I'll pause, till more's... in view.. And you?

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Well, in this last week or two, two big things have happened which mean I am putting my walk through Australia on pause: one sad thing, one glad thing:

1. my good woman has had medical issues that make life for her difficult, & after visiting a head neurosurgeon in Westmead to look at next-steps, they are less resolved, and more unknown. I think I need to hang around a bit more.

2. our newest granddaughter was born (in Bendigo). Her parents are thriving and are starting the enormous, amazing responsibility of raising a human child (in this case a daughter), in this "dog eat dog" day within the history of the Earth which is undergoing its own "birth pangs" [as they were called by that 1st Century Rabbi, who was probably the only Jewish Rabbi to ever set his sights on seriously incorporating the "goi-im" (gentiles, non-Jews) into those who would be his loyal disciples]. We hope to visit this little bubba and her parents in a couple of weeks, for up to a week.

Despite the pausing (it has happened before), I am still hopeful that maybe, if the Eastern Australian floods subside, I will be able to continue after summer next year (2023C.E.) from St. George (Qld) where I left off. 

Who knows, I might even have a more visible support crew &/or some more journeying companions by then. Maybe. Maybe not. 

Thanks to all the friendly folk I met along the way. I'll be looking back at this blog around March of next year, and will keep you posted about any advancements. 

Was thinking of looking for useful work to contribute to our hometown of Orange, and came up with these reflections, considering an applique bed spread kept within our family, and keeping true to the principles and motives, or the culture of creative love while taking a break from walking.

Cheers, big ears!

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Week Five .. of break in the walk:

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A visit to our new grandson in Dubbo Monday am. Monday arvo/ evening, labour starts, back in Orange, and the couple go to the hospital around midnight. Tuesday morning with our granddaughter while her mum & dad focus on helping her baby brother come out, and be revealed to the world. 

Ended up being an emergency Cesarean Section birth around 1pm on Tuesday 13 Sept. A boy, Hamish. Mother and babe are well.

We might get to see him on Wednesday, before he is even "1 day old".

We'll see.

Yes! We did! He might have some infection in the lungs so had some IV lines in. That's when I found out they've decided to call him Hamish Paul Lewis McLean. [What an honour (like his Uncle Samuel Lewis Paul…, and his Grand-dad, and two of his grand-dad's mentors: Yeshua's ambassador Paul, & C.S.Lewis.]

Started an audio course on mindfulness, which turns out to be substantially Buddhist, yet which opened up some things I have been wondering about in a very helpful way. Creative love is no "respecter of persons" (which as I understand the phrase, means "doesn't care much about the tags people wear"), because it really is simply a "respector of persons", as baby gods, needing to learn from the only wise God, how to grow up to be in fact worthy of such an amazing title. Led to me continuing considering connections. 

Had the opportunity to reconsider the beauty and grace, humility and power of the message of Jesus that changed the Roman world in the First Century CE. Still relevant today?

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ways of connecting...

 

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Considering my friends, met on this walk.

Some keep in touch, & some hardly reply. 

A bit like me, at different times I baulk,

at how to word things, when I'm low, or high.

The thing about a poem (or a prair*),

is somehow wings gain access to this world

of words and mechanisms, 'coz time shared

with the creative love can make folk bold.

And so, not being in control at all,

deploying conduits of creative love,

we function as an umbilical cord

within this womb-world strengthened from above,

or else beyond, somehow we're sheltered, fed;

we didn't delve designs or make the plans,

but simply benefitting, we're  not dead,

unless we do decide to join the dance,

and help some others, as we have been helped

ourselves, along the way, as things work out

according to creative love's own shelt-

er and provision, which we will not doubt

but just decide, assume, or more, "entrust"

ourselves to who is bigger, more robust,

and has authority to judge with just-

ice, since he's motivated not by lust, 

but by creative love, a higher call,

which can not be appreciated if

to join in we use some, but not our all.

Unless a God would teach me, I'm just miffed!

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*  prair: just spelled this way to help the reader to pronounce it that way, instead of the occasional variant pray-er.

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Week Four of break:

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Thought of some friends I met on the walk who were possibly doing it tough, of having to handle some big changes in the course of life. I could come out of isolation on Monday 5 Sept, but still had to wear a mask when near other people at home or elsewhere, so I chose to stay at my friend's house where I didn't have to wear a mask, untill Thursday morning when I was free to take of the mask unless with people of special susceptibility. Lovely to be able to move home then and have family and friends visit and visit them too, again. A friend's birthday celebration on Saturday. At my friend's place found an interesting book, that was small and seemed an easy read, and thought to ask if others wanted to read it with me. Started a bookclub with first f2f (face-to-face) meeting on Sat. 

