Author Archives: malcolmsmusingscom

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”

I’m reading Bob Roxburgh’s ‘Kingdom First’. He says: ‘Contemporary cultural influences present us with individualism, narcissism, anti-authority, anti-truth, as well as inadequate definitions of the good life, where everything must yield to satisfaction and happiness.’  His analysis of a dark world is sadly true. I could present examples from the news, from my life… fromContinue reading “My Friend Darkness”

On Monday I had my eyes tested – my annual check-up at Boots Opticians. The assistant did initial checks, filled in forms. The optometrist did the more detailed tests – letter charts, eye inspection… I need new glasses. New frames were selected; I was told the price. All as expected… But then the unexpected. HowContinue reading “How Many Pairs?”

Outside our back door there’s an ornamental well that my friend Reg from Men’s Shed made. We planted it out with pansies… one duck’s in the bucket, another duck’s looking on… I’m reminded of the old nursery rhyme ‘Ding dong bell…’ about a cat, not ducks, in a well. Nursery rhymes often contain cruelty toContinue reading “Good Tommy or Bad Johnny?”

They say that love changes everything. Four weekend stories suggest that time changes everything… Chatting to an optometrist… He’s sometimes had to tell elderly patients that their sight has deteriorated to such an extent that they’re no longer fit to drive – and that he must inform the authorities. On the day, the patient mayContinue reading “Time Changes Everything…”

At church last Sunday we sung this song. We hadn’t sung it for some time. It was good to remember it… Come people of the risen KingWho delight to bring him praiseCome all and tune your hearts to singTo the Morning Star of graceFrom the shifting shadows of the earthWe will lift our eyes toContinue reading “Come People of the Risen King”

Yesterday at Music for Wellbeing we were still in a VE Day mood, singing a songs from the 1940s… White Cliffs of Dover, We’ll Meet Again… many old favourites… songs of hope, that took us on a journey from the troubled days of war to a better tomorrow. We sung ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’… LifeContinue reading “The Rainbow Journey”

A friend mentioned ‘Bread and Circuses’… Mr Google tells me that ‘Bread and Circuses’ is attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal… saying that to keep people happy all you need to do is feed them and entertain them. Most people don’t care about the needs of others or have deeper political or spiritual priorities. ManyContinue reading “Much More Than Bread and Circuses”

Last night was our weekly music practice. Nine singers and instrumentalists met at church to play through Sunday’s songs. At one point the noise didn’t sound good. It was like a competition – playing against rather than with each other. I remembered years of music teaching… classroom music, school choirs, major productions… emphasising the importanceContinue reading “Learning to Listen”