Pure Audio Delights

Recently I have started to listen to a real gem of a podcast called Short Cuts

Its own description is "A showcase for delightful and adventurous short documentaries from the UK and abroad". However it is so much more than that.

The power of the spoken word and the genuine stories and challenges of life is so touching.

If you want to be transported to a world away from your own life and its troubles and to be weaved together with an eclectic wonderful company of people who will make you smile and cry and reflect on the wonder of humanity then give it a listen - you will be a better person for it.

Speaking a different language

How many of you, like me struggle to learn or speak a different language? This year I am going on holiday to France and I know I will only be able to speak a few token words of French and even if I really tried to learn I would barely get out of the basic phrases. And once you try to learn a bit of another language you then hit the massive hurdle of fluent speakers talking back at you two or three times too fast for you to understand.

The easy part of learning a language is using the words, understanding them when they are spoken to you and being able to respond back is the real skill. I have discovered (over the last ten years or so) that I need to learn the language of human emotions and connection. I am probably still in year 1 primary age class in this topic (with occasional flashes of promise!).

I wish like French someone had engaged me with a real desire to learn this inner language and not be stuck in my well established routines and responses. But the good news is we never stop learning and even someone as old as me can learn a new trick!

Turn, turn, turn...

I have recently been listening to the excellent album The Man Who by Travis and especially the track Turn:
I want to see what people saw

I want to feel like I felt before
I'd like to see the kingdom come
I want to feel forever young
I want to sing
To sing my song
I want to live in a world where I belong
I want to live 
I will survive
And I believe that it won't be very long
If we turn, turn, turn, turn, turn
Then we might learn
So where's the stars?
Up in the sky
And what's the moon?
A big balloon
We'll never know unless we grow
There's so much world outside the door
I want to sing
To sing my song
I want to live in a world where I'll be strong
I want to live
I will survive
And I believe that it won't be very long
If we turn, turn, turn, turn, turn
And if we turn, turn, turn, turn
Then we might learn
Turn, turn, turn, turn
Turn, turn, turn
And if we turn, turn, turn, turn
Then we might learn
Learn to turn

As I listened to this wonderful song it spoke to me in so many ways - belonging, seeing, living, growing - but the refrain to turn, turn, turn really resonated with me. If we turn - look at things differently, consider changing our views, engage with one another - turn to one another then we might learn, so learn to turn.
Beautiful and moving - give it a listen

The Straight Story

I recently watched a wonderful film called The Straight Story by David Lynch one of the great movie directors of the modern era. There is a scene in the film where the main character (Alvin Straight) is in a bar with an another elderly man he has met on his journey. They sit and talk, sharing something of what they each went through in the second world war.

As they talk their voices choke up and tears roll down their cheeks. They each tell their story, they listen to each others story. They have been through the pain of war but they don’t try and sympathise they just sit together. You sense the release in being able to share with someone who just hears and understands.

It is truly a beautiful scene, I was blessed by it but in a small way it betrayed a sadness. There is a sense they have held these feelings for decades unable to share them or speak them out. These old men came from a culture where men didn’t share and that was that. Is it so different now?

Yes we are more comfortable with people sharing struggles & issues but whilst they aren't frowned upon and told you shouldn’t do that we can be very quick to tell people to sort themselves out. Not directly to their face no but subtley by telling them, "Yes, I know I have that problem and I did ..." or "You mustn’t think like that" and variations on these themes. Even our response as Christians can be very quickly, "Oh, I'll pray for you" or a little more pointedly, "Have you brought it to God in prayer?"*

I was talking recently with a friend about a sudden bereavement I had learnt of and he shared about learning of a close friend who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He told me it took him three or four days to call as he didn't know what to say. Isn't that it, our problem is we always need to say something. Is that what people want? Or do they really just want to be heard?

So do watch this film the next time it is on, it is slow, simple and so beautiful.


* before I am declared a heretic let me just say - prayer is good and bringing our situations to God is the best thing we can do and we often need reminding of this, but if we only do these things are we really loving one another? We need to be with one another and know that we are being heard and held

You've got my full attention

"You've got my full attention", this is a phrase I've found myself using quite a bit recently. I say it quite deliberately and then attempt to do just that, give my full attention to the the person who wants to speak to me. To me this means:

• looking at the person
• not doing other things at the same time
• trying to really listen to the words they say
• watching the way they say it
• stopping myself analyse and solve their 'problem' in my head as they tell it to me
• and finally trying to show/reflect that I have heard and understood what they have said

It doesn't sound too difficult to do this.  But why do we rarely give people our full attention like this? So often we are in conversations but half our mind is elsewhere thinking about the next thing to do, listening to other conversations, watching other things or people. We seem to be trying to do so much that we de-value the most important thing - each other.

I know I am guilty of this, especially on a Sunday morning when I have a list of people I need to see or things to do. I find myself chatting with someone whilst all the time looking over their shoulder for the next person on my 'to do' list. And what's more I really dislike it when people do this to me!

Well I can't change anybody else and sometimes I do have a list of people I really need to speak to.  But the rest of the time I'm going to really try to do this.  So if you are talking to me feel free to ask, "Have I got your full attention?" - because you deserve it!

Dedicated to LC