The Imaginary Cats

Janet's cats, adopted by my sister in the wake of Janet's death, were and are very shy.  They are seldom seen if Nute has any visitors, there is just the odd tail whisking around a corner or disappearing through the catflap.

However, they bonded to her straight away.  She did not even know they had emerged from their room until she sat down to her breakfast on their first morning and found two cats had materialised one at each side and were lapping away at her porridge.

They are now known as "the imaginary cats" or "the imaginaries" - and have become very picky and difficult about any food Nute is not actually eating herself.  Here is their latest Foodie adventure, from Nute's facebook:

The Imaginaries are beginning a new stage in their psychological warfare. If I could just work out what they want, I could save us all a lot of time by capitulating.

Today, all food was spurned, but I spent the first hour of the day tripping over squeaking Imaginaries. In the end, I found that what they wanted was some stale IAMS from the back of the cupboard and their dishes put in separate places so Abra could drift between the two locations spurning as she went, and Tabs (who is very pretty but short on brain power) could walk in little circles squeaking until I picked her up and more or less put her face in her dish, so she could get on with spurning as well.

Thursday was a day of phone calls.  Phone calls with the sister whose householder I was at the Thursday night meeting; a chat with Jacks; a chat with another sister about rearranging our next week's Zoom session; and then talking to my Bavarian sister in law in Zoom.  I got a glimpse of their lovely Autumn garden too.  I was thinking of our trips to Bavaria in our expat years, which included a trip to one of the loveliest places I have ever been, the Italian Tyrol. 

I am sorry my travelling days are over, this side of Armageddon. If I am there on the other side, there will be all the time in the world to see this lovely planet, and who knows what else, given the amazing universe we are floating in. IF...

And in the evening I Zoomed in my part as householder at the Ministry School meeting.  It was the return visit and it revolved round Job 26:7. Speaking of our Creator, Jehovah, it says: "He stretches out the northern sky over empty space, suspending the earth upon nothing."

The Book of Job was completed in 1473 B.C.E. at at time when people had all sorts of strange theories about the earth - that it was flat, that it was balanced on something - on several giant animals in one strange theory. It was centuries before we understood about the force of gravity.

Yet here the earth's position is not only explained perfectly, but also in the simplest of language, so that you do not have to be a scientist to understand that the earth floats in space. The prophet Isaiah also described it as a round earth.

And while science did come to deduce the accuracy of the Bible's description in time, it is us who have been privileged to see the earth, the round earth, floating in space, like a blue and white jewel, hanging upon nothing, when the photos taken from space began to be published.

We really can trust Jehovah's inspired word. And we need to pay it careful attention. Which is why we offer free Bible studies, on-line or in person, to all who want them.

In the meantime my cough/cold persists - my ribs hurt from coughing, my back hurts from coughing - but it isn't flu - no temperature - nor does it seem to fit any Covid symptoms. Unless of course it is one of the new varieties they have been promising us. Anyway I am still alive - so far. And I am grateful for that.

The clocks went back on Saturday night - I had forgotten till I saw the computer clock! - and the bonfire was still burning on The Green on Sunday morning.

But there was a tragic headline in the papers that morning where the cult of Halloween and the cult of Celebrity met, with terrible results:

South Korea was plunged into mourning as it attempted to make sense of the deaths of at least 151 people who were crushed and trampled to death in a narrow alley during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon, a packed nightlife area of Seoul.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/29/dozens-of-people-crushed-by-large-crowd-at-halloween-festivities-in-south-korea

It is suggested that the stampede may have started over rumours of a celebrity visiting a local bar.  But who knows?  Crowds are volatile things. What does seem clear is that most of the victims are distressingly young, they had so little time here.  I hope they all sleep safe in "the everlasting arms" and that when the time comes they will be woken from the dreamless sleep of death and see this lovely planet again.

MOTH!!!!! The DEATH'S HEAD HAWKMOTH

This is the treasure that Captain Moth-Butterfly found on a recent Detectorist expedition (along with a silver sixpence and a gilded button, oh and also a bit from a rather fancy horse's harness - from a carriage driven by one of the gentry I should think).  It's a Death's Head Hawkmoth!  A handsome creature.  I hope it is having a wonderful mothy life out there now that its photographic session has been done.  The Moth Hotel is up and running, though not too many guests this time of year.

The bonfire on The Green has suddenly appeared - as large as ever, all ready for the 5th of November.  At least those heartless "guys" we used to put on bonfires no longer make an appearance.

