Blog Introduction

I love conversations; whether they be over the dinnertable, in a street cafe, in a busy household, on park benches......and well on a blog. That's why I need to start by simply saying this: please talk to me! This is not a one-way blog, where I just inform you, reader, of the goings on in my life, fascinating as they are, but a space where reader and writer meet, chat, engage, reflect.

So...

I'm a Christian passionate about issues such as justice, politics, singing, books, nature, music, laughter, church, springtime, chocolate, the bible, things that make you go mmm, and did I mention my mum's homebaked bread? Everything rolled into one, into the delightful mixpot that life is.

I am also a person trying to figure out what it means to be a Christian and to follow God in my everyday life.

I like questions.

I think questions are good, because they challenge commonly held assumptions about ourselves and our environment. They help us to see things clearly; things which could have otherwise remained in the abyss of the unknown. However, I think the real challenge comes after you've asked the question, and somebody's answered it for you, and you have to move forward and make a choice. How do you act on that information?

Years ago my question was; how can I use my gifts to make a difference in the lives of those living in poverty? The answer eventually crystallised, like a very gradual eureka moment, and I suddenly had to make a choice to act or not to act. Looking back, I am amazed at how far my answer has taken me.

It could also be questions of less epic proportions like - which brand of coffee should I choose? Or how do I connect with my neighbours on a street where people barely say hello?

The questions, answers & choices thing is more difficult when you don't know of anyone who's gone before you - nobody to lend you a helping hand. You feel like a solitary figure blazing the trail of first time-ness, and you want out pronto. Because being the first at something can be both amazing and awe inspiring, as well as daunting and nerve wrecking. But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm realising that learning to stand isn't supposed to be quick and automatic like a baby's first gasps for breath; it's learned. So I practice and I practice.

In the meantime I look to friends, faith, relationships, politics, blogging; everything under the sun that will teach me to stand up for what I believe in, even if I am blazing a trail or going against the grain.

And whatever that means at any particular time....well you'll just have to stick around to find out.