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Stillpoint

Stillpoint

Colourful!
Keepers of the vine

WE’RE ALL A LITTLE BROKEN,
BUT, LAST TIME I CHECKED,
BROKEN CRAYONS STILL COLOUR THE SAME … 

TRENT SHELTON

TIME MACHINE

The music that touches you in your youth is magnified as you get older. Each tune or song can be a virtual time-machine. All you need is to hear a second or two, and you go back to that place and time when you first heard it. It’s a brilliant feeling when music touches you so profoundly and stays with you through time …

ROB HALFORD

SMALL KINDNESSES

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you past. 

Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes – a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. 

And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. 

Mostly, we don’t want to hurt each other. 

We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say “thank you” to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. 

For the waitress to call us “honey” when she sets down our bowl of chowder, and for the driver in the red ute to let us pass. 

We have so little of each other now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. 

What if these are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, 

     “Here, have my seat …” 

     “Go ahead, you first …” 

     “I like your hat …”

DANUSHA LAMERIS

WE’RE ALL THE SAME:

Everyone has a story. 

Everyone has been through something that has changed them.

So never judge a person by the chapter you walked in on.

ANNA GRACE TAYLOR

PREFERABLE

It’s 

   better 

      to 

         be 

            KIND

         than 

      to 

   be 

RIGHT. 

ANNE LAMOTT

CHOOSE TENDERNESS

The kindest people are not born that way. They are made. They are the souls who have experienced so much at the hands of life … who have dug themselves out of the dark … who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson. The kindest people do not just exist – they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them. They choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen first-hand why compassion is so necessary. They have seen first-hand why tenderness is so important in this world.

BIANCA SPARACINO

TOUCH ME, PLEASE?

Hugging is an effective cure for the blues. Our skin-pores are places for messages of love. FOUR hugs a day are needed for survival … EIGHT hugs a day are needed for maintenance … TWELVE hugs a day are needed for growth. So go on: hug somebody, and watch ‘em grow!

DON’T RUIN IT!

The reality is …

None of us is easy to live with.

We all suffer from something.

We all have attitudes which

are a turn-off to different people …

So if you meet someone 

who’s willing to stay committed to

understanding you and

actually wants to grow with 

you … 

   DON’T LET LAME NONSENSE 

   LIKE PRIDE

   RUIN IT … 

ALLEY-CAT OF HEAVEN

I did not mean to be a Christian. I have been very clear about that. My first words upon encountering the presence of Jesus for the first time 12 years ago, were, I swear to God, “I would rather die!” I really would have rather died at that point than to have my wonderful brilliant left-wing non-believer friends know that I had begun to love Jesus. 

But I never felt like I had much choice; he was relentless. I didn’t experience him so much as the hound of heaven (as the old description has it) as the alley cat of heaven, who seemed to believe that if it just keeps showing up, mewling outside your door, you’d eventually open up and give him a bowl of milk. Of course, as soon as you do … the next thing you know, he’s sleeping on your bed every night, and stepping on your chest at dawn to play a little push-push. 

I resisted as long as I could, like Sam-I-Am in ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ – 

I would not, could not in a boat! 

I could not, would not with a goat! 

I do not want to follow Jesus, 

I just want expensive cheeses … 

Or something. 

Anyway, he wore me out! He won! I was tired and vulnerable, and I let him in …

ANNE LAMOTT

SORT IT OUT …

If 

you 

don’t 

heal 

what 

hurt 

you 

    you’ll bleed on people who 

    didn’t cut you.

CAN YOU HEAR IT …?

The more faithfully 

you listen to 

the 

voice 

within 

you, 

     the better you 

     hear what is 

     sounding outside of you.

DAG HAMMARSKJOL 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.

JIMMY CARTER – 39TH U.S. PRESIDENT

LET THEM THINK YOU’RE CRAZY!

Do something unusual.

Be an experimenter. 

Meet new people.

Try new experiences. 

Let people think you’re crazy.

Wear a funny hat.

Put your shirt on backwards.

Hug a tree.

Fly a kite.

Wear a button.

Jog in triangles.

Go for a long walk in your bare feet.

Poke some holes in your rigidity.

This is not a time to be timid.

Take a chance – it’s WORTH it!

TIM HANSEL – ‘WHEN I RELAX I FEEL GUILTY’

Latest Issue & Articles:
Issue 1, 2023

Issue 1, 2023

Going Places

Where in the world would we be without gardens
by John Cooney

Under One Roof

Multi-family living
by Tracy Carter

Stillpoint

A wish-list for my Grandson
Keepers of the vine

Sacrosanct Suds

Choosing Love in a Laundromat
By Tara Couture

Home Sweet Home

How to buy a souvenir
by Guy Browning

Gluten-Free Mediterranean

Chicken Shawarma PLUS Pita Bread & Toum
By Helen Tzouganatos

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