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[heartfeltadventure]

It was my goal this morning to sit down and to write something significant. And I did, though it has not been on this ‘blog’ as I had hoped to. I wrote emails to catch up with friends, and significant emails towards the next steps of my life. 

Yet I needed to write just for me. To put finger to keyboard and clatter out something that would put words to something. Anything. I repeatedly write about my need to write. My urges and desires and swirling words without manifest form need an outlet, but there is always something that stops me, throwing up a wall between me and myself. It’s called fear. As Marianne Williamson said (not Nelson Mandela) :  Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

And it is that fear that stops me most of the time. That fear of being who I know God has made me to be, because what if it is not perfect?! What if it is ‘too perfect?’ What if I do something wrong? But I am realising again and again, that there is plenty out there in the world that shows that a heart hungry for righteousness, even if something goes wrong or isn’t perfect, is very much needed and should be displayed for the world. Shining as the light of the world Jesus declared we are. A phrase caught me in the Passion Translation of Psalms, though I can’t remember which Psalm, I think it’s in the 10-20s section, was: to surrender to the holiness that dwells within (the Spirit-filled believer). That holiness hungers for the Lord, the living Word of life, and then aches to share that with the world! And that constant hungering, acknowledgement and sharing of presence and power, is what my understanding of the fear of the Lord has become (these are simply thoughts, please be like the Bereans and look things up yourself!). God declared that as the Israelites followed every command He gave them, and brought His words and presence into the operation of their daily routine, every moment surrendered to His will, they would learn the fear of the Lord. They would see Him and know Him constantly and His holiness. And it is humbling to realise that His holiness chooses to take up residence in me, and out-work Himself through me, and how He has made me to be. He is so proud of ME and how I am and operate, why have I been scared to share this?!

One of my goals for this year is to learn to fail better. I don’t want the responsibility of micro-managing my life. It’s too stressful and painful and I have no idea what I’m doing anyway! I want to be able to be utterly failing in the eyes of everyone, but be 100% fine that God is with me and I am in His will regardless. Though that does mean I have to fail more... and after a year of what has felt like failure that does not seem appealing... maybe I should learn all I can right now so I don’t have to go through the painful learning process of failure again! The faster you learn, the faster you master and overcome.

Well that was a more personal post than I had anticipated writing. Next time, loads of updates on this Japan journey! It’s been almost a year and a lot has happened!

[heartfeltadventure]

I’ve not written in quite a while, primarily because I was preparing to make my move to Japan (in theory and intention, though it would appear that preparation is a near impossible thing to do in totality!), whilst also discovering and investing in the future of my home area, by being involved in the Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership with Northlight Heritage. Such a great experience. Such a busy time of life. But now God is doing a new thing.

First impressions of Japanese culture? It is a lot to take in at once. It is a lot to adjust to. I have admittedly struggled – though definitely fresh boost of thankfulness and new lense of perspective needs to be put on, and perhaps a step back and re-calibration!

A lot seems engineered to be lonely – apartments, many cheaper places to eat, the sheer range available in convenience stores (enough there to feed yourself for weeks, only interacting with the person behind the counter). The currency is also proving difficult to get my head around.

Yet I think this is filtered slightly through my own emotions, and odd expectations which I didn’t realise I had. I attended a church yesterday – and that certainly wasn’t ‘engineered to be lonely,’ as I was generously invited to a huge pot-luck meal following. I may have gravitated more naturally towards the ex-pats, which I kick myself for, but I need to learn to be kind to myself. I need to make this adjustment with grace (can’t really do it any other way, I am always with myself!). The school system too, according to my reading, is engineered to be inclusive and egalitarian, at least until the end of middle school – developing ‘whole people’ - before creating an academic machine in high school.

I have experienced resistance – internal and spiritual. I have experienced persistence of doubts regarding my purpose here too – making this a hard slog. But it’s been four days. That is not enough to judge what a life will be like here. That isn’t even enough to have begun a normal routine. Not that I really want one. Stuck in a limbo between ‘living’ and ‘moving’ - it’s a little awkward. But this is the life I want. I am a determined nomad.

Hmm. I think I need to ponder a little on purpose and my assignment here. I think I need to assess priorities for my life. I think I need to make some mental adjustments, to really help me to invest in the physical and practical adjustments. I ‘need to look after myself’ as God keeps telling me! Frustration is such a self-indulgent emotion sometimes, as in this case I just need to make some decisions and remember who I am. Nomad or resident? I need to care for myself either way. Purposed or aimless? Never the former. My life is not my own, I need to remember that, but it is a gift to return to the Creator at the end of the day. I want my life to have been the best investment He ever made!

