Catalyst

A change maker
Yet not changing
Or making anything

A precipitate
Chemically speaking
that makes a reaction go faster
without
being consumed in the process

Precipitating
events and chains of events
happenings and altering relationships
In the people around you
Sometimes without even knowing,
By strict definition ‘especially without being involved in
or changed by the consequences.’

That last part
Humanly speaking
Is hard to practice
Too much precipitates

Flash past

Californian sunshine
Bathed Kilmarnock one day
Momentarily really
Dusty dry street, broken glass glistening at the kerb
Struck by the wheels
Of the first skateboard my eyes set upon
It clunkered and thunked
Making an alien rhythm
Flashed past
A thing of US import
Really in Kilmarnock?
Could I ever?
Seen on TV only
Now on my granny’s street

I was not that boy
That flashed past
No early adopter
Could I ever?
See on TV only
Wouldn’t really actually
Have a go
Could I ever?
Watched it, flash by
Never thinking
That I could ever.

So much flashes past
Signals to other lives that
Needn’t bounce off and be repelled
It seems ‘Roger that’
Would be better.
Sometimes
To say ‘received’
Instead of mute watching
And later wishing.

Worsening forecast

Al Gore video on worsening climate crisis
Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on ‘clean coal.’

Astoundingly beautiful lyrics, sounds great too.

"Marching Bands of Manhattan" Death Cab for Cutie

If I could open my arms and span the length of the isle of Manhattan
I’d bring it to where you are making a lake of the East River and Hudson
If I could open my mouth wide enough for a marching band to march out
They would make your name sing and bend through alleys and bounce off all the buildings

I wish we could open our eyes to see in all directions at the same time
Oh what a beautiful view if you were never aware of what was around you
And it is true what you said: that I live like a hermit in my own head
But when the sun shines again I’ll pull the curtains and blinds to let the light in

Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole
Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound
But while you debate “half empty” or “half full”
It slowly rises: your love is gonna drown

plans - death cab for cutie

I am what I am

Whatever the genetics, nurture and environment that go into making us what we are there is the constant inner ache that we are not what we should be. This seems to be a universal human condition. I am not what I ought.

After last Sunday's service I was given these simple profound verses. A response to my reflections on the verses in Romans 7 '"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

I am what I am
I am not what I follow
If I am what I follow
And I follow what I am
Then I am not what I am.