Stories from April, May & June 2020Gordie JacksonFollow10 min read·Apr 14, 2023--ListenShareApril1. Look to the birds of the airI notice how the ducks just get on with ‘ducking’ despite the noise of the car passing. I heard it but they remained…gordiejackson.medium.com2. It is a risk to be vulnerable but it may well produce something betterThe other day I deliberately chose to be vulnerable. I shared extracts from my writings here with another. The other…gordiejackson.medium.com3. Two minutes for stillnessAn exercise in stillness taught by naturegordiejackson.medium.com4. Does a swan time themselves when taking a wash?Take Two minutes of stillness in your daygordiejackson.medium.com5. The water flows maybe we can tooI discovered this wonderful teacher shortly after I uploaded yesterday’s stillness video. This gentle character speaks…gordiejackson.medium.com6. Trusting because of how it has been to dateReflections on Palm Sunday on line Quaker Meetinggordiejackson.medium.com7. Has the sun fallen from the sky?7. Has the sun fallen from the sky?Has the sun fallen from the sky?gordiejackson.medium.com8. “Who said it was going to be easy.”Setting your boundaries with your adult childgordiejackson.medium.com9. Life situations are like stories with a beginning, middle and endYou know how it is you are working something through and then you come to a place where you feel, “ I have used all my…gordiejackson.medium.com10. We as a people are as the human body, differing members all needing to be heardI sat and listened. I heard the words uttered and responses asked for. I remained silent, I waited. One, two, three…gordiejackson.medium.com11. My annual plunge into deathHoly Friday 10th April 2020gordiejackson.medium.com12. Have you a Good Friday tradition?Holy Friday 10th April 2020gordiejackson.medium.com13. Our awakening to the divine must remain alive and freeA thought prompted from watching, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’gordiejackson.medium.com14. What may a difficult story be doing to us?Sunday 12th April 2020gordiejackson.medium.com15. An ability to be sillyMonday 13th April 2020gordiejackson.medium.com16. Coffee, a bench, a phone and a friend.Tuesday 14th April 2020gordiejackson.medium.com17. What do I know about meditation?A friend contacted me to ask what tools did I use when meditating. Like, I guess many, we are looking for ways to calm…gordiejackson.medium.com18. Scraps of paper which hold words of meaningThursday 16th April 2020gordiejackson.medium.com19. Sometimes it is not until after the event that you see the power of itThe resurrection story asks us to keep an open mind to possibilitiesgordiejackson.medium.com20. Old photos, old films, memory promptsOn Saturday I caught sight of a photo of my first class at school. I went back to it. A parent of one of the class had…gordiejackson.medium.com21. How were we before we understood judgement?It is curious what makes us more tense. At weekends I wake up with less botherment ( just made up that word). That is…gordiejackson.medium.com22. A chip off the old blockIt was the peace that held me. I am not exactly sure, as with life, from where it came. It was somewhere I think…gordiejackson.medium.com23. Your response is your beliefI watch this body that I inhabit and see its pain. I see the child within it and want to be as a father to it. To say…gordiejackson.medium.com24. We have the power to lift up or pull-downI was reminded that as we struggle with life (actually it is more often people and ourselves than life) and…gordiejackson.medium.com25. A week of storiesSaturday 25th April 2020gordiejackson.medium.com26. The nail, the pain, the gainEaster is still in my head and the rhythm of the three days, crucifixion, hell, resurrection. I think we have mini…gordiejackson.medium.com27. Teachers teach, we decidePreethaji the teacher says that anxiety is a waking dream. In an agitated state I would say or maybe while we dream we…gordiejackson.medium.com28. When there is nothing to fall back onto but everything to live inWas I influenced by the thought yesterday that our imaginations even when positive can take us away from the present…gordiejackson.medium.com29. Where are you going?Shopping has become a means of doing something together for T & I. I mentioned previously that she is like a cat…gordiejackson.medium.com30. Holy SmokeHoly Fire ceremony in Jerusalemgordiejackson.medium.com31. Handwritten and croissantsWithout a printer and access to one and an old friend without a computer meant it was back to pen and paper. What some…gordiejackson.medium.comMay1. Begining to surfaceI sat in the car and made a phone call. We in the sixth week of the UK lockdown and I was aware in the words of the…gordiejackson.medium.com2. A week of storiesLike the apples see which one you like and have itgordiejackson.medium.com3. Newborn chick