On the brink

Another lovely sunny autumnal day. I tried a different combination of pillows, as my sleep pattern has been disrupted by neck and shoulder pain on waking from relaxed sleep for some while. I slept a lot better and woke without those unpleasantly sharp pains to deal with. The muscles are still sore and stiff, but a short spell of Chi Gong exercises sorts this out. If I reproduce the pillow arrangement successfully for a while, the chronic stiffness and muscle pain will subside I feel sure. A new mattress would help, but it's such a hassle to do, as it's important to try before buying preferably for a few nights.

I posted the WhatsApp link to today's Morning Prayer on YouTube half an hour earlier than usual, and went back to sleep after an excellent 'Thought for the Day' from Lucy Winkett. After breakfast, Clare went to buy a new hat as she lost hers yesterday getting out of the car at the hospital. Following up on Sion's suggestion yesterday, I wrote a detailed analysis of what I thought was lacking in the diocesan website and sent it to him. 

Then I cooked lunch in time for Clare's return. I had more writing to do after our meal and it was gone four when I went out for a walk. I walked north up the east bank of the Taff as far as Llandaff Weir. Many commuting cyclists overtook me on the way home after work in town. A rather uncomfortable experience as they're almost silent as they approach. Not all of them have a bell to warn pedestrians. Best to avoid the Taff Trail at peak cycle times in future. 

Owain called me when I was walking back home to tell me about his interview for another better paid job with HMRC. He said that suitably qualified candidates out of scores of applicants were being interviewed daily for the next fortnight before he'd know if he was to be on the short list for a further interview, such is the competition for higher level jobs in the Civil Service.

After supper I treated myself to another episode of 'Lolita Lobosco', romantic, funny, as well as a detective story shedding light on poverty in Southern Italy and youth unemployment driving youngsters into crime, often following in their father's footsteps. And it reveals the compassionate desire of some who strive to make a specific difference in a place where they know they can. The stories portray the same ethos as 'Inspector Montalbano' but from a feminine perspective. Heart warming and insightful.

With Iran raining down missiles on Israel, and Israel launching a ground offensive over the Lebanese border as well as targeting Hezbollah military leadership and strategic military assets, the situation in the Middle East seems to get more volatile and uncertain by the day. The suffering of civilians in Gaza is now being reproduced among civilians in Lebanon. All this springs from failure to make progress towards a establishing a Palestinian state in the region in which all three Abrahamic faiths believe they have stake and resist sharing. 

Conservative religious culture is part of the problem, but so is a growing secularity that is ambivalent about sustaining universal moral and spiritual values. The end doesn't justify the means when it is so inhumanely cruel and unjust. We're in a time of great spiritual crisis on many fronts where war and violent crime make life impossible for powerless people. We haven't learned lessons from history, nor from religious prophets and poets who denounce the futility of causing suffering to others. Climate crisis is telling us the same thing. Perhaps climate catastrophe will in the end force the warmongers to halt and there will be no winners.