Calm in the Storm

above: the canals of Bruges

The media headlines are not very reassuring at the moment. If they are to be believed, the world is spiralling towards a crisis of climate change, wars, global economic meltdown and food shortages. But it strikes me that this crisis is being made a great deal worse by the atmosphere of panic that is radiating around. We have got to stay calm and keep our heads, do everything we can to avert crisis and ultimately pray. The old adage, 'Pray as if everything depends on God, act as if everything depends on you,' still applies. I suggest that anyone affected by said media panic heads off to Bruges (by environmentally friendly Eurostar, of course), or at the very least watches In Bruges the movie. You could also lie down and listen to the Now Show (which thank heavens is available as a podcast via iTunes) and wait till the feeling goes away, because that might be our best chance of making everything work out alright. Because God is bigger than all our problems, and well able to quiet the storm if we ask Him.



above: child playing in the playground where Colin Farrell has his moment of revelation in the film, 'In Bruges'.

I should also like to point out that fond as I am of the British broadcasting service you should never believe what you hear on the BBC. That especially goes for the weather reports, which today predicted terrible storms. My son's grandmother cancelled her day out with him. Which is a pity, because it has been sunny most of the afternoon, and there is still no sign of any storm. There you see? It's a metaphor - it's probably all fine really, just a bit of media exaggeration...



above: Bruges in spring

Here's what I wrote about Bruges for The Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/europe/belgium/1586373/In-Bruges%2C-with-chocolate-and-Colin-Farrell.html



above: one of the famous Bruges swans

Gather some moss

The front lawn which suffered so much last year during the drought has regrown and is now a springy soft mossy bank (above) such as fairies would be happy to dance on.

Spring has leapt into being eerily early this year, with snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and azaleas all out in full. The words climate change lurk dauntingly in my mind. Will this strange spring finally catalyse every individual to do something about climate change?

Perhaps we are all doing too much. Let's stay still and gather some moss. Read this series of article from the Tablet on leisure and then go and lie down for a while.

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/pages/leisure1/

calm Sunday

Abstaining is not my strong point. I have healthy appetites. I try to avoid puritanism. But I'm realising that fasting is not about abstaining, it's about making room in my life for the best things in life.

Yesterday was Sunday and I did my machinery fast again. At sundown it's absolute bliss to turn off the computer, the modem, the router, the Telewest box, the washing machine, the oven... Not a single humming machine in earshot. (Persuading my au pair to go without internet access for 24 hours was tricky. I managed to get her to turn the modem off by 10am on Sunday - good thing too as the World Health Organisation knows that low levels of electromagnetic energy are OK, but no one has actually done the research in to what high levels of electromagnetic energy do to the body, and I suspect that it will be as with mobile phones. Personally I make very sure my modem and wireless router are switched off every night, though there's not much I can do about the five wireless networks from neighbouring flats that my computer informs me are circulating my apartment.)

After last week's emergency sheet washing marathon (sick toddler - don't ask), this week was better: I spent the day alone quietly resting and trying to tune in to myself and to God. I went to mass, had a little lunch that I'd prepared the night before and popped in for a chat with a neighbour. It slightly foundered towards the end of the afternoon when I set the dishwasher off and went for a walk via a clothing shop, but on the whole it was pretty restful both for me and my gadgets. Today I feel full of enthusiasm and verve and I can't wait to get on with the day.

Taking a rest is the beautiful key to renewal. If we gave the earth a rest it might have time to renew itself. I do wish I could persuade my neighbours of the value of Keeping Sunday Special though. It was so frustrating to walk down to my local high street and see all the cars tearing about. The noise levels were high, the shops were all open. There were still fewer people on the streets than normal, but other than that it was just like a wan version of any other day. We need to learn to rest.

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Day. After that comes Ash Wednesday, and then Lent. It's belt tightening time, when for 40 days Christians give up luxuries and give the money they have saved to the poor. This is the time to seek God within and to defeat the self indulgence instinct. A great meditation tool online is http://www.sacredspace.ie St Ethelburga's are doing a four part Lenten Journey of Reconciliation

Lots of people give up chocolate, but you might give up driving the car, or even clothes shopping. You might give up throwing food out: Try the Cooking by Numbers site to use up what's in the fridge. Given the news this morning that it may be too late to stop the ice caps melting and millions drowning, let's give up polluting the atmosphere for Lent? The Irish bishops are telling their flocks to give up alcohol. The idea is to 'be filled with the Holy Spirit' instead, but I regret to say that of late my sense of being overflowing with the grace of God has been lacking. Hopefully Lent will remedy that.

The money saved could go to The Cardinal Hume Centre and Actionaid. Two excellent charities. The former looks after the homeless of south London and helps them find their way in life, the latter is probably the best of the overseas aid charities. I also greatly admire EIA I don't pay heed to the endless charity begging letters that come through my door. They all, without fail, go in the bin, because I think you can go a little crazy if you start considering each one on it's merits. Nor do I give out money on the street. Street collections are for lazy people who never bother to give to charity and have to be cajoled into it. I think one should put 5% of one's income into direct debits to support two or so chosen charities, and Gift Aid it.