and meI had woken a few times during the night. For those who practice ‘momentness’ ( living with the moment) we do so…gordiejackson.medium.com4. I feel like a Country boyOn Monday we will have completed 6 weeks of living in lockdown. So has a new way of living formed?gordiejackson.medium.com5. Water in the stories of our livesI have noticed during this lockdown that each week I experience what I may call a low tide. Maybe that is how it is for…gordiejackson.medium.com6. If the swan somehow knows so too do IIf the swan somehow knows how to make a nest by the bank of the river, I too know how,gordiejackson.medium.com7. “I don’t have the time to bless myself”Northern Ireland is a place full of sayings. One of which is above. You may not understand it so let me explain…gordiejackson.medium.com8. To what do you turn when feeling a tad vulnerable?It was an important meeting and it was by teleconferencing. I was feeling apprehensive as I can. In such time I go…gordiejackson.medium.com9. Praying for Jerusalem on zoomI have always loved post. Well actually I mean personal post, ok I mean personal post that is edifying. With the advent…gordiejackson.medium.com10. A week of storiesMany screens, many choices, many stories yours for the takinggordiejackson.medium.com11. Whatever is happening, how are we responding?We do not have control over how another acts towards us but we can decide how we respond.gordiejackson.medium.com12. The moment the ironing board became the solutionI was ironing my clothes when it came to me, “What about seeing if the ironing board could double up as a desk for the…gordiejackson.medium.com13. When does the Zeitgeist become old?“I wonder whether all the clapping for the NHS hides something.”gordiejackson.medium.com14. Making peace with RatMy first memory of a rat or rats was when I opened a friend’s back door and two rats were running past and having a…gordiejackson.medium.com15. The moment is the place to beA friend asked me, “How do I stay in the moment?” You don’t. It is when we are out of the moment that we are reminded…gordiejackson.medium.com16. Which do you prefer, a leader or a boss?I was doing what some of us do these days scrolling through Facebook. I came upon this video and it had impact.gordiejackson.medium.com17. To boss or to lead?Often when we hear a story with a lesson like the one I shared yesterday regarding Boss versus Leader we immediately…gordiejackson.medium.com18. A lock’a storiesIn other words some stories from the weekgordiejackson.medium.com19. Kol d’ma•ma da•ka, a thin silenceAnd I thought the words mattered!gordiejackson.medium.com20. There is an order, what is you place in it?I wonder how many of us are being influenced by the snippets of social media that we catch as we scroll.gordiejackson.medium.com21. It is time to press the buttonI felt sad. It is the effect of coming into a gathered silence. Not the sadness but the awareness. Silence does that…gordiejackson.medium.com22. EncountersA friend was talking about encounters. They were particularly interested when we have a jaw stopping moment due to a…gordiejackson.medium.com23. We are bouncing ballsThere is so much within us that we only begin to glimpse it in our interactions with others. In a half-century, a…gordiejackson.medium.com24. Fire burnsThe friction between the wood creates the flame, but what holds the flame? We are but carriers of this life force. We…gordiejackson.medium.com25. Likes the placards I felt discardedWe have been contemplating Peter’s denial of Jesus as recorded in the Book of Luke. Jesus has been arrested and is on…gordiejackson.medium.com26. A week of stories1 & 2 minutes stories from the weekgordiejackson.medium.com27. Zoom, zoom , zoom we are going to the moon.It was at University while studying and doing social work that I kept hearing the phrase ‘post second world war’. It…gordiejackson.medium.com28. Looking in at the other to see ourselvesWhat Shtisel may be telling us about ourselvesgordiejackson.medium.com29. Looking out the window into the world of zoomJoining Quaker on line Meetings for Worship in Slovenia, Europe and Boulder, Coloradogordiejackson.medium.com30. An adventure of the spontaneous on zoomMeeting for worship at Woodbrooke(UK), Pendle Hill (Penn. USA), Ben Lomond (Californa, USA) Quaker Centresgordiejackson.medium.com31. Who needs a picture when you have a clean window?I have a few days off during which I have assigned myself household tasks, like ‘clean the windows’. If my mother left…gordiejackson.medium.com32. Responding to changeI am reminded of a diagram I was once given about our reactions to change. It depends what the change signifies to us…gordiejackson.medium.com33. Zoom has brought me places I have never been but can it bring me to Equality?Visiting Quaker meetings in Canberra (Australia), Birmingham (UK), Pendle Hill (USA) and Limerick ( Ireland)gordiejackson.medium.com34. A week of storiesIs zoom a new way of living?gordiejackson.medium.com35. If you listen carefully the silence is beautifulWords taken from Boulder Friends Facebook pagegordiejackson.medium.com36. The challenge as ever is how do become part of healing?Each morning I reflect on the previous day to see what stayed with me. There is much that happens to us inside a day…gordiejackson.medium.comJune1. Let go and let’s zoomIs zoom my wardrobe into Narnia?gordiejackson.medium.com2. Going deep to grow highThe other day I had an experience. It was while I was in silence with friends in Alaska. I often find myself thinking…gordiejackson.medium.com3. “Am I aware of my power and I am responsible in how I live out of it?”I anticipate that in times to comes it will be forgotten that zoom evolved from our response to COVID 19. It will be so…gordiejackson.medium.com4. Seeing racism as a sin may help us deal with itGrowing up in Northern Ireland (NI) I was so conscious of the conflict in which I was living that I wasn’t conscious of…gordiejackson.medium.com5. Who are we?If white is a merely the pigmentation of the skin it needs no defendinggordiejackson.medium.com6. A week of storiesThe following are from the last weekgordiejackson.medium.com7. All lives matter when Black Lives MatterYesterday across the UK many thousands of people got up and joined the chorus that proclaimed ‘Black Lives Matter’.gordiejackson.medium.com8. “What consolation is there in the death of George Floyd?”“What consolation is there in the death of George Floyd?” This is my paraphrase of the question I heard a friend give…gordiejackson.medium.com9. “Every time I write my name I am writing American history.”Every day is important but some days are both important and memorable. In between teleconferencing and zooming, I heard…gordiejackson.medium.com10. In the silence, I hear the rumblings of my soulIn the silence of the Meeting for Worship I kept thinking of George Floyd’s Memorial Service and how the singing, the…gordiejackson.medium.com11. It happensIt seemed as if everything flowed today as perfectly as the universe quietly gets on with providing us with what we…gordiejackson.medium.com12. For here isFor I am alive this moment as much as the day.gordiejackson.medium.com13. A week of storiesSaturday 6th to Friday 12th June 2020gordiejackson.medium.com14. It isn’t just America in crisis!First, there was COVID 19 and now we are in what CNN calls, ‘America in Crisis’. It isn’t just America. George Floyd’s…gordiejackson.medium.com15. Is silence my new secret lover?Is it the effect of the lockdown? Is it that I am finding myself sometimes twice a day on silent zoom meetings? Silent…gordiejackson.medium.com16. “We find ourselves on one side of a fractured wall that we didn’t build.”I had zoomed into the Meeting for Worship (MfW) of Southern African friends. Southern Africa is an hour ahead of the…gordiejackson.medium.com17. Gardens grow, how do we?Where does growth come?gordiejackson.medium.com18. A rubbish story!I heard the bin lorry and I could see that a neighbour’s car was parked in front of the paladins. This has become too…gordiejackson.medium.com19. Have you noticed people talking about their trees being pollarded?The view from my windowgordiejackson.medium.com20. The space between the windowsI have two rooms with chairs both near windows. I walk between them throughout the day. They create space and I need to…gordiejackson.medium.com21. A week of storiesSaturday 13th June to Friday 19th June 2020gordiejackson.medium.com22. First the coffee shops opened and now the bookshopsWhat we are waiting to reopen post-COVID 19 tells us what is important to usgordiejackson.medium.com23. Visiting Quaker meetings by zoomIt was my fourth week of working through the World Friends Website having visited Friends in, Pendle Hill, Ben Lomond…gordiejackson.medium.com24. How does a robot feel?The car is due to go into the garage in the next 40 minutes for some maintenance. When I know I have something to do…gordiejackson.medium.com25. Getting used to the new normalIt was so hot. It always takes me back 15 years ago when the summers in the south of England became so hot that for the…gordiejackson.medium.com26. Let’s not lose the commute as we ‘Spatially distance’It is all those little interactions during the commute that contribute to a sense of belonging and build a community of…gordiejackson.medium.com27. What is your sense of God? What is your sense of self?Thoughts from Christian Life Community (CLC) England & Wales National Assembly via zoomgordiejackson.medium.com30. I have to start where I beganAs I head towards 50 I want to say some thank yousgordiejackson.medium.com31. You only have one physical birth but numerous spiritual rebirthsAs I head towards 50 I want to say some thank yousgordiejackson.medium.com