Rishi Sunak has emerged as our new leader, after a lot of frantic political stuff. Hopefully he and King Charles will get along.  They are both very rich which may help - but I am not sure how the new PM is on Green issues, something which concern the new King very much.

It is odd that it is through the Conservative Party, rather than through Labour, that those from immigrant groups have come to power. Rhetoric would make you think it would have been the other way round. However, think Benjamin Disraeli, a Tory (Conservative) MP from a minority group - the British Jews.  

And that was a long time ago.  But it does give me an opportunity to mention my thriller "Disraeli Hall", in which he features, though it is not a historical novel.  It is set at the turn of the last century - which may be history to some, but its only yesterday to me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Disraeli-Hall-Sue-Knight-ebook/dp/B08VTNKZQJ

Please buy a copy.  I am told it is a good read.

However, having said all that, do not think I am taking sides. Neither party, no human government, can solve the problems we have.  It is an impossible task, as we were not made to rule ourselves or each other. And our lives are so short now that isn't it always children ruling children anyway?

By the time you have grasped where you are, got a little experience and a vague idea about things, you are on your way out.  Take it from someone who knows.

It is only the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government, that can and will, ensure that God's will is done on the earth.  Our Creator, Jehovah, is love, and he wants nothing but life, joy and happiness for us, for all his creation.

He is offering it to all of us, right now.  Why not accept the offer?

 

A Few Yellow Leaves

Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed whereon it must expire,

Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45099/sonnet-73-that-time-of-year-thou-mayst-in-me-behold

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.  Saturday morning I was out on the balcony, in the Autumn sun, listening to the sound of the sea as it came and went on our pebbly beach. Wonderful.  It is the sound of eternity.  I have always loved it, for more than seventy years now.

We had our flu shots; I made a bean and veggie casserole for lunch, did a load of washing, and prepared Col's packed lunch for Sunday. Or at any rate the mysterious Sandwich Fairy did.

Sunday morning we had a violent thunderstorm, with torrential rain - this was early as the alarm went off early so that Captain Moth-Butterfly could fly away to The Field before it opened.  I Zoomed to the meeting at the Kingdom Hall, and joined the Sunday session of M.A.B.L.E. - still on youtube.   Sunday evening it thunderstormed again - even closer, even heavier rain.  And I have woken up today to a cloudy sky and a restless sea.  And a relentless cough.

I doubt that the flu jab and the fearsome fortnightly injection of immuno-suppressant has helped me much, but I have reached that stage of life - past my sell-by date - when one medicine clashes with another and it's not at all clear cut whether it would do more harm to take the stuff than not take it. So I have decided to be grateful that the NHS is still here and take what it offers.

In harmony with that thought I have a hospital appointment this week and next, both regular check-ups.

Even if it does its best, the NHS can only keep me alive for a few more years anyway.   I doubt I will make it much past 80 somehow.   

However, I do hope to live forever on this lovely planet, as the Bible promises. But if I will get there - and how I will get there - I do not know.  If I do, will it be by surviving through Armageddon, for which I will need to have put my faith in the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not in any merit or effort of my own?  Or will it be through the resurrection?  Who knows?  Not me.  But I have real hope.

I want to be here on the earth, a million years from now, with Captain Moth-Butterfly and all those I love, which includes you my readers, listening to the sound of the sea coming and going, coming and going, with a million years of happiness behind us, and unnumbered years of happiness to come.  I hope Will Shakespeare will be there too.  His poems tell us that he saw the beauty of the creation and lamented the sadness, the tragedy, that we are presently living in.  

What will he write then, when all sadness is a thing of the past?

Cough Drops

I am coughing so much at the moment that I have not been out on the door to door work all week - and I Zoomed to the Thursday night meeting instead of going to the Kingdom Hall.  It's not Covid (as far as I know, they are talking about new varieties that may of course require different tests), I am not getting a cold or flu or anything.

My eyes are dry and sore too - so it seems more like a sort of Autumn hayfever, if there is such a thing, or quite probably another manifestation of the arthritis as my immune system continues to batter me.

If only I could loan it out to the world to fight against Covid! 

Anyway, I have my 6 monthly date with Rheumatology coming up in a couple of weeks so I can ask them.  In the meantime, I am a bit stuck as I can't really turn up on peoples' doorsteps and cough all over them, 

I am wondering about going to the Saturday morning group, wearing a mask, and if anyone needs a partner I can offer to go with them, and just let them do all the talking... but i don't know.