Good noise

How fitting that as the film Babel comes out, in The Guardian today there is an article called 'Quiet Please' which declaims the lack of silence in Britain today.

Of course the Parisians have been complaining about the lack of peace and quiet for far longer than us, a fact that I found out when I worked in Paris for Time Magazine. The Parisians had campaigns against noise and campaigns for good noise, which fascinated me. I interviewed a noise sculptor who had created a noise museum and designed the rehearsal rooms of the Academy of Music, channelling sounds from the street, mixing them with the strains of practice from the rehearsal spaces and using a series of cymbals and giant wind chimes to create a noise art work. This wise man pointed out to me that the only place that is truly silent is the tomb, but that the problem now is that we have ugly noise instead of beautiful noise. Our homes are filled with plastic, which does not resonate. Our streets are filled with the nasty grey rumble of vehicles. Sirens, mobile phones, helicopters, and unwanted music from other peoples stereos all combine to create a crazed ambience. In Paris they had sound deflectors lining the Boulevard Peripherique (the Parisian version of the M25), and I think a lot could be learnt from their example. Defra take note.

The film, Babel, by the way, is a horrifying film about misunderstandings between nations, exacerbated by extreme noise. I do recommend that you take a tranquilliser with you for afterwards. Meanwhile, I am going to carry on attempting to bask in lovely golden inner silence for at least five minutes a day. And much as I enjoy the thick swearing from the Irish lady next door every time the people below leave their television on, I think I'll get some double glazing.

an easy way to solve climate change

I was going to post this on Sunday, when I thought of it, but I was busy doing nothing!

In as little as ten years according to some estimates, London could be submerged under 200 foot of water. Not to mention poor old Bangladesh!

It's a pretty intimidating challenge, but at a time like this above all have faith. Do not worry about this.

One solution that has been overlooked because it is perhaps not as sexy as say, driving a Prius, or eating organic food, is one that the Orthodox Jews could tell us all about: Respecting the Sabbath. If we all rested on the seventh day it would give the earth time to regenerate. Just switch off your machines, stop running around like a mad thing and chill out. Spend the time sleeping, talking to friends, praying (which is simply talking to the ultimate Friend) sitting in silence, or going for a nice long walk. Revel in quietness. On no account use the time to catch up on work or go shopping. You'll feel better for it and so will the planet.

The highly respected editor of Resurgence Magazine, Satish Kumar, first proposed widespread observance of a day of rest and This is genius. Nothing would be easier to do than to do nothing once a week, and if we all did nothing it would make an extraordinary difference to our planet, not to mention the sanity of mankind.

The green movement seems to have got mixed up with voices crying in the desert saying 'Become carbon neutral or be damned!' I think it's a slightly deranged and unhelpful message. Why not suggest something achievable: Try taking a day of rest for the planet.

For an account of the Orthodox Jewish observance of the Sabbath, you could read the superlative novel Disobedience by Naomi Alderman. Not that I'm suggesting we all go as far as the Orthodox Jews (Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, after all) but it's a fantastic novel and you would enjoy it anyway. I trust that any Jewish readers will feel free to comment on my somewhat ignorant understanding of Sabbath observance.

Light Pollution

http://www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/landscape/light-pollution

I know there are some really pressing issues in the world, like the divide between rich and poor, world peace and melting ice caps, but couldn't we just see switch off some lights so that we can see the stars again? If everyone could see the stars, then it might help all the other issues. For a start we'd all get the decent nights' sleep that we need to stop us getting nasty illnesses like breast cancer, sleep deprivation insanity and grumpiness. And we would be stilled by a sense of peace and wonder, which has to be a good thing. We just need to get some plastic masks fitted on the street lamps.

By the way Madeleine Peyroux's 'A Little Bit">is my favourite song at the moment.

The other thing you need to know on this quiet January night is that Pumpkin pizza is God's Own Food. I made my darling son wait an hour for his supper while I made it, but it turned out to be worth the wait. You will find it on p82 of ">Apples of Jam by Tessa Kiros. By the way, said book is the best recipe book I have ever read. It's less a recipe book, more a manual of idyllic childhood.

The night train from Paris to Florence

Plotting my summer holiday is proving as good as prozac for keeping spirits buoyant. It's the first real family holiday that my son and I will have together and I think it's really important to have a great, epic holiday. 3 weeks is about the right length. More than that and you get bored. Less than that and the brain doesn't have time to unfold, soak up the sunshine and expand itself.

This year we are hoping to stay in a cottage in Tuscany, hopefully joined by family and friends. I want to take the night train from Paris. That is proper travelling - a delicious gentle voyage. It's not like the screaming sleeper that runs from London to Aberdeen, where you wake up every time they cream round a corner. You wake up in Florence with Brunelleschi's Duomo glinting sublimely from behind tenement flats.

Of course, I should be finding the sunshine within. 'Here is where the birds sing, here is where the sun shines' (c.f. Room with a View). What I am really thinking of when I fantasize about a summer holiday is heaven, and the holiday will never quite live up to my high expectations. In truth, heaven is just next door; a glittering, joyous party being held very near, in a separate reality.