Tag: living in the moment

Glimpses of now in the west of Ireland

Beauty does not always cloak itself in grandeur; it can be even more striking when glimpsed through the veil of the everyday. Life’s incandescence glimmers in every ordinary moment if we’d but see it.

This short film was taken on morning walks over two weeks in June and July, 2014 in the beautiful west of Ireland, near the village of Shrule on the border of Galway and Mayo. The Irish might not agree, but the misty and cloudy days seen here were to me possibly even more beautiful than the cloudless skies we saw day after day this summer. No accounting for taste I suppose. Grace and peace to you.

Embracing paradox and living to tell the tale

BOOK REVIEW:  Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes In God: How To Give Love, Create Beauty and Find Peace.  Frank Schaeffer, 2014
 

Frank Schaeffer Cover

I completely understand the puzzlement that comes over people when I declare myself a believer and an atheist. It’s not something that comes up all the time of course but occasionally there’s no avoiding it and you just have to come clean. Once it went like this: “I was a Christian, then I became an atheist.” It was sad for some people to hear. But at least it was neat and they knew where I stood. Now it’s: “I still don’t believe in the God the atheists don’t believe in, but I pray every day.” And that’s just messy. Explain it and it gets messier.

People aren’t good with messy. While I’m obscenely comfortable in this paradoxical pigeon-hole I’ve carved out for myself, I’ve had to resign myself to the fact that on questions like this people prefer ‘either-or’ to ‘both-and’, and so it’s felt like something of a solitary little niche. That said, you can imagine my delight when I stumbled on the totally messy title of Frank Schaeffer’s latest book, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God. Continue reading “Embracing paradox and living to tell the tale” →

Jesus smiled at me today

Jesus smiled at me today, his radiant, beaming, toothless ‘thank you’, life’s extravagant gift. To me. Gracious unearned gift.

YESTERDAY I passed him by. Twice, that I recall. First outside Gloria Jean’s. It all happened in a blink. Continue reading “Jesus smiled at me today” →

Life is this moment

Life is this moment

I can imagine then,

some time other than this;

I can think of there,

some place other than this;

I can be only now and here,

for life is now, here.

Life is this moment.

Christopher Malcolm Knauf 2013