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Brennan Manning tells the story of a monastery that attracted the most gifted, competent monks. One small monk couldn’t relate to the dignified holy worship of the other monks. He felt inadequate. He’d been a common circus performer. Feeling inferior and alone, whilst the other monks were celebrating high mass each day in the sanctuary,Continue reading “The Little Monk and the Fourth-Rate Bass Player”

When I was teaching, I introduced the children to a number of Stephen Foster songs – Beautiful Dreamer, Camptown Races, O Susannah… This week I’ve been reminded of the old Stephen Foster Song ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’. Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears,While we all sup sorrow withContinue reading “Hard Times Come Again No More”

Three things from yesterday… …Reflecting on ‘Buffalo Bill Comes to Lowestoft’: Local musician John Ward’s research on Buffalo Bill’s huge, spectacular Wild West Show coming to Lowestoft in 1903 included several quotes from Buffalo Bill Cody. In particular: ‘In nine out of ten cases where there is trouble with white men and Indians, it willContinue reading “Bill, Badger and Bagpipes”

Last night we saw ‘Buffalo Bill Comes to Lowestoft’. Local musician John Ward has researched how Buffalo Bill and his huge, spectacular Wild West Show came to perform in Lowestoft – close to where we live in Pakefield – in 1903. He told the fascinating tale in songs, words and pictures. In describing the lifeContinue reading “Buffalo Bill and Hocus Pocus”

We’ve been following the BBC ‘Great British Sewing Bee’. Three exceedingly creative and talented women – Anna with her quirky theatrical flair, Beth, the engineer, who always worked with precision and Emma whose sewing was always bright and joyful, reached the final. They were challenged to create a bow tie and cummerbund, transform tableware intoContinue reading “Facing the Challenge”

Yesterday… …Seeing Raheem Stirling attending court. He’s played football for top British clubs, he’s played for England eighty-two times, in 2021 he received an MBE for services to racial equality in sport. In May thirty-one-year-old Sterling crashed his Lamborghini. Yesterday he was pleading guilty to dangerous driving before, possessing nitrous oxide for wrongful inhalation, andContinue reading “Act, Love, Walk”

The Scottish poet Robbie Burns wrote the famous words (in translation): The best laid plans of Mice and Menoft go awry,And leave us nought but grief and pain,For promised joy! They’re part of an eight-verse poem ‘To a Mouse’. Farmer Robbie Burns, accidentally ploughed through poor “Mousie’s” nest in a field. The poem is anContinue reading “The Best Laid Plans…”

Yesterday… …Reading Ken Kesey’s ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. The rebellious Randle McMurphy enters a psychiatric hospital where each patient is expected to conform. A staff member says of McMurphy, ‘He who marches out of step hears another drum’. Apparently, the original Henry Thoreau nineteenth century quote reads: ‘If a man does not keepContinue reading “Marching out of Step”

When Rachel and I were involved in church youth work fifty years ago I met Graham Kendrick. It was an event for church youth leaders in Derby. I remember a humble, warm, personable man, who was expressing his faith in songs that were accessible and authentic. I often return to his songs. This week IContinue reading “For This I Have Jesus”

Lowestoft gets in the news for odd reasons. This week it was Lowestoft’s Miranda Worby… When Miranda was a child, she wanted a pony. When her parents refused, she bought a ‘My Little Pony’ toy. She started collecting them. What started as a childhood hobby became serious passion. By 2018 her collection was so bigContinue reading “Ponies, Wasps, Cuckoos and Fish”