NEW BEGINNINGS 2023

I know, I know ... it's the strangest of places to start, but I'm sure you'll catch on quickly and easily.

I suspect you know what it's like when you read something and you immediately recognise it as something you've thought or said or maybe even written yourself.  Happens to me often 😊

Recently came across author Richie Norton and was reading a Google Books promotion of the Amazon download work "Resumés are Dead: and what to do about it".

I've been trying to wake up the world to this notion for around 20 years, but I might as well be preaching to crocodiles for all the interest anyone shows. So I'm glad someone else is talking about it.  Thanks Richie Norton.

I laughed with gratitude when I read the title of another of his works: "The Power of Starting Something Stupid".  And a big part of my laughter was related to the fact that I came across it while searching for quotes on 'new beginnings'.  And Richie has a good'un:

EVERY SUNSET IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RESET.

EVERY SUNRISE BEGINS WITH NEW EYES

Many who know me well and have seen some of my photography will know that sunset and sunrise have been the key rhythm of my life for some years now - especially in the years of my late wife's illness and subsequent passing.  The Richie Norton quote above nailed it perfectly; I couldn't have said it better.  Best 'New Beginnings' quote I could have stumbled across - and it was the first one I found.  Thanks again Richie.

So what's it got to do with anything again???

This is the last sunset shot from the window of the home I shared with my wife until she passed in December 2020 - the rainbow was a bonus.

That was very distinctly a moment of reset.  I drastically down-sized, sold our unit, bought a tiny camper and lived in caravan parks until I decided to plant myself in a new city.  One of my favourite things to do in that period was go out and photograph sunrises and sunsets.  From then til now, new eyes meet the sunrises and each sunset is a reset.

And this is today's sunset from near my new home

A reset of sorts ... and a new beginning.  But a 'beginning' in which I take up where I left off three years ago.  If I can catch tomorrow's sunrise, I'll add it here.  But even if I don't get to photograph it, it will happen and new eyes will meet it with anticipation and apprehension; with joy and with grief; with hope and with anxiety.

So where did I leave off? My question was and still is this: where is Australia today in the will and plan of God; and in particular, where is this thing He calls ekklesia?  And where is the human creation we call "the church"?

The new beginning starts with an honest and open reading - or re-reading - of Ezekiel chapter 34.

The biggest question of all - FOR ME - is this: is it time to speak?  Or is it time to swallow the bitter pill of silence and watch on while we presume rightness and trip over ourselves yet again?

Cheers,

K