Lovely time looking at and listening to practitioners of reality, even (or specially) when from a different background or tradition to one'self. One or two people I met on the walk are joining in. You are welcome too.

This is the book. You might enjoy reading it through with some friends,

https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/reckless-way-of-love 

Free download from Plough publishing (Bruderhof, definitely NOT Catholic) , above.

Dorothy Day, a catholic activist from 40 or 50 yrs ago, focusses on 5 WAYs: The Way of 

.  faith,

.  love

.  prayer,

.  life

.  community.   

I'm proposing that we go through ONE A WEEK, starting today.

. Read it, 

. underline, 

. check with scriptures . and life in God's world,,

. discuss over a cuppa/ meal/ zoom/ or just here in this WhattsApp thread

. do what creative love opens up to us (individually, and/or together) as we 

. start the next WAY, etc

Let me know if you want to try out the WhatsApp "discussion" thread... (not sure if it will, or even can, work. The f2f(face2face) meet was amazingly good, for me.

I just put into the bookclub conversation this post:

.........................

"A thing that I appreciate about some people (like Dorothy Day) that seems like it allows us to connect across canyons, is the twin practices of 1) practising (i.e. being not a theoretician, so much as a practicioner. As a friend just put into words for me: "practise is perfect!") & 2) tuning in to the core, or spirit of things instead of being caught up in the surface or appearance of things."

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Week Three of break..

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In COVID 19 isolation. See last blog for more.

Some good times with friends on the phone still occurred. 

Some friends who were also COVID positive let me isolate with them in their house, to save everyone in my house, including a very pregnant mum & 1 yr old grand-daughter, from having to be an infected household that can't have guests etc. How beautiful. I felt pretty miserable the night I got here, but my wife's panadol, & their friendship, cuppas, toast, icecream, flipped that on its head. What a beautiful gift.

Some thoughts on moving forward, this week as I sit and lie down, plunging into (& hopefully recovering from) COVID 19. 

• Suffering appears to be essential to growth. And 

• learning to welcome and look for trials, or difficulties, instead of running from them. And 

• doing this in the spirit of the Christ, not simply in the spirit of stoicism. And, 

• learning how to be blessing those who are already impelled by the spirit of creative love, in order that together we spread creative love even more.

• Time over lunch on Friday reading together and discussing The Reckless Way of Love (Notes on Following Jesus) by Dorothy Day, led to these reflections on the oddity of prayer.

No grandson revealed to the world in Orange, by Saturday evening. …

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COVID?!

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Got a few dry coughs last night, then more on a car trip this morning. PCR this arvo says I'm RSV negative, and Flue negative. But COVID 19 POSITIVE.

RATS!

Just working out who else in the household might have it, and where I can be isolated...

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Creative love might seem to have left, but I don't believe that for one second!

Apparently, some of the most important causal elements in the world can be, for various reasons, invisible to people at any  given time, but can still be present, effective, and affective e.g. 

• Parents to a human being en utero.

• Our own brains (before scans were developed)

• Friendship,  jealousy …

• Hatred, vengeance …

• Unconditional positive regard

• Civic duty

• Treason etc.

Why not the same for creative love within a Universe where adventure, and choice can occur as well? In fact that makes the most sense to me!

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Some reflections on this…

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Week Two of break

 

Week Two:

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Then back at home with a very pregnant daughter and son-in-law (& their daughter), blessing us with their presence, as they await the birth of their new son (or brother).

Back in my old stomping ground … without my high-viz shirt/ coat on… can't stop (and don't want to, really) cogitating on what takes human life to the next level or dimension of experience. So, the pilgrimage is continuing, while I'm in a break. How good.

Some sad news about neighbours spreading gossip about their near neigbours, simply because they are trying to build a different culture to the secretive, self-satisfied, fearful culture around them. Learning from creative love to bless instead of curse, those who "despitefully use you". Learning how to bless and be a blessing,  from Yeshua and his ambassadors, who could pray for his (and their)  powerful jealous murderers, "Father, forgive them, for they don't really know what they are doing". Oh, God, i have so far to go, to grow - like that!

