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Jim McCrory

Have You Been Traumatised By Gossip?

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Friday, 5 July 2024, 19:30


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As a child, I recall a strange ornament an old lady had on her mantle. It was three monkeys. One with his hands over his mouth, the other with his hands over his eyes, the other with his hands over his ears.

It wasn’t the fact that they were monkey I thought strange. It was the puzzling gestures; I couldn’t understand what it all meant despite the caption being “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.”

It was some years later that I discovered the wisdom intended. Now, more than ever, there is a desperate need for young and old to counteract the tendency to gossip or slander. Many have taken their lives or fallen into depression because of spread rumours. In my case, I left the religious organisation I was affiliated with for this very reason. Not only because I found it hurtful, but because I found it a toxic environment.

Now why do people gossip? Sometimes it’s innocent, it may be curiosity. Some gossip to raise their self-esteem. After all, by putting others down, you raise yourself due to pride. Some gossip to be accepted by the group. Some gossip because of hatred or malicious intent.

James 1:26 reads, “If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religious is useless, and he deceives himself.” (CSB see footnote).

If you find yourself in such a toxic environment, turn around and walk away. It’s not so easy if it’s the family, the congregation or the workplace, friends or the internet, but make every effort to avoid being drawn in or being hurt by such ones. Additionally, search yourself and ask, “Have I hurt my neighbour by gossiping?” If so, correct it. James showed that your relationship with God is otherwise hindered.



(Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.)




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Jim McCrory

What Will We Do With Our Fleeting Moment on Earth?

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We are reminded that, in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame but rather how well we have loved and what part we have played in making the lives of other people better. — Barack Obama.



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This is what I do: when I am approached by a Christian evangeliser, I ask them to stroke their mobile and read Acts 2: 44,45. Then I ask, what does your religious organisation do about this Biblical principle? Let me explain why. Truth is, most overlook this fundamental principle. 

Let me take you through the streets of London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and wherever. This is what you will see, countless young and old, male, and female sleeping in cardboard boxes, under Asda canopies, in shop doorways and under bridges. Shivering for compassion and empathy.

We have a new government, but I am not holding my breath. Homelessness is pandemic since the days Ralph McTell sung The Streets of London with his message of empathy and compassion.

I see rich religious organisations amassing wealth and proselytising, but where is the spirit of true Christianity and humanity? True, I see some out there, but not all.

All the believers got together, and everything they owned was for the use of all. They sold their possessions and distributed the money among the believers. They gave each person what he needed. — Acts 2: 44,45.


















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Jim McCrory

On the death of a child

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Thursday, 4 July 2024, 20:29

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The 18th century Japanese poet, Fukuda Chiyo-ni wrote the following haiku

My Dragonfly catcher,

How far have you wandered

Have you gone

From time to time, some humans are placed in a dark place. The loss of a loved one, especially a child, can be unimaginably painful. I just cannot conceive how dark that place must be. The poet who wrote the haiku  became a nun. Perhaps in search for some meaning. Death is so unnatural; we cannot get our heads around it. We spend the rest of our lives wondering, hoping, seeking, and praying.

The Japanese concept of natural decay (wabi-sabi) and the transience of nature presents its paradoxes. When reading Kobayaashi Issa’s haiku, one feels his existential angst at the loss of his daughter.

This world of dew

is a world of dew,

and yet, and yet.


The line, “and yet, and yet” gives the idea of wabi-sabi not holding up to his instinct. He desires to see his daughter one day. It's my hope they will.

"Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God, and those who hear will live "            John 5:25 (BSB).

 






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Jim McCrory

What Do the Extra Terrestrials Think of Us?

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Ever since antiquity, man has searched for extra-terrestrial life. To what end, I wonder?

If there was extra-terrestrial life, what would they think of humans? Consider: we have a planet producing food in abundance, and yet, we see images of emaciated figures in other continents malnourished with flies around their eyes. 19,000 children a year in sub-Saharan Africa develop cataracts from birth. Many children on that continent die before they become five-years-old. People are dying for the want of antibiotics. Our streets are strewn with homeless people despite an abundance of land for building. Drugs are destroying societies. Poverty is rising in developed countries whilst the top ten per-cent amas more wealth. An unprecedented number of resources go towards arms and war. Resources that could be channelled towards mankind’s good. We see families crossing mighty seas in small crafts to find peace and security.