I’m just having a good old laugh right now. My situation is in no way anywhere near as big as my God. He’s laughing at enemies and resistance – as they don’t realise they are all part of His overall plan – and I want to be like my Daddy. So I’m going to laugh too. I may look mildly weird here in Starbucks giggling away. But hey-ho, this is Japan, I think weird is a relative term.

[heartfeltadventure]

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring   

Will be to arrive where we started         

And know the place for the first time.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding

[heartfeltadventure]

Yay for Galloway!

Lost Dark Age Kingdom Uncovered in Scotland

Archaeologists may have finally found the lost kingdom of Rheged, the most elusive of all the sixth century kingdoms of Dark Age Britain.

The mysterious kingdom was pre-eminent in northern Britain in the sixth century, but faded into obscurity after it was deliberately destroyed in the beginning of the following century.

Historians had speculated that the kingdom was headquartered in Cumbria, a county in north west England, but no evidence of it was ever found. Then digs carried in 2012 at Trusty’s Hill, which overlooks the Fleet valley in Galloway in south-west Scotland, revealed clues of the presence of a royal stronghold. Read more.

[heartfeltadventure]

Proverbs 3:5-6New International Version (NIV)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart - trust starts in the heart, and it’ll probably clash with what’s in your mind!

   and lean not on your own understanding; - and what’s in your mind cannot be leant on, as God’s logic is far above our own. He is the unshakable one! 6 in all your ways submit to him, - every step, lay it under his authority    and he will make your paths straight. - he knows where you’re headed! His Kingdom is carving out territory for those under his authority. He has commissioned those who will clear the way for you to do so.

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Quote of the day...

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Nothing is mine.

For I would not know 

what to do with it.

In absence a thought

forming in fear of separation.

This nothing feels mine.

And I do not know 

what to do with it.

Knowing no separation

yet still - it’s nothing.

From nothing came time.

For I alone knew nothing,

and what to do with it.

Planning our unification,

so nothing can separate.

Nothing is nothing.

We know nothing together.

Nothing - it’s yours.

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Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2016: From Lost Cities to Ancient Tombs, Shrines, Maps and Unknown Species

2016 provided an array of exciting, and puzzling, discoveries for archaeologists and ancient history enthusiasts. Looking back to our most ancient ancestors, a few of the fascinating finds highlighted the fact that Denisovans and Neanderthals were more sophisticated than previously believed, and showed us that the early human family tree is still missing some branches. Archaeologists also used modern technology to digitally unwrap scrolls, faced down terrorists to unearth a Bronze Age city, proved once again that there is more to North America than just Clovis points, revealed Dublin Hellfire club secrets, and discovered what may be the oldest map in the world. If that’s not enough, a teenager also gave them all a run for their money by pinpointing the location of a lost Mayan city. You have shown us which of these amazing finds delighted and amazed you the most. So, here are the Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries that you chose to view and share time and again. 

Read more …

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I’ve been challenged this morning. I’m challenged every morning, but this one got connected to the need to write. It started in my journal, but has since migrated onto the internet (I wonder how many social disasters have been caused by that happening!)

In this season (to be JOLLY!), I have noticed a fundamental mindset shift happening in my own life. I love Christmas, because I get to celebrate Jesus, and marvel at the wonder of God coming to earth, filling nappies, being unable to control his limbs, and growing up through all the stages we all face. I am currently living at home, so I am being faced daily with the environment and people with whom I myself grew up - which also means I am faced with the patterns I grew up within. The ‘culture’ of my family is being re-presented to me after a period of living independently, and it’s been hugely challenging. I realise that many of my learned behaviours are not normal, and I am recognising that I want to see them change. I want to see a fundamental shift at the very roots of my thinking, so I am not facing life from such a small box of assumptions. 

