Silent Joy

An adorably shy red panda carefully peeks its head over a wooden shelf, letting its front paws hang off for everyone to see those cute lil feetsies

Daily red panda pawbs

YouTube video by 嶋崎雄斗 マリンバ3重奏「ぬいぐるみたちの天国と地獄」"Orpheus in the Underworld"Teddy bears Marimba trio

Yes, YouTube algorithm, this is exactly the kind of content I want to see.
youtu.be/miFCWJDjL1w

It’s never too late to change for the better xox

Quote on dark background - text reads "The conservative nostalgia of a Christian congregation, often mistaken for Christian loyalty and faithfulness, may be directed toward its Victorian buildings or centered on minor liturgical conventions whose origins may date back no more than a few decades. The religious imagination, because of its ideological character, has a way of conferring the authority of antiquity upon the innovations of yesterday. John M. Hull - What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning? 1985"

I'm currently reading John M. Hull's 'What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning?'

This book is full of really insightful gems.

In the wider quote, he suggests this means Christian learning often happens in rare moments of creativity, rather than through the week-by-week life of the church.

Co-option? Appropriation? Reframing?

YouTube video by The Soil and The Seed Project - Topic For the Tired and Alone (feat. Spectator Bird)

Peace, peace God, give us peace
We cannot make peace on our own
Through the day and the night You will always provide.
You love us; we’re never alone

🎵For the Tired and Alone (feat. Spectator Bird) - The Soil and The Seed Project · Spectator Bird

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L48k...

I woke up early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. So went the the kitchen to get a glass of milk, looked out the window and saw Venus!!

The 'morning star' indeed. Odd but wonderful to see a planet with the naked eye.

I’m surprised it was such a flop when it came out. I wonder if it would fare better today.

Stop motion (a medium painstakingly crafted by human hands) feels like it might pick-up a kind of premium in this age of AI slop.

A 21st-century Arts and Crafts movement? William Morris, eat your heart out.

Still from the film Kubo and the Two Strings. Main character Kubo (11 year old kid), with Monkey and Beatle Samari.

On a friend’s recommendation, I just watched Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

A lovely stop-motion film with such a charming story. The animation is utterly beautiful, it's intricate, flowing, full of expression down to the smallest facial movements
#FilmSky #StopMotion #Cinema #KuboAndTheTwoStrings

Text reads: "Dearly beloved Friends, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by, but that all, with the measure of light which is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the light walking and abiding, these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Postscript to an epistle to ‘the brethren in the north’ issued by a meeting of elders at Balby, 1656"

I believe that Queries are one of Quakerism’s gifts to the wider Church.
Fun fact: I once shared some of my favourite Quaker queries with my Anglican spiritual director, and she warmly thanked me for passing on “these Quaker guidelines”.
Which was slightly jarring and I couldn't quite describe why.

Faith in Questions: The Gift of Quaker Queries Where I wax lyrical about the Quaker spiritual practice of queries.

New blog post - Faith in Questions: The Gift of Quaker Queries.

Queries aren’t leading questions, they’re a spiritual practice grounded in the Quaker tradition of discernment. They invite reflection, listening, and faithful living.
#Quakers #Quakerism #FaithAndPractice

Discernment is a gift from God, not a personal achievement. The gift is not the result of training, technique, or analysis. Like other gifts of God, its origin is mysterious and gratuitous.

— Patricia Loring, Quaker educator

I’m a 2/3 hybrid – we are cringe and that’s okay, and everyone else is cringe and that’s okay.

To live is to cringe and be cringe… and that’s okay.

Yes, cruel but also stupid. Much of the protection these kinds of scammers have is the shame of their victims. Surely Fabien publicising this by sharing the video is shooting himself in the foot just to be extra nasty.

ARticle from the Independent saying "Millennials are confused by another Gen Z thing" plus photo of a woman looking at her mobile phoce with hand on head in confusion.

Is this really news? Because frankly, I'm confused all the time.

We had a Cafe Church-style service round coffee tables in the church hall. In small groups we discussed where we are heading as a church, and who are we willing to notice along the way. Always great to hear about other's experiences of faith, especially when so different from mine.

Yes, such a great review from Nell Minow at RobertEbert.com

I was stuck by how they used COVID, the sections in the modern day are set just as the pandemic started.