And what would we think of the extra-terrestrials? What if they asked us to love our neighbours as ourselves? To be loyal; not looking at another with desire? To be honest in word and deed? To consider the poor, the window, the aged and the fatherless boy. What if they asked us to respect life, to treat animals humanely? To lend without interest and not exploit employees. To resist the temptation to be jealous, greedy, gossip, slander or bear false testimony? Would we buy into that? Apparently not.

What if these extra-terrestrials were observing us now and assessing us?

For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him” — 2 Chronicles 16: 9 (BSB).

“God’s will is that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.” — Acts 17: 27 (BSB).



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Jim McCrory

This broken and heart-breaking world

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Monday, 1 July 2024, 09:56


'He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.'

Proverbs 22:9 (WEB).




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I've just returned from the shops. I was in M&S getting some coffee and milk. There was a young disabled lad sitting outside and  shivering in the rain in 10%. He slept under a shop doorway last night. I had no money, just a credit card.

I returned to the car. My eyes welled up in tears.  The only thing I could think of was to pop in to McDonalds and buy a breakfast and return to him and give him the ticket with the order no.

I tell the world this, but not to blow my own trumpet, but to stir in the reader to think about helping the homeless in your little corner in this broken world. Don't judge by saying things like "Go and get a job." 

We don't know what conditions brought them into the situation. Perhaps drugs, alcoholism, broken marriages, bankruptcy, depression and many other situations that are beyond their control.  


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Jim McCrory

Unusual Inspirational Prompts

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:19

A Good Piece of writing is like a beautiful image; it invites you in.



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Come now, stop stroking your phone and sign out of Instagram and Facebook and get something eternal down in writing.

Do you need an inspiring prompt? What's happening in this pretty Japanese town?

How about ‘The Light Streams In’ By Tomas Tranströmer, the Swedish poet/psychologist?

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/light-streams/

Do you ever walk through a graveyard and form a story in your head regarding a few details on the burial stone? Come on, we’ve all did it, right? Well what's the story her with these “Hanging coffins” ?

Mysterious Ancient Tradition Of 'Hanging Coffins' - MessageToEagle.com

 Too hard? What about captured nature in a Haiku? The West Wind Whispered by R.M.Hansard.

10 Incredible Haiku Poems You Have To Read - Poem Analysis

Okay, not inspired. What about a children’s story? What do you imagine here?

How Gyo Fujikawa Drew Freedom in Children’s Books | The New Yorker

So, get something down. I would love to read what you came up with: 

Happy writing

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Jim McCrory

Does God Answer Prayers? (Personal experience)

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:19



When I take a walk in the park, the beach, or a star filled sky in a winter’s evening, I see God all around. This planet has the footprint of a wise, benevolent architect.

Would God make all these provisions and not make himself available to his intelligent creatures?

There is a reassuring promise made in Acts 17: 26-28,

“This God made us in all our diversity from one original person, allowing each culture to have its own time to develop, giving each its own place to live and thrive in its distinct ways. His purpose in all this was that people of every culture and religion would search for this ultimate God, grope for Him in the darkness, as it were, hoping to find Him. Yet, in truth, God is not far from any of us. For you know the saying, “We live in God; we move in God; we exist in God.” And still another said, “We are indeed God’s children.”

Think about that last phrase that reads God is never that far from any of us.” Think of the other expressions such as “Grope for him,” “His purpose……that people of every culture and religion would search.”

These expressions highlight the need to seek God with an element of effort on our part. There is a level of commitment to seeking God. It means reading his word, making every effort to harmonise our lives with God’s requirements. Remember, “... in truth, God is not far from any of us.”