Tomorrow is the due date for the next grandson's birth. God's speed (which sometimes appears to humanity to be very, very slow) little one!

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Week One of break...

Week One:

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My dear woman & our baby grandson born in Dubbo, one (or a few) day old:

.

.

I'm a Grand-daddy again!

Watching older siblings learn to love younger siblings who get a lot of their parents' attention, that they themselves used to get. Instead of being jealous and insecure. This somehow helped clarify the concept of not trying to be the parent/ judge of our other immature brothers and sisters. Led to these thoughts on judging others in the human family, as though we were the creator of the Universe & humanity.

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Break in the treck!

 

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Break in the treck 

At about 1:15pm, I found out that I have a new grandson born in Dubbo early this morning. So, as I said to my wife at the start, I'll not go on just now. Michael and Robyn have agreed to look after the trolley for me, till I get back either in 3 or 4 weeks, or Autumn next year. And, Michael has kindly offered to drive me all the way to Lightning Ridge to catch the NSW Countrylink coach that leaves at 8:50am, and should deposit me in Dubbo tomorrow for a late lunch.

How helpful. Thanks Michael. Thanks creative love.

This has been an amazing trip so far. I've had an amazing time with my major walking partner (creative love)  with various other walking partners who have joined in for bits from South cape Tazzy to Saint George Qld. I've met amazing people along the way. I've seen amazing parts of the country. Thanks for any way you have communicated with me and encouraged me or contributed by joining with creative love yourself along the way. 

Thanks too for any gifts any of you have given to the work of MOVEmber in researching and helping with Men's mental health and prostate cancer research, or to the Bible Society in preserving good scholarship and textual critics and translators to make that ancient story available to any cultures and individuals who want to align with creative love, recording the experiences of other individuals throughout the milenia as they interacted with creative love, within (and at times against), communities of practice.

MO MOVEmber Pilgrimage:

and supporting the Bible Society as one way to work on keeping this ancient text which has been the basis of the good which Western Civilization brought to the world, & which still holds & transmits meaning (via story) for us today.

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Hope to let this blogsite know every week how things are progressing till I know when I actually plan to start up again. (but at the moment I'm expecting sometime next month, or March/April 2023).

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Feel free to contact me personally, or leave a message: 0419919241 (though this number has since changed)

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Sunday - rest the feet today.

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Early morning meditation time. 

Today's "call to follow suit".

Rest those weary feet!

Let the washing dry. Join in life with some people open to creative love. I'll join with the Anglicans & Lutherans at 8:30am, and then a bunch called Bush Disciples at 10am, and see where things go from there.

Enjoyed considering carefully what I heard at both get togethers. Some thoughts came about a chicken called Pecky, that was mentioned during a kids talk.

A lovely time meeting new people who were interested, & very interesting:, Annette, Ken, John(?), Rhonda; and Scott, Roy (with wife Jan). 

At the end, i "happened to meet a family of other visitors who were keen to talk, then get tips about feeding the minds of and training their children to tune in themselves to creative love, using the avenue of allowing the stories in the scriptures to be accessible to their inquiring minds, and to influence their choices. It was fun talking with them briefly. Here is a 1hr plan we have found helpful for that story-telling focus on creative love through the stories of the scriptures, especially focusing on Yeshua.

God's speed Tom & Lizzy and children.

Then Monday morning the plan was for Michael to pick me up for a day of walking without the trolley at 7am. Then he'll pick me up at 4pm and take me to buy a Telstra SIM card by 4:30pm, before they shut.

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a chicken named "PECKY"

When chickens gain their pecking order by

the way they pick on others who're diff'rent.

They model life of humans who are ( sigh )

just living from their animalic bent.

Well, is it true that smartphones are "just phones"?

I'm int'rested to hear what you would say?

For specially folk who only want "the bones":

to ring up, and be rung; know not to play

with smart-phones ".. 'coz there's much more to them now!"

They know the difference, they just want a phone.

That's why a man I know has no friends, how

much easier to be with dog & bone?

So how do we take on and use our selves?

And use well all that we are made to do?

If phone is made for 5G, but we shelve

some 2G sim within it, well, it's true

it might still ring. But if we won't recharge

it ev'ry now and then, it won't work much.

It's meant to be connected to a large-

er network, so that you can keep in touch…

And if we treat it like a lesser thing,

sometimes the smart parts fuddle things a bit,

and if they're not updated and growing

they'll stop you in your tracks. You'll feel a git.