You really feel Kristófer's isolation, disjointed memory, and the urgency of time slipping away in the masks, enforced social distancing, and near empty hotels as he seaches.

I went to see the 2024 film Touch at the cinema last week. And I'm still thinking about it.

Here's a proper review if you're interested: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/touc...

#FilmSky #Film #Cinema

Walking the Wandering Way: A Labyrinth Reflection The first time I walked a labyrinth in prayer, I was stressed out.

My new blog is live: Walking the Wandering Way

A reflection on labyrinths and the winding way of faith. The path isn’t always straight, but it leads to the Centre. Even when you feel furthest away, you might be closer than ever.

Featuring wisdom from Thomas Kelly and two cats. ✝️ #Faith #Quakers

The image includes the quotation below, along with a picture of Lloyd Lee Wilson (an older white man, with a long white beard, wearing a light blue shirt, and black braces): Gospel order is the order established by God that exists in every part of creation, transcending the chaos that seems so often prevalent. It is the right relationship of every part of creation, however small, to every other part and to the creator. Gospel order is the harmony and order which God established at the moment of creation, and which enables the individual aspects of creation to achieve that quality of being which God intended from the start, about which God could say “it was very good.” Lloyd Lee Wilson

Gospel order is the order established by God that exists in every part of creation, transcending the chaos that seems so often prevalent. It is the right relationship of every part of creation, however small, to every other part and to the creator.

Lloyd Lee Wilson

〝Abuse represents not only a private tragedy, but a community failure.〞 — Jade Rockwell

Read or listen to audio recording of "Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves: Spiritual Approach to Abuse Prevention in Friends Meetings" www.lifeandpowerquakerdiscernmentonabuse.com/resources

Seek to lead others to Truth through love. Let us teach by being ourselves teachable. We are all humble learners in the school of Christ. — New England Yearly Meeting #2

The Inner Light, the Inward Christ, is no mere doctrine, belonging peculiarly to a small religious fellowship, to be accepted or rejected as a mere belief. It is the living Center of Reference for all Christian souls and Christian groups—yes, and of non-Christian groups as well—who seriously mean to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. He is the center and source of action, not the endpoint of thought. He is the locus of commitment, not a problem for debate. Practice comes first in religion, not theory or dogma. And Christian practice is not exhausted in outward deeds. These are the fruits, not the roots. A practicing Christian must above all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary, who brings the world into its Light and rejudges it, who brings the Light into the world with all its turmoil and its fitfulness and re-creates it (after the pattern seen on the Mount). --Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

A quote I love from Thomas Kelly's A Testament of Devotion.

Whether we call it the Christ Within or the Spirit, the Light calls us to live more wholly, more lovingly, from the inside out.

Returning again and again to that still centre, where love begins again.

What a silly! A red panda rests its chin on a bundle of grass while sticking its tongue out! How adorable!

Daily red panda

Still from the film 28 Years Later showing two characters with bows and arrows, walking by a wall.

Went to see 28 Years Later today, really great. Still letting it simmer, and excited for the next one… but what was with those cartoonish spines?

Oh I totally get that, Ged does rather take a back seat. But there's something wonderful about him even with so little agency. Gentle, non-judgemental, not panicky even near death. His stillness counterbalances Tenar’s small world and shows how he's matured. I'm now reading The Farthest Shore 😄

I just re-read The Tombs of Atuan, and wow. You remember how good Le Guin is but then you dive back in and rediscover it all over again. The way she gets inside a character’s head and lets you truly see them. The way she writes places, bringing them to life like characters. Just wonderful.
#Earthsea

Photograph of the Sabbath panel of Jacqui Parkinson’s textile art exhibition called Threads Through Creation. Golden spiral in the background, with squares representing the earlier days of creation coming out from the centre.

I talk about how much I love the three-strand spiral representing Father, Son, and Spirit that appears through many of the 12 panels. Timely as yesterday was Trinity Sunday.

Here’s the Sabbath panel, bringing together elements from the other days of creation with the spiral in the background:

Theology in Thread (Part 1): Visiting Threads Through the Bible A joy-filled review of Jacqui Parkinson’s textile art.

New blog: what if the Genesis creation stories were told not in words but in thread?

Threads Through Creation is a textile art exhibition I stumbled into by accident—then made a pilgrimage to see again

Here’s part 1, where I share what moved me, what surprised me and why I think it’s worth seeing.