This has been called to my mind, after reading Paul G. Hiebert’s ‘Cultural Anthropolgy’ this morning, and his explanation of cultural configurations and integration. Using a cross-cultural comparison of American and Japanese attitudes to the floor, he challenges the root of the thinking which lies at the heart of how both treat this universal, inanimate surface. The American assumption is that the floor is dirty - thus it is avoided by the provision of elevated chairs and beds, and shoes are kept on to avoid touching it with our feet (I’m not American, but it’s similar in the UK). The Japanese assume the floor is clean, so protect that by taking off shoes when entering the house, sleep on mats on the floor, and sit down to eat. All of this probably goes unnoticed when ‘pulling up a chair’ or climbing into bed, but it has shaped actions and outcomes to such an extent that it’s so incredibly normal now. We even invest materially in the apparatus to facilitate this behaviour. 

That got me thinking about how I assume and approach people and life in general. It then got me thinking about something that’s been bothering me, since I started a Christmas temp job recently at one of the big supermarkets. And that is, that it seems to be that negativity is the foundation from which many think from. When I ask ‘How’s your day been/going?’ - wearing my jingly little elf hat - people reply with ‘Oh, not too bad.’ Why is bad-ness the reference point?! Why is that the foundation from which we build the outlook towards our day, and consequent communication with others?!

What ‘furnishings’ are we then automatically investing in, in order to perpetuate this negativity in our lives? Such a negative way of thinking no doubt has lead to courses of action, since situations are approached from this foundation. Graham Cooke puts it well when he says ‘Your starting point determines your outcome.’ What you work from sets you up for how you work, which is also based on assumptions of what the outcome will be and the nature of the situation itself. If this is all grounded negatively, then the vicious cycle repeats itself. 

Praise Jesus that he came to challenge all of these cycles and assumptions! The very fact he came to earth -  he is ALMIGHTY GOD, he didn’t have to, he knows what we are ike, he knows how dirty life is, he sees all our failings and junk - challenges the bizarre idea we have that God and the spiritual nature of humanity is somehow distant and irrelevant. He also spent his life smashing all the boxes of his society - sitting with Samaritan women, spitting in people’s eyes, touching dead people, hanging out with prostitues and tax-collectors, and walking on water rather than doing the conventional thing of circumnavigating the lake -  before dying the most gruesomely humiliating death as an innocent man. He’s amazing! I want my thinking to be as un-boxed, un-bound, and un-patterned as his was! 

Well no, that’s not true. His thinking was patterned and contained. It was contained and boundaried by what his Father thought. Our Father, who has good thoughts and plans. Whose thoughts are higher - full of forgiveness and goodness, justice and strength. Who loves justice and hates evil. Who knows everyone and everything and determined it all. 

That is why it is so essential to have our thinking challenged. To then have our actions challenged - perpetuating a world around us in line with the habitual thinking of God. Goodness, hope, love. 

I want to challenege my own boundaries today. Challenge my own assumptions of what things are ‘appropriate’ - and tackle today from victory. I’m full of hope that I’ll challenge the assumptions of others too, as I live out my life. God wants to plant new roots and establish new patterns through his church here on earth! Christmas this year is going to be like nothing that’s gone before it!

[heartfeltadventure]

We call it ‘culture shock’ – as if sudden introduction to a way of life different to our own sends us into a state of rigid panic. Every explanation of the word ‘shock’ that I’ve just Googled, whether in the correct-ish context or not, describes it as being prompted by a nasty or unpleasant experience. Nasty and unpleasant are not two words I want to use to describe the simple experience of something different to my norm.

However, undeniably tears have flowed freely when suddenly the ability to function normally in society seems so hard, because society is so DIFFERENT! Words don’t look or sound like words. Sitting down is made overwhelmingly complicated – as your feet cause insult where they’ve never caused insult before, and your clothing could be accidently placed in the room in a hell-fire-and-curses-summoning fashion. Eating involves new ritual implements, and bathing a new sense of personal boundaries.

Basic human functioning in a new country is suddenly jolted by a recognition that our personal idea of ‘basic human functioning’ is not as ‘basic’ as first thought.

 I’m going to get super basic and super human right now though – be warned.

I’m going to write about what I’ve learned about cross-cultural experience from going to the toilet. Whether it’s been 1. hiking for charity in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, 2. camping with fellow ‘goon’ drinkers on Fraser Island, 3. skiing with my family in the Alps, 4. living on a coal mine in Turkey, or 5. digging up the Bronze Age in Mongolia – poo is always a hot topic amongst travellers.

1. ‘Did you use that same rock? Have you been yet? What was the view like from your squatting stance?’