Scripture taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2012 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 



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Jim McCrory

The Fundamentals of a good story

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:20

I believe it was John Gardner who said something like there being two plots to every story, Someone goes on a journey, and a stranger comes to town. Now let us see.


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Once upon a time, there was this bloke who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was travelling with a bundle of cash along this quiet road. It is not very clear, but suddenly a mugger or muggers jumped out and gave him a good work over and took his bankroll and left him for dead.

Well, someone came along and saw him lying and groaning. But despite the passer-by being religious, he wasn’t keen to get involved. He took a beeline across the road pretending he never saw him. This happened a few times whilst the man’s life was slowly slipping away.

After a few hours had passed, another man came along a stranger. He was a foreigner, and he quickly responded. He did the paramedic thing and then booked him into a local hotel and paid the bill in advance.

Do you recognise the story? It’s the Parable of the Good Samaritan, with a bit of a modern take. But it illustrates John Gardner's plot principle, someone leaves town and someone comes to town.

Luke 10:25-37 NIV - The Parable of the Good Samaritan - On - Bible Gateway


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Jim McCrory

Six Degrees of Separation

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:20

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My wife and I were in Edinburgh last weekend. The Edinburgh International Festival is taking place. I looked around at the mass of faces as we walked around The Royal Mile.

"It's strange, we are connected in some way or another to every person here." I said to my wife. I was talking about the six degrees of separation idea. The theory that we are six or less social connections from one another. The idea came to the public ear when Frigyes Karinthy wrote of it in a short story in 1929.

We may be connected. Does that surprise you? I don’t mean your great, great, great grandfather was a Celt from the Braveheart country. No, it’s something else.

The theory stipulates that we know a friend of a friend of a friend or business partner or neighbour to a maximum of six steps before we discover we are connected. Fascinating! Let me illustrate.

2008: Auspicious Coincidence

It was the depths of the British recession. I flew to Krakow to visit Auschwitz. I had never been to Poland before.

One evening, I was having a meal with some friends in the square in Krakow. A man around 22-years old kept staring at me from a nearby table.

 Eventually, he put on his jacket and stood up. But before he left, he approached me and asked if I gave a lecture in the UK about young people in crisis? I said, yes, and asked how he knew. He said he had a copy of the lecture on a CD that he received from someone un the UK.

 “It's your voice I recognised,” he said.




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Jim McCrory

Is There a Possibility of Everlasting Life?

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:20

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Friday afternoons were the most depressing part of the school week. Two periods of maths with Mr … was like a day spent with spondylitis. So, Sam, Tam, and I would take the short ferry ride across the River Clyde from Govan to Kelvin and after a short walk, we were in the grand Kelvingrove Museum.

Whilst Sammy and Tam would head off to look at the Dutch Masters-odd characters in them paintings. I on the other hand, would always gravitate to a seven-century old tree stump in the Natural History section. I would run my fingers across its historical rings and feel its secrets like the voices concealed in the grooves of a ’78 vinyl record.

Nowadays, my Glasgow stump is considered an infant in dendrology circles. In Europe, a Bosnian Pine took root in A.D 941 when Vikings were pillaging islands and small settlement along Scotland’s West Coast. It has lived through the Reformation, the Renaissance, Hiroshima, the march of the Third Reich, and Brexit.

I’m always reminded of the historical march of time when objects and creatures have triumphed over man’s short seventy or eighty years.

We were reminded a decade ago about the death of Lonesome George, a Galapagos tortoise who lived for a century, but at the same time, aware that creatures such as whales and turtles with 160 birthdays, and jellyfish, that are gifted with immortality.

Perhaps it was with this thought in mind that Job, the ‘greatest of the Orientals’, asked the creator a rhetorical question and then answered it in his next breath: ‘If a man dies, will he live again? All the days I will wait until my renewal comes Job14:14.

We've all asked that question: right? No one wants to die, and when we do, we want to know if we will live again.

Mortality is never far away from my thoughts as I enter my sixth stage of life. I am still a youth in my heart who desires 5000 years like a giant sequoia. A renewal as Job put it.

