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| Mum, David, & Aloe Vera |
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| Lauren Contemplating |
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| I am NOT posing!! |
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| "Go Away!" & "I Can't See You!" |
17!! Jings :-)
Makes 1 of us feel older than we'd like :-o
"My son Alexander is an ACF {Army Cadet Force} cadet in the Pipes & Drums {he's a Drums part :)} Alexr is 1 of only a handful {2 or 3 I think} of ACF cadets from this part of Scotland taking part in the ACF Band!
Very proud of him {despite me being an ATC "Air Training Corps" Cadet of 8yrs - a long time ago!}
So chuffed that the Cadet Forces of UK are getting this high profile celebration....
They do some amazing things - with some amazing people be they the Cadets or the Adult Volunteers - Can & do give confidence to face life head on ~ Never mind how fun & unique a challenge it can be!!!
So give them your support & recognition in every way possible!
*Hope to post or link to pictures in the future*"
On Tuesday 6th July, cadets and adult volunteers from around the country and from the MOD’s sponsored cadet forces will take part in the Cadet 150 Royal Review at Buckingham Palace.
Almost 1700 individuals from the MOD’s 4 cadet forces, the Combined Cadet Force, Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force and Air Training Corps will converge in the early afternoon at Horse Guards Parade and set off for Buckingham Palace. Each cadet force will be led by its own band and all followed up by a combined Pipe band.
Whilst the marching contingents are parading along the Mall, banners unfurled, the Red Arrows will make an overflight and in each plane, a cadet from one of the cadet forces will be a passenger.
Paying respects to VIP representatives of the Cadet Forces en route, the parade will march into Wellington Barracks, close to Buckingham Palace in preparation for the Garden Party at the Palace.
Around 3.30 pm, a ceremonial detachment of 400 cadets, 100 from each force, will march into Buckingham Palace to await the arrival of members of the Royal Family.
At 4.00 pm, members of the Royal Family will arrive and move through the ceremonial detachments and thence through routes lined by almost 800 cadets and adult volunteers where they will meet members of the Cadet Forces.
The event will close at 6.00 pm
Andy Johnson, Cadet150 Project OfficerArticle by
- via armycadets.com
The above quote (perhaps it’s a paraphrase) is from my #1 Son on the picture below.
He found it even ‘cooler’ once he discovered that it wasn’t just ‘nicked’ from somewhere but a collaboration by two of my online friends – find the post of original here
So Thomas (photo) & Adam (art), i’m loving it immensely. (especially as I usually rotate my desktop wallpaper very frequently)
AND high praise indeed (on the Cool Aliens) from a sometime grumpy, sleepy, incomprehensibly guttural teenager!
It’s lost souls – it’s aliens ..
it’s in the eye of the beholder ( now THAT’'S art!!)
This is as it appears ‘in-situ’ on my desktop
Looking forward to more in the future, from these fab artists!!
Its Hogmanay!!!
So Happy Ne'erday when it comes...
(Don't really see the point to New Year Celebrations - never really been all that comfortable with the logic of it even as a very young child - always seems maudlin & a feeble excuse to get drunk)
But still - I'll not spoil what is for some is a fab excuse for a big party / small family gathering or whatever life brings you...
Glasgow Hogmanay 2007/8 (Runrig just after 'the bells')
Edinburgh Hogmanay 2007/8 (Fireworks across city)
Some Fab Hogmanay TV from my Childhood...
(for Salvationists - the last 30/40seconds are very funny)
Though, finally I offer up, right now, prayers for those who want or need Gods Comfort & Grace, in whatever situation or 'celebration' you find yourself the Holy Spirit & God's blanket of love will surround you & warm you. You are never alone - God's there walking beside you & me
Merry Christmas!! (Early I Know)
:-o
(New International Version)1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tonguesa]">[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,b]">[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(The Message)1 Corinthians 13
The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
(New Living Translation)
1 Corinthians 13
Love Is the Greatest
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;a]">[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languagesb]">[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.c]">[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
...GOD is LOVE
This blog, is probably the hardest thing I have ever publically written:
There are no words…
(This blog entry has evolved over the last 4hrs {I kept walking away from it!} as I have written it has gone from something that was mine –so I thought- into something bigger than me… It is – what it is) No apologies if it seems incoherent but, I make less sense than God!
My #1 Son is 17 today, almost to the minute as I begin writing this in fact!
He was born at fourteen minutes past one in the morning, on Thursday 23rd January 1992. When I saw him for the 1st time, well there are no words to describe the emotions & level of love, that I felt in those seconds & minutes that followed, for him & my then wife.
A lot of time has passed since then, a lot of life for him, & my 2 other children (his younger brother & sister) as well as me, has been lived since then. Not all of it good, not all of it easy, & some of it, more than children should have to witness or endure! Separation & divorce can be messy. There are no words to describe the pangs of pain I feel, when I, somewhat inevitably, look back over some of it.