So live your life at level of a chook,

by instincts and desires, do your thing.

But otherwise I'd say to have a look

at Human 2 point oh, and start to sing!

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call to follow suit*…

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There's something in me, God, that really wants

to be appreciated and held high◇,

and loved, adored, as leader, dwelt upon

sometimes (or always) thought of with a sigh

of glad surrender, 'coz I've come at last,

the hoped and wished for one, been waited for.

I'd like to be Messiah, with no ghast-

ly, death and suffering, with mocking "jaw°".

And as he was macabrely "lifted high◇",

that's not with great appreciation's thrust,

but nailed with thieves and robbers, there to die,

a crucifiction's naked shame that must

be almost anti-thetical to my..

my hopes and dreams, desires to be seen,

exaltant◇ and authoritative by

all those who watch, and know what this will mean!

To love another person, or a group,

you're living, for that time, within a world

where choìces can exist, and when they do,

to love, especially when desire's curled

around the tree◇ to focus and enflame

its motivating capabilities;

when love is chosen over that, the game

is changed. New space, new possibilities

emerge, and are created in that choice.

A new creation now occurs and we

on hearing and responding to this voice,

are following the maker, in love, free!

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*  Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23 NET

Now large crowds were accompanying Jesus, and turning to them he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t sit down first and compute the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish the tower, all who see it will begin to make fun of him. They will say, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’ Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down first and determine whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot succeed, he will send a representative while the other is still a long way off and ask for terms of peace. In the same way therefore not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his own possessions. “Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how can its flavor be restored? It is of no value for the soil or for the manure pile; it is to be thrown out. The one who has ears to hear had better listen!” Luke 14:25‭-‬35 NET

° "jaw" (informal): gossip or chatter.

◇ In the wake of these thoughts, after I had gone back to sleep and my alarm tone's soft music came on, the song I've been singing in my head along with it, morphed into this.

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Sat 13Aug2022, the last leg to by-pass Saint George

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Wow. Bill dropped me off between the two trees where he picked me up from yesterday, and drove off. 

.

Thank you Bill. Then 2 min later he returned and asked if I like oranges. When I said "Yes." He said, There on the back seat, I picked a few for you this morning. Thanks again Bill! You're a legend!

Meditation Time

(Look, Listen, Laugh, Lighten)

The servants of

creative love…

Break at 10:45 for ~30 min.

Off again at 11:20am.

11:30 coffee time (real coffee)

Jean-Marie & Valérie from France (New Caledonia), now retired in Yamba near Coffs Harbour, are travelling to Darwin to visit a son, and hoping to make Mitchell tonight, but they saw me, pulled up and offered me (in the richest French accent) some water or a coffee.

.

Then they added to that some cake, and a  banana. How nice to have a coffee in the middle of farm-land, from an espresso machine! (see what's in between their heads?)

.

I read them today's reflection/ meditation (The servants of creative love…), attempted to draw Valérie, and we exchanged phone numbers.

Then about 12:10pm I raced them (in their big Land Cruiser) to the next guide-post - and beat them!

Thank you. Merci. Jean-Marie & Valérie. Bon Voyage! 

And thank you to my walking partner creative love, who seems to really enjoy doing this. I must say that I really enjoy being part of it too.

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I got some reception about 20km out of town. Then I thought that WhatsApp said that a mate had rung me, so I rang him back. We talked for 3hrs as he cooked dinner and went shopping, about life, the world and everything. Then I rang my Dad who had texted. We talked for an hour. How good to have time to catch up with important people. I got to my destination around 5pm then found a text sent earlier to say that Michael could pick me up from where I got to, just give him a call. So I did, & he did. Dropped me off for a shower where I was staying and invited me to share dinner with his wife and himself. He'll pick me up at 6:30pm. How lovely. Thanks Mike and Mike's wife. Thanks creative love too!

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Tonight we shared a meal of St. George fried chicken. Mike and Robyn told me some of their story trying to follow and be true to creative love themselves. We read some of the Jewish and Christian Psalms together Psalm 104. Mike offered to pick me up on Monday arvo and take me out again Tuesday morning, with the trolley. That means Monday I'll get to walk without my trolley on Monday. I'll aim for a full 30km that day. Then I'll be back to 25km Tuesday etc.  What a gift.  Thanks you two. Thanks too creative love for connecting people together so beautifully.

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