Copywrite 2024 © by Jim McCrory


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Jim McCrory

Good Morning Ireland! I Like That Phrase, Cothrom na Féinne

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:48


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 “There cannot be a God, there’s too much evil,” I’ve often heard say. But doesn’t that statement provide evidence of God? “How so,” you may ask.

Well, for starters, you are calling on an objective standard of justice. That standard of justice comes from a higher source outside man. A sense of justice that says stealing, murder, anger, and the like are wrong. A sense of fairness that legislates for what we determine as evil. And no matter where you go in the world, we observe a universal standard of fair play on the basic morals that make us human. If you doubt that, try skipping the queue in a supermarket in France, Germany, India, or the Philippines. You will receive the same reaction. We have this inner sense of fairness that comes from an outer source.

Also, whilst we say there is too much evil, how to we come to terms with the fact there is too much goodness? If we are creatures dancing to our DNA in a dark aimless universe where survival of the fittest is the order of the day, then why is there kindness, gentleness, altruism, empathy, love, affection and people who are willing to sacrifice their lives for people they do not know? Ponder. Evil exists because some humans ignore the inner sense of fair play. God gave us free will.

He has told you, O man what is good

And what does the LORD require of you

But to act justly, to love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 (BSB).


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Jim McCrory

Brief Thoughts On Studying Children's Literature (EA300)

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Friday, 28 June 2024, 09:14


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I must have been around ten-years old when I was browsing in the bookshop one day. My eyes caught the colourful image of a marionette on the front cover of a book. I opened the page to the first chapter and read the following epigraph:

"Now it happened that Mr Cherry, the carpenter, found a piece of wood that laughed and cried like a child."

If there was ever an invitation to read a book, that epigraph was an open-armed welcome.

In 2018, my wife and I were visiting St Andrews on Scotland’s east coast. In the upstairs of the museum, there was a large room with a large dining table. It was all prepared with cutlery and other utensils. It was the Mad Hatters’ tea party. On the walls of the room were wonderful quotes from various children’s books; it was magical.

"You're mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I will tell you a secret. All the best people are." Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

So, on a whim, I decided to add Children’s Literature (EA300) to my Open Degree. The module was fascinating, and it took me through a cross section of the most wonderful books written for children and young adults. For example, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D Taylor. Set in the 1930s Mississippi, it tells the story of Cassie Logan, a nine-year-old negotiating racism during the period. It is one of those books that every child should read as it teaches empathy.

Voices in the Park, a picture book where text and image complement each other to tell the story. It juxtaposed two children living different lives, but negotiating the nurture nature challenges in diverse ways. Once again, a clever piece of writing as it teaches children the wisdom of having a positive outlook in life.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

But the course burst my bubble. There are very few children’s book. Adults write the majority, and for good or bad, adults have agendas.

I was also torn by what we feed children. Should children be exposed and limited to the wonder of innocence like Anne of Green Gables and Peter Rabbit or is there a place for books that deal with broken families, an alcoholic parent, aggressive adults, and the like? Such books have merit if they instruct children in these situations where they can orchestrate life’s problems in wisdom. What say you? I am curious.

 


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Jim McCrory

Good morning, China, America, Brazil and the four corners of the earth. I have a confession

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:49


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I suppose it must have been a decade ago. I was walking through Glasgow—Sauchiehall street to be precise. A man smiled at me; just a simple smile with no other motive than to acknowledge human connection.

I will be honest; it was one of those days I woke up in Camazotz and needed some kind of lift. I often pray on such occasions.

Anyway, that smile, I never forgot it. The connection to a kind stranger had considerable impact that day. John Koenig, in his book, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows coined the phrase Xeno to crystallise such an emotion. That momentary interaction of human connection that relieves one of feeling lonesome in this busy world.


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Jim McCrory

Good morning Punjab! I like that word Fikar (ਫਿਕਰ)

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Thursday, 13 June 2024, 10:21




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The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—. Psalm 90:10 (BSB)

There will come a time when I have to depart this earthly existence. It’s not a problem for me, but I would worry about my wife I would leave behind. But, in recent months, God has built a wall around her; protecting he. I feel blessed.