The detail is unimportant & perhaps for some would be unfair/unpalatable to be aired so publically. The past is important, but only as a starting place for our future (for what is to come). We should learn from it & acknowledge it. But never carry it with us as ammunition or baggage. There are no words that could explain how hard that is to do sometimes. (Especially if, at the time, that is what is being done to you)
As a Dad, I haven’t always got it right & sometimes got it really badly wrong! (Especially in that “past”) But I can (mostly) accept that & (mostly) forgive myself. This is because my 3 weans (kids) have told me that its ok, there’s nothing to forgive & that I’m a good Dad really! (They’re teenagers!)
Ok, I realise I was going to go on & on trying to explain more, without giving details.
But that is firstly, fruitless & superfluous.
Secondly, completely impossible without being public & personal.
Thirdly, oh so, a BIG mistake!
Those paragraphs are deleted & gone, as well as any obviously personal details. (before being published)
The long & the short of it becomes this then:
As a parent, it becomes hard to accept, as your children become more independent:
That a lot of the time you will be a bystander & a supporter standing on the sidelines, in their life. Now I can live with & adapt to that. But you also have to be, I think, sure in yourself (as a good parent) that in reaching that point that you’re now, in the majority a supporter/bystander, has come at the right age? For my parents I reckon it came when I was 18 (they might argue otherwise). But for every child & parent it will be different & in there lies my dilemma & possibly my reason for creating this blog entry…
I (as well as other family members & friends) haven’t really seen my #1 son, much since May 2008. He kind of (quite unexpectedly) drifted away. From then until now we have come across each other maybe on average 2 times a month (that’s about 16 times) Sometimes its been for seconds or minutes on a bus – sometimes its been for most of a day, like at parents on Christmas Day. Sometimes I know where he is staying (usually when he’s at his Mum’s) but most of the time no-one does & that is extremely hard.
I can understand, he feels he is ready to face this world alone & maybe, I concede, he is right. But not perhaps, if those who were important supporters (on whatever scale) in his life, before May last year are all now bystanders.
I don’t want to make this blog entry - inappropriate, publically humiliating & misguided – so I wont (& wouldn’t)
I have realised why this blog entry exists, because my eldest son is 17 today & that has made me think about this situation in a different way that, I perhaps have been avoiding. Its called giving it all to God (My biggest supporter). Something I now must do…
So, I want others to know that, I believe, everything in life happens for a reason. There are no coincidences only ‘God-instances’. I have faith & believe that God will be there in all the good & bad times of my life. But God is there acting in all our lives you just have to look to see his effect in your world (He’s your biggest supporter). That’s where faith comes in…
I have just remembered this: A handful of years ago, a man who I had only met a few days before (& haven’t seen since) came & sat beside me. He didn’t know much about me other than; We were on the same course, both went to church in The Salvation Army, & that he needed to talk to me! We had a long conversation (most of which I now don’t remember) at a point in the course when we had the afternoon off. So instead of spending a summers afternoon with his wife he spent it with me! But I needed it & God had told him so! Most of what he said that afternoon, has long since faded… But the line that lived with me was (is) “Let Go-Let God”. Easily said & with enough faith equally easily done…
I don’t always have enough faith (FYI! Christians are human!) so letting go of a struggle or hurt isn’t always 1st thing on the agenda all the time! Plus God gave everyone free-will, that can make things a bit complicated & messy at times! I suppose that’s what my #1 son is expressing at the moment – so as much as I don’t like his choices in life & the effect that has… I have got to trust God.
God is always there in my son’s life waiting for him to see that what he has planned out is nowhere as fantastic, compared to God’s life plan for him! That realisation for my son may come tomorrow, next year or never…
Let Go-Let God… Because I must! I cannot live my son’s life for him – that would be a massive mistake – he needs to find his way. I can be a supporter only if he wants me to be. So for now I remain a bystander to my precious precious son. I may not always be comfortable with that, but I don’t remain the only supporter. My family & friends are supporters too & will be there for him when/if he is ready. Above all that is his biggest supporter of all – God.
So… happy 17th Birthday to my #1 son (as in 1st born) & I pray you know that your supporters are here for you.. Thank you God for being there for him, even if perhaps your unwanted. I may worry about ‘my boy’ but hey I’m Dad… but I worry a lot less because God’s on my side & supporting me & my son (I wouldn’t want to be on the other team!)
Some people may think this blog entry to be misplaced & should have remained unwritten. Perhaps your right & your very entitled to that opinion. But I didn’t set out to write this, at all, or in the way it turned out…
It is-what it is. I don’t understand why – something had to be said & apparently its been said here. Take from it what you will. I ask for your prayers & understanding.
Trust me pressing publish for this blog entry is not taken easily or lightly at all ~ so be gentle?
Its now after 5 in the morning so I concede & retire for a few hours sleep…
~ A xxx ~