So - terrible pun alert - the cough is causing me to DROP the door to door preaching work for the moment.  I hope to continue trying to tell people about the Kingdom of God though., by other means.  It is knowledge that, once you have it, you cannot keep to yourself.

And how obvious our need for good government is at the moment. We, here in the UK, have just had a PM come and go in double quick time, her reign over in days it seems. Its chaotic.  We are a rudderless ship.

And there are two horrendous articles online today, one in The Guardian, one in the Daily Mail, about the prevalence of child abuse. What they both make clear is that it is part of the very fabric of "the world", the current system of things on the earth. Which is why every vestige of it has to go, and will go, at Armageddon.

And it helps us to understand why we must stand clear - be "no part of the world" - cling to Jehovah's moral standards, and warn others.

The seas are stormy, both literally and metaphorically, at the moment. But the seas outside the window are beautiful, which is why I selected a Captain Moth-Butterfly pic of a stormy sea to head this blog.

If it Walks like a Duck

"You walk like a duck." my new physio said.  "We have to change that."  She said my whole body is geared to moving in a way that causes least pain to my arthritic joints. And I guess she is right.  I need to walk like a model apparently. But I am probably never going to take Kate Moss's place on the catwalk however much the physio tries.

Unless Duckwalking become a fashionable look of course... and the Australian Wood Duck in the photo above (taken by Col as always) is surely as lovely and charming as any model.

I must get some points from the Circuit Overseer's concluding talks down before they vanish out of my head.  He is a very good speaker and the images he used ought to stick.  He began his first talk (True Faith: What is is, How it is Shown) with a memorable image, that of Jack and the Beanstalk.

When he got to the fearsome giant, who, famously, said "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman" - there was nothing snowflakey about children's nursery rhymes back in the day - the Speaker - who is from Scotland - made us all laugh by wondering if the giant was Scottish. 

The point was about having faith even the size of a mustard seed - and nurturing it and growing it - and coming to have a close relationship with our loving Creator.  And nothing is more precious than that.

He reminded us that our Creator has perfectly defined faith in his inspired word.  Hebrews 11:1 tells us that "Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen."

James 2:17:  "So, too, faith by itself, without works, is dead."  So if we have real faith in Jehovah, we show it by obeying him. And the more we obey him, the more we have faith in him, as we find out just how perfect his standards are.

There is nothing more faith-strengthening really than trying to do things Jehovah's way.

I am trying to keep up with my new sets of exercises, twice a day.  And my legs are hurting - well its all hurting a bit, but I am still mobile.  And I got a very odd letter from my GP following on my blood test.  Ordinarily it would be bad news. But in this case I think it is good!  However, I cannot face the hour minimum it would take me to ring my GP to get to speak to anyone and check.

So I will do what seems reasonable and take it that it is in fact good health news for me. And there is not too much of that at the moment, so I am thankful.

The Black Mulberry Tree

This is an interesting point from the Circuit Overseer's talk on Tuesday night,  At Luke 17:5,6 Jesus said: “Now the apostles said to the Lord: “Give us more faith.” Then the Lord said: “If you had faith the size of a mustard grain, you would say to this black mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea!’ and it would obey you.”"

The speaker pointed out that the mustard grain is tiny and the black mulberry is a very deep-rooted tree, hard to uproot. Now this is not an illustration about garden design - the point of it is that no matter what mountain-like deeply rooted obstacles we face, we can overcome them, IF we have faith in Jehovah. He is the all-powerful Creator.

And I was most impressed to find a photo of a black mulberry tree in Col's collection to head this blog.

The Circuit Overseer started his talk (Have Faith and do not Doubt) by pointing out that we are on a spiritual voyage to the new system - the paradise earth - and we need to keep our faith strong to avoid shipwreck.

This is the illustration used at 1 Timothy 1:18 which says: “This instruction I entrust to you, my child Timothy, in harmony with the prophecies that were made about you, that by these you may go on waging the fine warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some have thrust aside, resulting in the shipwreck of their faith.”

How to strengthen our faith and avoid shipwreck, especially so close to harbour? The talk was very helpful, And very timely as I am finding it so hard to get back to the door to door preaching work.

And especially as we are all living in these "difficult times hard to deal with".

Our streets are becoming more and more lawless. They were not a paradise in my childhood, far from it. but us kids could roam them in comparative safety.  And we are seeing this "increasing of lawlessness" worldwide, as Jesus himself prophesied. But I am happy to say that I did get out on the door to door work on Wednesday - only for three quarters of an hour, but we covered our territory, so we gave a few more people another chance to learn that we are not abandoned to this, that we have a loving Creator, who is coming to our rescue.