***

At the close of 2023, I went through some medical examinations. On the day I had an appointment to see the consultant for the results, my wife and I read a scripture that morning as we do every morning. It was Psalm 91: 1,2:

‘He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.’

I will say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress,

My God, in whom I trust.’

I said to my wife, ‘we are going to get bad news today.’ She agreed. God had often given us messages through the scriptures that were specific. God continues to speak as he has always spoken, but at times, the right verse miraculously lands in our lap when needed.

And sure enough, cells in the prostate that served me faithfully, turned hostile and have created a rebellion in the pancreas and liver and who knows where else.

The consultant who revealed this, looked at me and said, ‘You are very bravado about this.’

I replied in all confidence, ‘There’s a young man inside me. He has followed me around all his life. His age, I do not know, but he is always there. He comforts me and his presence convinces me God has eternity in view for me,’ I replied.

The truth is, God has ‘set eternity in our hearts.’

We came home that day and read the whole of Psalm 91 and felt a great sense of comfort. I have no sensation of what the Germans call torschlusspanik, that awareness that the doors are closing in on me. No, I wake with a miraculous feeling of peace that only comes from God and Christ.

Wise Words of Enlightenment – Spirituality, Bible, God, Morality (wiseprose.uk)


 

Fikar (ਫਿਕਰ): Though it translates to "worry" or "concern," it implies a deeper sense of care and responsibility, often used in a context of emotional attachment.

 

 


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Jim McCrory

Good Morning , Slovenia! I like the word, doživljaj

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My wife and I had a short break in the Scottish West Highlands one recent weekend. We took a walk through a little village that eventually led to a graveyard. We enjoy walking through such places; it draws attention to the wisdom found in Ecclesiastes 7:2, where we read that “It is better to go to the house of mourning,” KJV.

There’s a reason the verse imparts this advice. A walk through a graveyard reminds us we are mortal creatures and one day the garment that we wear will wear out.

I observed individuals embedded in their plots. Men, women, children who were the heroes of their own journey in life. Who had deep inner lives that were cut short? I say, cut short because you may think in what way is an 86-year-old cut short?

We are built to last with no sell-by date. God created man to live forever. Philosophically speaking, we do not need to look far to realise it. Think of our minds, I’m in my sixties and yet, I’m still a youth in my inner world. My brain has the potential to take in knowledge eternal. That we have a “mind” is one of science’s great puzzles.

However, what about you and I? John 3:16 shows that faith and life connect inexorably. It’s good to take a moment and read that verse and ask, “What does this mean for me?”

The Slovenian language has a word, an untranslatable word doživljajwhich embraces a rich encounter with someone or something. A walk through a graveyard embraces both the encounter with the graves that remind us of the short breath we take on this earth and also that by turning to God in our solitary walk and experiencing the rich encounter that leads to life.


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Good morning, Brazil! I like that long word, Saudade

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Friday, 28 June 2024, 09:21


   “Truly I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.”


 

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I have a deep secret. I am happy to tell you what it is so long as you do not tell anyone. Is that a deal? This is my secret. I love children’s books; at my age I should know better, but it is an addiction. I love them so much that I did a Children’s Literature module at university.

Gyo Fujikawa is the most addictive for me. Children in paradise, in tree houses, gentle fairies and children no bigger than polka-dot toadstool.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-gyo-fujikawa-drew-freedom-in-childrens-books

Then there’s Astrid Lindgren’s The Children of Noisy Village. I am a Swedophile who can speak a bit of Swedish and I am in awe of the beauty and setting where the tale is filmed. An age of innocence. Swedish village life that will never return. 

https://tv.apple.com/no/movie/the-children-of-noisy-village/umc.cmc.13bmjs0xgg1sv8sju2tv3za5j

There is the Portuguese word that best explains my longing to enter a world that these stories encapsulate, Saudade, a longing or nostalgia for something that cannot be realised.