2. lamenting with fellow ladies that were forbidden to use the kindly provided camping toilet to its full potential

3. common family chat really

4. how we had somehow clogged the toilet and caused an explosion in the house

5. laughing about how connected we felt after a poorly-timed joint trip to the shed-over-a-hole.

Personally, I think it’s a bit of a revelation about the beauties of travel. We suddenly become aware of simple, regular needs, and the freedom most of us have to safely meet them in daily life. We suddenly become aware of ourselves, that we still function as humans no matter where we are – though healthy functioning is sometimes interrupted in a new context as we adapt to rely on new surroundings. Externals may change, but our humanity is still the same. We all still have to meet similar needs, and I become super thankful that I have the health to even have them!

 Anyway, now a story about how I got attacked by a Korean toilet in Mongolia…

It was a hot dusty day and my eyelids were dragging as much as my feet by the end of it. Having wandered what felt like the length of Ulaanbaatar to reach the Black Market, looked around the chaotic commercial hub, and begun walking back, my friend and I were feeling the prickle of the need to rest. So we visited a sleepy department store. She cooled off with an iced drink of some sort whilst I decided to use the facilities – and cooled off in a very different way.

The toilets were clean, sparkling in every way, and I noticed that each cubicle was fitted with one of these legendary East Asian toilets that will sing you an opera or serve you a meal, if you know the right buttons to press. I did not. I didn’t even know how to flush the thing.

If in doubt, just press them all (hideously bad advice), so press them all I did. Slowly, like a mouse peeking from a hole, or an alien machine from War of the Worlds, a metal tube lowered from the back of the toilet bowl. And it began.

Thankfully I was standing at this point, removed far from the powerful torrent that propelled itself from this small metal tube at high velocity. I was safe from the potentially internal-organ-damaging bidet system that was displaying itself in action in front of my eyes.

Although I was standing up, I would still receive its impact, as the stream of water reached my head’s height and hit against the door of the cubicle. Shocked and horrified, I slammed the door shut behind me as I ran to put the cubicle door between me and the rushing flood. The flood followed me though, spilling out from underneath the cubicle door and pooling around my feet.

Minutes passed, far too many of them, before the jet-wash from the toilet ended. Flushed red and soaking wet, I wondered how to explain my predicament to the store staff. Certainly the difference in culture here ‘shocked’ me – using the toilet had become a nasty, unpleasant and surprising experience.

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What does the uncovering of the tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre mean to me?

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth’ (John 1: 1-14 KJV)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/jesus-christ-tomb-burial-church-holy-sepulchre/ 

A little tomb in a garden, new and untouched lay prepared for his unbroken body to be laid in. A little tomb in a garden that two days later, and forever more, has lain empty. A little tomb in a garden that would become one of the most venerated sites in the world. And on October 26th of this year, researchers were to remove the cladding that previously covered that tomb, and reveal the intact original limestone burial.

Although around Jerusalem at that time Jewish burials occurred in family tombs, hewn from the limestone rock that lay outside the city walls, this tomb sits alone. The first of the Redeemed children of God, Jesus had no preceding family members to join in the grave. And those that came after him couldn’t join him either! He’d left it. Abandoned it. And eliminated all that the grave represents – death, decay, destruction, mortality, loss, absence, grief – for those who choose to believe in him.

Yet today the Church of the Holy Sepulchre/Anastasis, originally established by the Emperor Constantine in 326 after his mother Helena discovered this location, stands as a mishmash of different approaches to Christianity. Byzantine, Latin, Alexandrian, Armenian, Syrian Orthodox – all are represented and conduct rites at this site, and all are affected by the potential discoveries to be made. In fact, we are all going to be impacted by how the grave of Christ is interpreted.

I am not pretending that this is an academic article – I haven’t done anywhere near the research required to even attempt that, nor can I be bothered with the necessary proof-reading – but it’s just a few ponderings of my own about what this uncovering means to me, as an archaeologist and a Christian. It means a lot.

We archaeologists always propound that our field does not exist to prove textual or historical events, nor do we simply seek out treasure. What we discover can complement, add to and contest what we know about historical events from other sources, but it should not be used to prove or disprove. An analysis of our data should always be done objectively and independently, whilst similar is to be done with these other sources.

But like it or not, what archaeology does is to make the past more real. Where words on a page can mask the ins and outs of daily life – the sensory engagement with an experiential world – archaeology can be used to reveal the actual way people lived during the events described in any historical source. What we uncover, although in a time-altered form, is evidence of a life lived before us. Data is retrieved in a tangible form, through interaction with touchable things, which themselves have touched the past. Thus, the past itself is reached into and touched by the archaeologist or analyst. And it this reaching into the past that makes it so exciting!

