Author Archives: malcolmsmusingscom

I came across this Keith and Kristyn Getty song this week and really like it! Each verse starts ‘Lift high the name of Jesus’. It’s not about my needs, problems, or importance but Jesus. This version of the song is a joyful expression of corporate family worship, as together people of all ages ‘Lift highContinue reading “Lift High the Name of Jesus”

…Yesterday, returning home after a lovely few days in France, all went smoothly apart from one little problem: the machine that reads passport photographs would not recognise mine. Fortunately a kind Frenchman came and I was able to move through passport control… …Sometimes I worry that I will be unrecognised, anonymous, unable to move forward…Continue reading “Remembering Worries and Insecurities”

Yesterday was our last day in France. Spending the day with sister-in-law-Geneviève we visited the shops, walked in the woods, ate together, talked together, laughed together, remembered together… Today we return to England. So what lessons have I be reminded of… perhaps learnt a little better… through this French visit? Receive graciously: Our French familyContinue reading “Graciously, Gratefully, Generously”

We spent yesterday with our French family – sister-in-law-Geneviève, her children and their children, spending much of the day reflecting on what  is the same and what is different… Some differences are immediately evident – language, driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, architectural styles. Others become apparent through conversation and experience… Nephew-Joel andContinue reading “Different But The Same”

I was amused yesterday when I bought a sandwich. The wrapper told me ‘This is not just a honey roast ham and cheddar cheese sandwich. This is an M&S honey roast ham and cheddar cheese sandwich, in our soft vitamin D-enriched oatmeal bread.’ I was getting something better that I realised! Not just the ordinaryContinue reading “Not Just the Ordinary…”

Yesterday… …our friend Andy of ‘Read’s Car Maintenance’, who’s serviced our cars for many years,  posted: ‘Tyre sales have become such an integral part of our business, that we have upgraded our tyre machines to the latest lever-less machine and laser balancer. So why not give us a look the next time you require tyres?’Continue reading “All New, All Change”

My old metal watering can has gone rusty. The water I pour into it drains out through holes in the bottom. I need a new one. In the old ‘There’s a hole in my bucket’ song helpful Liza has constant advice for Henry to mend his holed bucket. Practical Henry sees the problems with herContinue reading “Get a New One”

I have two childhood memories of the old hymn ‘Master the Tempest is Raging’. Firstly, I remember Mum singing it. We didn’t sing it at church; mum found it in an old hymn book. Secondly, it was the first hymn I attempted to play on the piano. it was in the key of C andContinue reading “Master the Tempest is Raging”

Yesterday, at ‘The Seagull’ our Music for Wellbeing group sung the old Beatles song ‘Octopuses Garden’. It’s a good fun song about this lovely place of happiness and peace: We would be warm below the stormIn our little hideaway beneath the wavesResting our head on the seabedIn an octopus’s garden near a cave This octopus’sContinue reading “The Octopus’s Garden”

This morning I read that people are ‘…like the new grass of the morning – though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.’ If midlife is midday… folks speak of a midlife crisis… perhaps around the age of fifty? So at seventy-five I guess I’m at six inContinue reading “Standing at Six O’clock”