I guess the reason such stories appeal is the desire to escape mentally from this broken world. C.S. Lewis wrote:

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Interesting, but what world did C.S Lewis mean? Did he mean the world of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? No, he was a Christian and academic. He wrote children’s books and books on Christian apologetics as well as academic books. 

The world he was thinking of was the world recorded in Luke 23:43

  “Truly I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.”


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Good Evening Cambodia! I like your word, Kâmtéa (កំទេរ)

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Friday, 28 June 2024, 09:23

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The first time I felt the concept of Kâmtéa  was back when I was twelve years old. I spent the summer on The Island of Bute, we had a cabin on Bogany Farm. There were around sixty cabins, and families would visit on two-week vacations.

The year in question I met new friends whom we shared many hours with. We made a tree swing in the woods, and we would talk for hours on end. Bonds would form, but when you are twelve years old, such bonds are so easily broken when we are under the authority of our guardians.

You see, my friends would have to return home, and I would be left as lonely as an empty pocket with only the moon and stars for company.

The song, Cottonfields by Creedence Clearwater Revival played frequently on the radio that year and every time I hear it now, I still feel that sense of Kâmtéa welling up.

 

Kâmtéa in the Khmer language captures a deep emotional state, often associated with sadness, mourning, or the experience of loss.

 


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Good Morning Sweden! I Like The Word, Gökotta

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 12:29


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‘How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea...'  —Nikos Kazantzakis

 

Last month, my wife and I camped on Milarrochy Bay on the banks of Loch Lomond. Our pitch was touching the beach. We would wake to catch the sun rise to the sound of a symphony rich in bird song as the world slept. We had fresh brewed coffee and smoked bacon in Greek flatbread warmed on the griddle. And I thought, how simple, happiness  can be. The rich can take the high road, but as for me, I will take the low road free from stress, anxiety, or pain.

Give me neither poverty nor riches

Proverbs 30:8

Gökotta: Rising early to savour the stillness of dawn and absorb the beauty of nature.


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Good morning, India, I like your word (जुगाड़) Jugaad

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 8 June 2024, 19:50

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Good morning, India, I like your word जुगाड़ , Jugaad

I was reading an experiment with ants. A cake was placed on a table with a moat of water surrounding the cake.

In came some scout ants who sniffed out the cake with their antennas. Afterwards, the brought in the rest of the colony.

So, how do you navigate the deep waters surrounding this Victoria sponge cake with full stomachs? They crawled up the wall and along the ceiling and parachuted down on top of the cake.

Now here is the problem: How do they get home. They are stranded on an island, you might say. Well, the formed a human chain across the ocean between the cake and the table. Then, the rest of the colony crossed over the bodies of their fellow ants.

I immediately thought of the Bible account about ants,

Go to the ant you slaker——

Consider its ways and be wise.

Proverbs 6:6 (TLV)

 

Ah! See its ways and be wise. God has gifted the ant with instinctive wisdom; the ability to work out problems in ingenious ways.

 

Jugaaḍ : is an unconventional, economical innovation (Hindi).

 

 

 

Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society.  Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Jim McCrory

Good Morning Gàidhealtachd! I Like That Word Dùthchas

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Monday, 24 June 2024, 19:22



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Good Morning Gàidhealtachd! I Like That Word Dùthchas

I woke today in a semi-conscious state with the sound of Duncan Chisholm's burning violine on Runrig's Proterra. It's a sound deeply embedded and has made a firm pathway in consciousness and it sends the shivers up my spine. It takes me to a place, but I do not know where.

I was raised up in a shipyard town of Govan, Glasgow to the sound of pop-rivets, angry hammers and shifting steel that made vessels that sailed the seven seas. It was the sixties, and it was a place of dark corners where ungroomed dogs salvaged scraps from the bins, and rats scurried in the dark, incognito, but leaving their footprints. It was a place where there were better places to be raised.

It never felt like home. In fact, nowhere felt like home. Perhaps it was the fact that my mother had us moving around and I subsequently attended five primary schools before entering secondary school.

