Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to destruction is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it Photo note: Taken at mid-day on Hill Street at the mouth of the Singapore…
Complex & Simple
Complex & Simple, Nature, Persons, Places, Posts
Desert Reflections 3
For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is a good thing., but if salt has become insipid, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. (Mk 49-50) Photonote: May 2016, at Badwaters, Death Valley National Park, CA. GM1
Complex & Simple, Nature, Places, Posts
Desert Reflections 2
The paved desert road in modern times, is like an air-conditioned carpet through a presently desolate but geologically recent and verdant past. But it’s not lifeless.
Complex & Simple, Persons, Posts
The Power of Positive Thinking
“There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit” Plaque on President Ronald Reagan’s desk (1980-88) “The whole idea of the Presidency is having somebody in the Oval Office who can try to get above the bickering and buttonholing in the cloakrooms…
Books, Complex & Simple, Persons, Posts
Desert Reflections (in Josef Neuner’s “Walking With Him” – Day 1) )
I first came across the works of Father Josef Neuner, S.J., in several scholarly articles published in Review for Religious (2001) on interpreting the spiritual journey and darkness of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. In a posthumous collection of her personal letters, Come be My Light (Doubleday 2007), representing her ‘unauthorized’ autobiography, Father Neuner was indeed the spiritual director…
Complex & Simple, Nature, Places, Posts
Bauhinia Rhapsody X – The Empty Nest
(Mid-Week 47) After a morning of restless cacophony and chorus that ascended into an ethereal crescendo, amidst the hustle and bustle of parents…….. silence, serenity and peace. And the world was indeed a better place that day. (Week 47) A week after the weak chicks cried without a voice, the industry of the parents (and the…
Complex & Simple, Persons, Places, Posts
Qing Ming in Lijiang, Yunnan
We visited the ancient city of Lijiang in Yunnan Province in 2009 and were privileged to partake in a Qing Ming meal in the ancestral home of a Naxi family. The simple but hearty countryside fare was served unceasingly and generously, after which the folks gathered to reminiscence and watch television. The dim dankly room…
Complex & Simple, Nature, Places, Posts
Bauhinia Rhapsody IX – The Relentless March of Creation
(Week 47) A week after the weak chicks cried without a voice, the industry of the parents (and the scale of the grub) and the size of the nestlings have increased exponentially. The parent looks a little worn around the edges, but the pace of creation hurtles along towards the next major milestone – the…
Complex & Simple, Nature, Places, Posts
Bauhinia Rhapsody VIII – Faithful Parents
The parents have emerged, as both take turns to feed the nestlings and to keep the nest warm. Here, a parent keeps a moment of vigilance on surrounding intruders before disappearing into the depths of the well-camouflaged nest in the bush. This is the crucial period for survival – humans can only keep a watchful eye from…
Complex & Simple, Persons, Posts
When Jesus Came to Birmingham – G.A. Studdert Kennedy
When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree, They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary; They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep, For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to…