't be quite as visible anyway as they're right at the top.

Finishing this and the snow have planted another seed but I'm not sure I'll get to that very soon as I have a few things in the diary but with the snow, you never know those might get postponed!!

The canvas is approx 1m wide and 1.3m wide.