At 15 years old I left school and got a job in the Co-op. But my friend started with Caledonian Mac Brayne on a supply vessel called The Dunvegan (I think) that sailed from Glasgow to Stornoway. Apart from him earning more money than me, I envied the lifestyle. The places he travelled to like Stornoway, and the stories he related to me, made the places feel like home.

I lost contact with Tom in the course of time and have never heard of him since.

Some years later, an older man gave me a cassette tape of Na h-Òganaich. I never understood Gaelic, but there was something drawing me to the Hebrides. Then came Play Gaelic by Runrig. Malcom’s guitar on "Sunndach” created that island and isolated feel that brought a sense of Joy in me. I played the cassette repeatedly. The Islands felt like home. Runrig has played a part in my life that is so difficult to internalise. I am not alone. The Runrig concerts were filled with Germans, Scandinavians, Americans, and travellers from all over the globe. I guess something runs deeper Perhaps it is summed up with the German word Fernweh: homesick for a place one has never been to.


Are we Destined For Another World?

C.S. Lewis had much to say about sunndach, or Joy,

"Joy is distinct not only from pleasure in general but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.”

Perhaps this inconsolable longing in me and others is a small glimpse of what could be. Some of us will never be Gaels, but one day we will be a united family.

Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43


Dùthchas: This word reflects a person's hereditary connection to a place, community, or culture. It includes notions of heritage, belonging, and the responsibilities that come with it.







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Jim McCrory

Good Morning America, Japan, Russia, Honduras, Mexico. The Whole Planet.

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Wednesday, 5 June 2024, 20:00





Image by Nasa courtesy of  Unsplash


I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what town you come from. I don’t know what your culture is like, or whether you are young, old, newly married, or what religion you belong to. But you know something about me in what I write. This is the problem with blogging; it’s unilateral. I love the human family and would be delighted to sit with a coffee and chat with you about your interests, hobbies, beliefs and what makes getting up in the morning exciting for you.

That’s why I love hill walking in Scotland’s fine places. A few years ago, I was walking up Goat Fell on The Island of Arran on Scotland’s west coast. Accompanying me was a lovely family from Norway whom I just met. I. We had a great cultural interchange. Meeting with them is one of these films that is still rolling in my head despite the passing years. We remember kind people and I hope they had a lovely evening camping at the peak.

Alas! It is not humanly possible to keep in touch with everyone. But I truly believe that in the great cosmic journey, we may still meet the kind strangers that have passed our way.

When Jesus hung dying, a repentant criminal asked him, “When you get into your Kingdom, please remember me.

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23: 43.

We do not understand the details of that paradise, but one thing is for sure, it’s worth striving for.

So, perhaps you and I will meet again. Just ask for the thoughtful blogger called Jim when you make it.

Please leave a comment and tell me what part of the planet you are  from.





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Jim McCrory

On the Loss of a Father

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Friday, 28 June 2024, 09:57



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If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!

Job 14:13 BSB

It’s midnight. I’m on the Princess of Scandinavia in the middle of the North Sea between England and Sweden. I’m on the top deck shaking off the two malt whiskeys I drank as I shared a deep conversation with a couple; two schoolteachers from Södertälje whose names have long escaped me.

With no light pollution, it’s as black as night and all the stars are out. More than I have ever seen. There is something about solitude in a starry evening that draws out the deeper questions; it's the Creator's way of acknowledging him through his creation.

I have a thought: Only I have seen this exact starry sky. No one on the entire planet is looking at what I’m looking at.

I think of my father whom I lost when I was 12 years old and wonder where he is. I muse and pen a quatrain:

“Meet me amidst the ocean,

Under the Northern sky

To the light of constellations

As our restless souls pass by.”


Copywrite 2024 © by Jim McCrory


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Jim McCrory

Do You Have an Ache to Know God?

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Tuesday, 17 Sept 2024, 19:28

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I suppose it must have been the late summer. I had been spending summer on an idyllic Island off the coast. We had a cabin with no running water or electricity. My job was to go and fill up the water containers from the communal well. Cows would cautiously approach and stare curiously whilst the smaller ones would shuffle through for front-row viewing.

