Author Archives: malcolmsmusingscom

Yesterday morning… Minister-Lou preached her Palm Sunday sermon on Psalm 118… Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey… The crowd shouting, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,’ is a direct quote from this Psalm. Psalm 118 ends with, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love enduresContinue reading “God is Good”

On TV last night a choir sung ‘You’re the Voice’. The song’s forty years old – written in 1986, inspired by an anti-nuclear demonstration in London. Watching it again last night ‘You’re the voice’ still seems powerful and relevant today We have the chance to turn the pages overWe can write what we want toContinue reading “You’re the Voice”

We learnt this week that the 190-mile Coast-to-Coast walk across the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors has received a £5.5m upgrade. It’s been designated England’s newest National Trail. There was a lot of emphasis on preparing and starting well at St Bees on the Irish Sea coast. We saw theContinue reading “The Importance Of The In-Between”

Yesterday Liz was telling me about her running. She trains each week with her running club; she takes part in the weekly parkrun. she’s currently helping a friend train for a marathon later in the year. For Liz, running is a social event. For the many years, running was my opportunity to get away fromContinue reading “Individuals Together”

The recent sunshine and warmer weather have encouraged me to consider spring planting. I remembered I’d been given packets of seeds for Christmas… In our garden-shed I discovered parsnip, beetroot and lettuce seeds… and a ‘growbar’… which I misread as ‘crowbar’. Closer inspection revealed that the growbar is tomato seeds ‘in a bar of fertileContinue reading “Growbars and Crowbars”

Richard held out his hand, holding something in his clenched fist: ‘I’ve got something for you.’ Puzzled, I held out my hand. He gave me my bicycle light. ‘Sorry, Malcolm,’ he said, ‘I was manoeuvring Oz’s mobility scooter, it clipped your bike and broke the light off. Things often get damaged and broken; we speakContinue reading “Damaged and Broken”

Yesterday… Reading… Captain Howard Reid, betrayed and recaptured by the Germans in Italy, in 1943, played ‘Poor Tom’s a-cold’… I didn’t recognise the phrase… Mr Google says it’s Shakespeare – King Lear. …Edgar, Gloucester’s son and heir, is cast out from his family by his half-brother Edmund’s scheming. He disguises himself as ‘Poor Tom’, aContinue reading “From Survival to Celebration”

On Saturday, the Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, spoke of the conflict in her native Iran with personal understanding, some anger, heart-felt compassion for the suffering… She challenged the lack of clarity regarding the aims of the war: ‘Without clear aims it’s impossible to properly assess whether the cause of this war is just, whetherContinue reading “Clear Aims”

The Bible has always been a part of my life. From an early age I used ‘Scripture Union Bible Readings’ – a few verses to be read each day. On all of their literature was, ‘Open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law’  Psalm 119:18. I learnt that PsalmContinue reading “Thy Word”

Acceptance: Earlier this week I was reminded of Kermit singing the old Jim Henson song: It’s not that easy being green;Having to spend each day the colour of the leaves.When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold-Or something much more colourful like that.It’s not easy being green. I’ve met folksContinue reading “Acceptance, Aspiration, Achievement.”