Thoughts resulting from a reply from Marianne

Foundations of Self Esteem

"you are of more value than many Sparrows"
                                                                    Matt 10:31

Do we, as parents, Love our children more if they achieve or do
we give them our Love so they have a firm foundation with which to achieve??

We are more often raised with the belief that Love is a reward. We cannot be respected or admired or Loved without some level of performance or achievement. we go through life as performers and achievers thinking - when I ' do this' then I will finally be loveable. It soon becomes an addiction and eventually our achievements never seem enough - never will be enough  - we keep on doing and doing and doing, perpetually! It lowers our self esteem, we create doubts about ourselves and if we measure up - limiting our future.

As Christians

Does God Love us more if we achieve or does He give us His Love
so we have a firm foundation with which to achieve??

We are taught to believe that God would love us if and when we are good and change our ways - perform for Him so to speak. It is the way we are taught as young Christians and carry these thoughts into our adult life - be good, change your ways and God will reward you. But as in our daily lives if we continue in this way we will spend our lives always feeling we fall short and we never seem to be good enough or change enough. Creating low self esteem and doubts in ourselves as Christians. In fact what we forget is that it is 'Love' that changes us. It is not the reward for change - it is Gods, unconditional, given Love that will bring about the change. It is the experience of that Love that becomes the power to Change. More often it is our common religion that gives the inferior message - that God Loves us when I change, when I achieve (moralism) You are never holy enough, pure enough, refined enough or loving enough.

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Backyard Photograhy

Who killed Cock Robin??

Who killed Cock Robin?

I, said the Sparrow,

with my bow and arrow,

I killed Cock Robin.

                                             (link)

One of my latest blog projects is to photograph all the birds that come into my garden. There are many varieties of birds so will take some time to complete. Not because of the numbers so much as it can prove tricky plus I have to be so inventive to photograph them the way I want or the way I feel they look best. This one above I like because the sweet peas make for a perfect setting for the photo. It is taken on the fence bordering the garden next to my neighbours bird feeder. I thought it made for a nice photo - particularly with the early morning sun to back light the petals of the sweetpeas. To get it meant using the clothesline as a form of camouflage and then poke the lens through the hanging, wet clothes and to wait - very impatiently - patience is not my strength. The camera gets heavy because I have to sit waiting camera ready as any movement scares the birds away. In this way the bonus is that photography teaches me how to be patient. I have lots of little stories on the things I have had to do to get the photos I want, but will save them for future blogs once I have collected the photos I want. I am pretty sure all of you who read this also have sparrows visiting their gardens or streets - perhaps one of the very few things we all have in common.

Nature Walk

The Nature on my Doorstep.

It amases me the abundance of nature i find on my daily walks - everything from whales to butterflies are there for me to occupy my time and fill my photography folders, as I wander through the beaches and headlands with Rosie (Michelles dog). I have an album of selected photos taken over the last 10 days to share with you and have attached a link for you to view if you wish.  At the moment and for the next month or so there is a constant procession of Whales returning to their summer Antarctic feeding grounds after the winter  birthing of their calves in  the warm northern waters of the Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland Coast 2,000km to the North. This photo shows a mother laying on her back with both pectoral fins waving above the surface. It's calf is doing likewise beside her - the calf has one fin above the water just to the left of the mother. As for the butterflys - In have hundreds of photos of them - all out of focus. I am trying to catch one on the wing which is so difficult to do but perseverence will one day bear some fruit - when I do I will for sure post it!!

 The Walk in Perspective

I am including in this post some photos of one part of my daily walks. The first above is a photo I took a few years back on my old budget Camera. It is from a mountain to the south of the area I live in. The photos I have here and in the album are all taken on that little outcrop in the center of the photo. I live in that little group of houses you can barely make out at the back of the headland. Mostly, my walks start by walking down to the cliff edges and from there either head north to the colection of beaches that make up Bonny Hills or south over the headland to the larger beach you see in the photo to the right. The town in the forground is Laurieton. It is the nearest town with a shopping center and is where we do our grocery shopping and pay our bills etc.

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This photo is taken from the southern side of the headland looking south toward the mountain in the distance this is from where I took the previous photo of the coastline. This position is, more or less, from where I took the photo of the whale and it's calf out in the bay. I had to use the full extension of the 400mm lens to get the photo and then crop to a size whre the pixels would not blow out so you could stull make out the fins of the whales.

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Next is to show where I start my walk. This is where the end of my street meets the open bush of the headland. We can either take the path you see here leading down to Sharkies Beach (The name us locals use for the beach) or another path leading off to the left to the cliffs we locals call bummers. (See the photo below)

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We call this part of the headland bummers because it is the word more often uttered by local fishermen as their catch unhooks itself and drops back into the surging water  it was just fished out from. It is such a long way to haul the fish up,giving the fish more time to wriggle itself free!! 'BUMMER' is the cry as the fish dissappears! No wonder fishermen learn the art of patience - either than or they sell their fishing tackle!!

Click the link below if you would like to view some of the nature taken over the last few days

http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/104/nature_walk_album


Others
http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/103/the_past_few_weeks_in_photos

http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/102/Spring_Wildflowers_-_Bonny_Hills_NSW

http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/85/album_from_morning_july_13th

http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/45/Wild_weather

http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/34/before_the_storm_in_November

http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/25/Paths_and_Other_Stuff

http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/12/latest_walk


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nature walk album

Reflection of the day - Thursday

Being Present

'Presence'

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin"

Matthew 6:28             

When we live in the present we tend to notice the natural world, when we live in our heads, we compare, worry, and judge.

For some reason, the mind cannot just be present to the moment, where it could find delight in the “birds in the sky” and the “lilies of the field” that Jesus has just described as the simple antidote to all of our “worrying.” He says “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself”   (Matthew 6:34}

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Reflection of the day - Wednesday

Prayer

".... praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints"

Eph 6:18         

Contemplative Prayer is what changes the seer much more and better than passively being told what we are to see. Most Christians are more familiar with "prayer." More often, prayer has become something functional; something you do to achieve a desired effect—which too often puts our pride back in charge. If you make prayer a way to get what you want, you’re not moving into any kind of change or relationship with God. It's the same old relationship, but well disguised: "How can I get God to do what I want God to do?" It's the, egocentric, false self deciding what it, or God, needs and not looking or having the faith to accept what God wants. Instead of just manipulating everybody else, it tries to manipulate God. For this reason religion can become so dangerous and delusional. If religion does not transform people at the level of both mind and heart, it ends up giving self-centered people a very pious and untouchable way to be on top and in control. How often do we see this in our churhes? God becomes their defense - this is what Jesus found to be true of the Scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law.

You discover your True Self in God. It is not discovered by anything you have done right or wrong. It is not about requirements; it’s about relationship — the quality and capacity of your relationship with God. This is the foundation for contemplative prayer. The false self will say prayers but the True Self is a prayer and looks out at reality from a different pair of eyes larger than its own. This is why in Ephesians it says "pray always" (6:18). We pray always whenever we act in conscious and loving union with God, which eventually can be all the time—even in our sleep!

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Reflection of the day - Tuesday

The Little Things

Willy wagtail.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Matthew 13 : 31

It is 'the little things' that keep God's kingdom growing. What impresses people does not impress God. People who think they are at the top are often at the bottom, and that people who think they are at the bottom are often at the top.

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