My Gym lesson (Physio) on Friday was much more rigorous. Different physio, different regime, but I have to trust that they know what they are doing. And come Saturday morning I can still walk! I am typing this to a background of clattering as it seems the scaffolding is coming down. At last. And I did manage a morning out on the door to door work with a sibling. I had hoped to get to 3 return visits, but only managed 2. However I made myself go out again this afternoon and found my lady at home. She is not interested, and said she only took the little publication I offered her out of politeness. But we parted on good terms, and she still has the leaflet about the Kingdom I left her, so who knows if she might pick it up and read it one day.  I am shattered now, but hopefully I can have the rest of the day off.

The C.O.Visit

It is Fungi Season - hence the photo of Scarlet Waxcaps - one of Col's of course.  Hopefully he might find some interesting ones to photograph when he is out in the Detectorist Plains busy adding to the Ringpull hoard.  

One of the things I imagine doing in the restored earthly paradise is foraging through beautiful forests, trug in hand, collecting mushrooms for the pot.  There will no worries about mistaking good fungi for bad then. Either they will all be edible, or my perfect eyes and brain will have no trouble distinguishing between the two.  At the moment I'm not sure if I could distinguish an oak tree from an oakapple...

Who knows? But let's hope we are all there to find out.

The turmoil in the world continues - with horrors on the increase in the Ukraine, causing immense suffering to both Russian and Ukrainian people.  And here, in the UK, our streets seem to be becoming more lawless by the day.  A recent problem are the various organisations of Eco-protesters who are - understandably - worried about the state of the earth - blocking traffic and damaging things. Which actually does not help their cause.

So the preaching work is more urgent than it has ever been, I guess.  And I hope I will be able to report that I am back out on the doors when I do my next blog.

We are having our Circuit Overseer visit this week - to encourage us all.

Will this get me back out on the door to door work?  I have been aiming for one door to door session mid-week and one on Saturday, plus several Zoom sessions. But I missed Saturday last week...

We will be having a couple of special talks from him and I hope to blog a few points from them.  

A Sad Milestone

For the first time, on Friday night, Col went to a concert on his own. We have been to so many concerts over the years, all over the world. We saw Georgie Fame in Saudi, Brian Ferry in Bahrain, Tosca in Rome, at the Caracoram Baths, Carmen in Sydney (at the Opera House, obviously). And our first date, all those years ago, was at a Manitas de Plata concert in Newcastle.

The photo is one Col took of the Opera house in 2008.

And now he is at a Sari Schorr concert.  On his own.  I can no longer cope with getting in and out of the seats at concerts.  I feel really sad.

You don't think when you are young what old age will be like. After all, you are young. There are old people in the world, but they have nothing to do with you. A different breed.

And then... one day...  Our lives are so short now - the flight of the sparrow through the lighted Mead Hall, and then back to the dark.

However I also have to say that retirement has been lovely so far - despite health issues.  The older I get the more wonderful and interesting life seems.  And of course I hope so much that both Col and I, and all those we love, will be living on this wonderful planet forever, under very different circumstances of course.

Revelation puts it perfectly:

"With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”

Can we believe this, that soon all causes for suffering will be gone and life will be full of joy?  Is it too good to be true?   Jehovah goes on to reassure us with these words:  "And the One seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new.” Also he says: “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”"

Faithful and true.

Revelation 21:3-5

Saturday was a bit of a nothing day. I failed to get out on the field service door to door work - I was a bit shattered by the Physio session on Friday. I am being moved onto a weekly session now - in an attempt to support my crumbling spine with some Ms Universe musculature.  No sign of it yet, but I guess I have to keep trying.  So I puffed and panted through my gentle exercise routine. And I did my Watchtower study for Sunday.  

It was the meeting at the Hall this morning, and Col came back early this afternoon, which was a nice surprise.

Foiled and Crowned and M.A.B.L.E.

Schedule for week so far:

Monday:  Zoom session with siblings, including Oz branch of the family, and then Dentist - for a crown.

Tuesday: Field Service Group in the morning; working with a sister in the afternoon - we may call on some of Jean's regular calls to explain why she will not be turning up at their doors again.

Wednesday:  Field Service Group in Zoom, followed by regular session with a sibling, also in Zoom. And another Zoom session in the afternoon with one of the young pioneer sisters.

But how much of that schedule will I make... my batteries are running low, so time will tell.