But it is a reaching into the past that is done by faith. It doesn’t exist anymore, yet we can touch it? Whatever happened then has now ceased, yet we can analyse what happened? We had nothing to do with what went on IN the past, yet we have everything to do with how it is re-told now? It doesn’t make any kind of sense!

I get a rush from the idea of ‘discovery’ and finding out new things that no one else has found or considered. Sorry, but I do – I am not the cold objective contributor to science that archaeologists claim to be. I am subjective, I am a bit airy-fairy, and I believe I can contribute to changing the world through what I feel I am called to do. So, to hear of other archaeologists doing the same by discovering what is to be found in the tomb of Jesus, brings me a lot of empathetic excitement.

But, it’s empty. There’s no body. This tomb cannot make Christ more real by providing a body to be tangibly experienced, and we cannot rightly claim that this is unmistakeably where he was laid. There’s just something about telling the story of his death and resurrection by interacting with the material that may have been that which interacted with the body of Jesus, which makes it more real that God humbled himself in human form to interact with us – and died to allow that interaction to continue for eternity! The hope that Christ’s tomb represents has reached through time to remind me of His timelessness. In fact, the nature of archaeology as a study itself consistently does this to me. Hmmm, maybe that’s why God has invited me to partake in it.

I eagerly anticipate the future discoveries to be made from this investigation of the tomb. No doubt time will continue to be altered by what is to be found there – though time has already been irreversibly altered so much more by the Risen Lord who is NOT found there. He is seated on His glorious throne.

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, who through faith are protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer various trials, so that the authenticity of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy, now that you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who foretold the grace that would come to you, searched and investigated carefully, trying to determine the time and setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they foretold the things now announced by those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things’ (1 Peter 1: 3-12 Berean Study Bible)

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Revelation 2: 1-7

http://elevationchurch.org/sermons/put-your-passion-in-its-place/ 

Practice making

what is already perfect?

The creation of

what is recognised already 

without flaws?

Am, ongoing regardless 

of stance.

Am, existing in face 

of circumstance.

Rewarding of those.

Who practice

in passion, so caught up 

in embrace.

Who tread 

in determined, because of 

the taste.

Love once gripped that practice,

and love will return

Come back to the simple

of love found in Grace.

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Let’s make this a regular thing...

I’ve not published anything on here for absolutely ages. Though this was not for lack of desire. It was out of fear. 

I know that I have only like two followers, but just the fact that my ramblings are published on the internet, for all to see and judge my writing, utterly terrifies me. Yet I need to write - incessant journalling, poems coming out of my ears, stories half written left right and centre - that’s what my life is like. And it’s fun, s I want to share it! 

My passion and dream is to connect the world through heritage, to not only each other but to the passionately loving God we all have. And when you have dreams as big as the world, you need to avail yourself of a weapon mightier than the sword to fight the battles that always come when striving for a dream. You also need that weapon to have a reach far beyond your own arm’s length! Writing, and especially writing on the world-spanning, culture-shaping, knowledge-spreading super-platform that is the internet, is the ideal instrument to do this. 

So I guess this is my declaration to the world, that I shall be blogging - REGULARLY! I shall be spreading news and updates of my life, thoughts, musings and adventures, for anyone who cares to read to see. 

This is coming at a point in my life, as I am making preparations to embark on the biggest adventure with my Daddy God yet. I will be moving to Japan for at least a year, to work as an Assistant Language Teacher. Such a mammothly scary undertaking, but the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. But since I’ll be taking such a risk with my life very soon, I thought it best to build up a catalogue of a few smaller risks before I do that! Beginning properly blogging is one of those things. 

It’s also going to serve as a way of helping all the fantastic people back at home in Scotland to keep up with me, and for me to keep up with them. I have so many amazing supporters and cheerers-on in life, it’s such an honour to be in their lives too. The least I can do for them, as they no doubt continue to think and pray for me whilst I’m away, to let them know what I’m up to. 

It’s exciting

It’s intimidating.

But living a supernatural, world-changing life is never meant to be comfortable, I think Jesus demonstrated that well!

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Need to practice this a bit more! I think we all could to be honest. Right thinking = right actions = right living