Saturday, March 28, 2015

Reflection on Palm Sunday 2015



Tomorrow Sunday 29 March is Palm Sunday.  It is the day when Christians throughout the world commemorate Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  According to the Gospels Jesus rode a donkey into the city.  Some say an ass, others a colt and the scene has been depicted in hundreds of illustrations since that time. The donkey may have been a representative of an animal of peace as opposed to a horse which was seen as an animal of war.  It is written that those in the path of Jesus laid garments and branches in the path of the procession.  John in his Gospel, specifies fronds of palm which I would think of as being right given the part of the world in which this took place.  The palm branch in ancient times  was not only a symbol of triumph but that of goodness.  In the Roman Catholic Church the feast of Palm Sunday coincides with Passion Sunday  which is what it was called when I was growing up.

Palm Sunday precedes Holy Week.  Its significance is that is shows how people can be. Jesus was given this grand welcome into Jerusalem and within days was the target of hostility by a few who were against him and succeeded in winning because of their trumped up charges.  If we are to learn a lesson from this it is about how circumstances can change so very quickly.

The people as we have read, expected the Messiah to come in great glory - with power as a king but he came in very humble way. People didn't understand.  Even though they must have heard about him and known about him, they didn't understand the simplicity and the humility of Jesus.  


As we go into Palm Sunday and then Holy Week, it's a time for those of us who believe, to reflect if we haven't already done so during the Lenten season, on how we live our lives and where we can improve.  Not one of us is perfect and we can all improve  in some way or other - our behaviour, our outlooks, the way we treat others, our selfishness and a host of other things that I am sure, if we dig deep and don't flinch, we can find!






Saturday, March 14, 2015

Thirty Years.









Thirty years ago today I got married and I am still married to the same man!  Yesterday flowers from my husband, were delivered to me at work. I am blessed and fortunate. Today I look back over the years and know that even during bumpy times, this marriage was to be.  I know we won't ever celebrate sixty only because we are of the age when that figure is unrealistic but another ten isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

Although my husband won't read this as he's not a Blogger, I want him to know that I love and cherish him.  The marriage has never been dull, boring or lacked humour and for that and many other facets, I am more than grateful.

For those of you who remember and for those of you who never read my Our House series, here a very small taste of how it's been. The humour is still with us.


http://expatbeesblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-house-our-27th-wedding-anniverary.html#comment-form



Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Insanity

Magpie 260



Lee Miller in Adolf Hitler's bathtub, Munich 1945, by David E Scherman

Photograph courtesy Tess Kinkaid, Magpie Tales  http://magpietales.blogspot.com/2015/03/mag-260.html




I have lived
I have loved
I thought I was
Invincible

But this day
I saw horror
Ingrained for ever
Dachau!

Gentle victims, innocents
You brutally gassed
The devil being your 
Master

Now in disbelief 
I scrub the rawness
The sickening stench of
Death

You never soaped
In this bath
No desire to cleanse
Evil

I already know
What future holds
My spirit is drowned
Numbed



Postscript:

Life is shattered
I cannot love
Drowning atrocities in
Alcohol



Barbara M Lake   ©

Trinidad WI

March 2015


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