At dusk, we would light paraffin lamps to illuminate the nights. My father would read children’s books. We were all ears as he read Heidi, Tales From 1001 Nights and Chinese Folk Tales. We ate freshly made pancakes washed down with jam and small glasses of sweet stout. The lamp caused a sibilant sound as it burned up kerosene. It flickered and fostered sleepiness. It finally slumbered for the evening, and we would retire.

I lay there in my bed watching the stars cascading through the window; every one of them. And I wondered if the Chinese farmer boys, or the Bedouin shepherd boys or the milk maids in the Swiss mountains were seeing and feeling the sense of awe that I felt in my heart as the universe entered in. God whispered his presence.

***********

Childhood memories like that visited me often and reminded me of my spiritual awareness
from an early age, albeit in my own childish way. I had an ache to know who created the stars, the moon, and the beautiful island that was so distant from my industrial town where idle men lingered on street corners like characters from a Loury painting. Where post-war tenements blocked natural light. Where unkempt dogs savaged through bins for scraps. Where it always seemed, there was better places to be raised.



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Jim McCrory

Bayanihan: I Like That Word

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 14:49

Bayanihan is one of those words that cannot be translated into English. It is a word that typifies a core Filipino value, spirit of community cooperation.

The spirit of Bayanihan has been exemplified in art. A simple search of the word online and up comes countless examples of villagers toiling in the hot sun carrying a village members home on bamboo poles and relocating it. See the following,

Bayanihan: The Spirit Of Community (youtube.com)

The spirit of the Filipinos reminded me of that account in Acts when the entire first century community acted unselfishly to support their fellow man

 

During those days, the entire community of believers was deeply united in heart and soul to such an extent that they stopped claiming private ownership of their possessions. Instead, they held everything in common. The apostles with great power gave their eyewitness reports of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Everyone was surrounded by an extraordinary grace. Not a single person in the community was in need because those who had been affluent sold their houses or lands and brought the proceeds to the emissaries[ of the Lord. They then distributed the funds to individuals according to their needs. Acts 432-35 (The Voice)

Scripture taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2012 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 See also Wise Words To Start the Day - Finding Solace in an Alien World (when2or3gather.com)


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Life's Big Question: Part Two

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 1 June 2024, 11:24

Imagine you had the power and resources to buy an island on say, the South Pacific. On this island, you would build beautiful houses suited for the environment. There would be rivers, streams, Japanese gardens, and a bountiful variety of wildlife to enhance the quality of life.

What could possibly spoil your project? Humans.



Image by https://unsplash.com/@jailam_r

To combat this moral deterioration on your island, you would observe and scrutinise the human family. Looking for those that would appreciate you as a landlord and respect their neighbours by following the rules necessary to keep this island a tropical paradise.

When God put our first humans in the Garden of Eden, he said,

            "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:28 (WEB).

He then said,

"Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die " Genesis 3 (WEB).

God laid a moral requirement upon man, not to touch the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Possibly a symbol of loyalty to God’s ways.

One of the greatest gifts we have from the creator is free will. However, it is not absolute. We have the freedom to drive, but we must respect the driving laws less we encroach upon others’ freedom.

And so it goes with life on earth. We can use our free will to do good or do evil. Now if you plan to populate a society with the right kind of people (as God intends), you will observe. And that’s what God is doing.

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” 2 Chronicles 16:19 (WEB).

But what if man was unaware of his being observed by God. Isn’t it true that when there is no police or traffic lights around, people abuse the law. So, could this be the reason why God tolerates suffering; to put humans on a level playing field where they believe we are dancing to our DNA in a dark, aimless universe. That is when we show who we really are.

We read the following account when Jesus was being put to death,

One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!” 

But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Don’t you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”

            He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 

Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

 Luke 23: 39-44 (WEB).

Over the centuries, God, and Christ Jesus, are preparing certain humans to inherit paradise. It’s those who have a loyal heart and a will to enhance paradise.

See also Wise Words To Start the Day - Finding Solace in an Alien World (when2or3gather.com)


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