But the greatest of these is love...

As I take that walk through the various paths to church most Sunday mornings, I know I am rather alone in my journey. At the doors of St Padarn, I leave my worries and when I leave, I feel my spirits lifted and my faith restored.

I have not posted on my blog for some time. I wanted to share a moment during this period of binary silence which I thought would be worth sharing. Funnily enough, I have started this on numerous occasions but always ceased to complete it. I was persuaded to continue my blog posting after reading my niece Lekhna's status on how revolted she was about a Quran-burning day organised by a church in Florida. I started writing this about the time of the Sikh new year and after a friend had visited Aberystwyth, a lovely Hindu girl - a former student of Aberystwyth University and from back home. On of the days of this visit, she enthusiastically agreed to accompany me to church - insisting that her being my guest should not get in the way of my daily routine. So we set off to St Padarn in the historic village of Llanbadarn - a bilingual church that has brought me so much of peace. The sermon was on Paul's letter to the Corinthians - about love, from one of the readings on that Sunday - on how there is one thing that unites us all - love. How wonderful for us! A Sikh, a Hindu - in a Christian place of worship - to hear those wonderful words.

We were, apart from being a Sikh and a Hindu, Malaysians. Every Malaysian with a heart and conscience was affected by the unaceptable crimes commiteed in the name of God - when several churches in Kuala Lumpur were damaged as a result of arson arising from the decision of the High Court to allow a Christian publisher to use the word 'Allah' in its Malay language publications. But most disappointed of all would have been HIm. How petty and pathetic are we all? We are His children - and I have grown up admist all of them - Muslims, Chrtistians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddihists and more. I have learnt of our differences but more importantly, I have learnt how similar we are. As I was equally disturbed by the burning of the Churches in Malaysia, I was equally disturbed by how the Swiss have voted in a referendum against the bulding of mosques with minarets, about the lack of respect for Muslims by the taunting of visual representation of the Prophet or by the banning of the right of a Muslim woman to choose [emphasis added] to wear a hijab or burka. Any form of suppression of a belief in any religion is inexplicable and unfathomable as it is unaccepting and non-respectful of a person's choice of how they wish to live and lead their life.

Often I wonder what are we doing wrong? In a world that is increasingly cynical of God, we who believe are certainly not making a good case on His behalf. If we can take our differences and celebrate them as our uniqueness and if we can rise above all the unGodly forces that wedge us apart, our true religion will prevail - love.

St Padarn Church, Llanbadarn, Aberystwyth

The old in the new...

Entrance to my flat, Pentre Jane Morgan, Penglais, Aberystwyth

As I am drafting this week’s entry, we, in the UK, are suffering from the big freeze. The only ones not complaining about the heavy snowfall are my countrymen who are often found outside hurling snowballs…myself not excluded. The coldest winter since 1963. The marina in Aberystwyth has been set in ice and students have been late in returning to the university. I am myself enjoying the snow with the exception of that day when I had to shorten my Christmas break by a day having to rush to the bus interchange for the first bus out of Brecon to Newtown before the snow started falling worsening the road conditions.

When November takes a turn into December, and then as the New Year approaches, there is this profound sense of the loss of the familiar – the familiar presence of the people who are nearest and dearest to me, my family and closest friends. My birthday, my mum’s, Christmas and New Year – why do they have to be so close, concentrating the heaviness of my heart in miserable miserable days!

But there is something called God’s grace. He has given me so much and I have come to be blessed with friends who have me at the forefront of their hearts and minds.

I was invited to spend Christmas with a friend and his mother and his family. Lovely people who made me feel welcome in their homes. As I was in their company, I couldn’t help but feel that I was sharing a special moment in their lives. The banter, the poking of fun, the catching-up, the exchange of warm hugs and kisses – so much like being at home with mum, Nikki and of course the mischievous three who give so much meaning and purpose to my life – the stars in my sky - Lochna, Lekhna and my Siamese twin, Yudish. Oh how I miss you all!

New Year’s eve was spent at my second home in Aberystwyth with my Aber ‘family’ – my daily conspirators of mischief and fun! How I love you!

Isn’t it fascinating that although I am so far away from my family, I have found another? Isn’t it fascinating how the familiar love and companionship that is missed is flooded once more with new love and company?

There is no one else who can articulate my emotions more prophetically than the genius of Tagore…

Thou hast made me known to friends whom I knew not.
Thou hast given me seats
in homes not my own.
Thou hast brought the distant near and made a brother
of the stranger.
I am uneasy at heart when I have to leave my accustomed
shelter;
I forget that there abides the old in the new,
and that there
also thou abidest.
Through birth and death, in this world or in others,
wherever thou leadest me it is thou, the same,
the one companion of my
endless life
who ever linkest my heart with bonds of joy to the unfamiliar.
When one knows thee, then alien there is none, then no door is shut.
Oh,
grant me my prayer that I may never lose
the bliss of the touch of the one
in the play of many.
- Gitanjali

I found the old in the new….family and friendship, love and companionship.

Pentre Jane Morgan, Aberystwyth

First steps....

As it is often the case, the first blog entry is an introduction of the blogger. I do not find myself interesting enough to be worthy of an introduction. Honestly, I find it rather self-absorbing and could not be asked! I am also not going to state what the blog will serve to comment on. If I can say anything on what it is going to be about, it will be about something…anything and even perhaps nothing.

I would want to mention one thing. Tabula rasa is the state I wish to maintain when I am feeding my curiosity about my world. And before I start receiving comments on what it means – it is a Latin word which essentially means an erased tablet. The mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience or the mind in its uninformed original state – postulated by John Locke in his book An Essay Concerning Human Understanding…that the mind at birth is a blank slate and filled through the course of life with experiences. My mind is still largely a blank slate. There is an enormous amount I need to know, see, feel, taste and embrace. And I guess returning to what this blog will serve to do, I reckon at its minimal, the blog will record some of the filling of the spaces on my tablet.

Today, apart from being 01/01/2010, it is Enough Day for me. I was inspired by a reading and it defined “Enough Day” as follows

"Today all material possessions are enough. I hope to seek another and better
kind of wealth than terminal acquisition.”

I am sure it is going to be hard to keep to this promise (I am strongly fighting the urge to use the word “resolution”) but it is a start that I didn’t go into town to scour for bargain buys. So I remained on Penglais Hill cleaning up after the New Year's Eve party and having some time for introspective reflection.

Just a few more things...it will be weekly( I hope)....if you wish to make a comment, be polite, please....I welcome earnest comments....each blog will include a feed for the eyes and the soul - a picture and a quote. The picture will be extracted from my collection of pictures and the quote will be an extract of whatever I am reading, which is often random. And finally, all the errors are not an intentional fault of mine...cheeky!

Feed for the eyes: For my first post it is that of my favourite tree on the Meadow, Cathedral Close, Brecon Cathedral, Brecon, Wales. I often stand below the shade of its boughs which always feel like arms embracing me as I ramble with Him about my trivialities (Spring, 2009). Yes, I am referring to the tree!

Feed for the soul: St Augustine! What can I say - one of the brightest feathers in the Christian cap.

"...we must enjoy to the full that truth which lives interchangeably, and since, within it, God the Trinity, the author and creator of everything, takes thought for the things that he has created, our minds must be purified so that they are able to perceive that light and then hold fast to it. Let us consider this process of cleansing as a trek, or a
voyage, to our homeland; though progress towards the one who is ever present is not made through space, but through integrity of purpose and character."

- On Christian Teachings, Saint Augustine, 427 AD

Happy TwentyTen everyone!!!