Check list:  Tooth done. And I have to say I don't know how much more dental torment I can stand.   My dentist knows me well.  I had barely sat down in the Waiting Room before I was called in to the Chamber of Horrors.  "That was quick." I said.  "I didn't want to give you time to panic and escape," he said grimly.

I am ashamed to admit that he once had to leave a patient mid session to come out and make sure I stayed in the Waiting Room and didn't flee.  There was such a long long delay - not his fault, the dental surgeon was caught up in traffic.

I am a complete wimp, with a backbone of solid custard.  If I did not know how to call on my Creator for help and for strength, I can't imagine what sort of state I would be in by now.

However, that ruled out the next thing in my schedule, going out on the door to door on Tuesday morning. I was exhausted and didn't even make the Zoom session.  I spent the morning making the soup for lunch and a rather desperate veggie curry for supper, using up the leftover veg. It turned out quite nice. 

And I went out on a few calls with a sibling on Tuesday afternoon, and hopefully may have started a Bible Study with the lawyer who remembered me, after nearly 3 years!   Is it my resemblance to the supermodel Kate Moss that made such an impression I wonder?  (Answer: NO  and  IF ONLY.)

Of course, what I hope is making the impression is what we are telling him about the Kingdom of God.  If I remember right, when I first met him on the door to door work he said that he was rapidly losing faith in the ability of human governments to solve our problems.

As the Inspired Scriptures warn us: "It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step." - Jeremiah 10:23

Wednesday, I made both Zoom sessions. The weather was quite wild and stormy, but there were builders on our scaffolding, briefly. And the ants have re-appeared.

There were wonderful waves on the Channel.

Oh, and we no longer have an oven.  This is almost the last of our original appliances, all bought new with the flat.  We have had to replace all, except, so far, oven and hob.  Now it is only the hob that works.  I am busy flying the soup machine as it will be soup not pizza for our supper tonight when the hungry hunter gets back from his day's Detectoring.

M.A.B.L.E continues.  It is well worth dropping in to some of the sessions on Youtube.  My publisher has some great authors and it has been fun meeting and talking to them. 

https://www.fantasticbooksstore.com/m-a-b-l-e/mable-schedule

The Cross as Religious Symbol

This Yellow Boxfish is the star of our October Calendar.  Col photographed it in the Indian Ocean many years ago.  I hope it had, or indeed is still having, a lovely life.

And its kind of appropriate as I believe that some of the earliest Christians did use the fish as a symbol - as Jesus calls his followers "fishers of men".  But, to return to the question in my previous blog,  is the cross a Christian symbol?  It is certainly a religious one, but is it a Christian one.

In discussing the word stauros which is used to describe the implement on which Jesus was killed, the book The Non-Christian Cross, by J. D. Parsons (London, 1896), says: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed together in the form of a cross. . . . It is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as ‘cross’ when rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that action by putting ‘cross’ in our lexicons as the meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles, did not become its primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the absence of corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had that particular shape.”—Pp. 23, 24; see also The Companion Bible (London, 1885), Appendix No. 162.

So the implement described in the Christian Greek Scriptures was a stauros, which was a stake, a single piece of wood. Why turn it into a cross?  Does the reason lie in the fact that the cross certainly is a religious symbol, but not of Christianity?

For example:

“Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship.”—Encyclopædia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.

“The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

So is the cross a symbol of the religions that Jehovah commanded his people to keep away from, not to touch?  And his standards have not changed.

And his commands are always always for our own good.  Which gave me a lot to think about.  The cross is the symbol for all of Christendom.  And at John 13:35, Jesus himself told us how we could recognise his true followers when he said:  "By this all will know that you are my disciples - if you have love among yourselves."

Have the warring countries and factions of Christendom shown that love for each other?   

I had a busy weekend - busy for me, these days that is. I was out on the work on Saturday morning - which meant negotiating a fearsome roundabout twice. I prayed a lot about it. And I am deeply grateful that it was clear both times my car and I approached.  I was out with the youngest member of our congregation - a young brother who is all of 5 weeks old.  I watched rather enviously as he was pushed door to door in his pram.

He was as good as gold.

And on Saturday we had a tea party for our field service group, during which I talked to a lovely couple who are studying with us - Filipinos, with two beautiful young daughters.   It took me back to my expat days, when we had so many good friends from the Philippines.  Sunday was the meeting.  And as, unusually, Captain Moth Butterfly was at home, he gave me a lift there and back as it was pouring with rain.

I was very grateful.

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