Category: 2022

Gill writes:

I haven’t quite been snared by the ‘wild swimming’ bug like some of my friends have been. My social media feeds over the last couple of years have been increasingly peppered with images of friends in swimsuits, wetsuits, and a glamourous array of swimming hats. They are diving into plunge pools at the foot of waterfalls, or emerging from misty lakes, or walking towards a grey sea with a bunch of swimming buddies arm in arm.

Of course, I have considered succumbing to the bug. I do like swimming. I do like paddling in waves. I’ve always enjoyed building dams and striding through shallow rivers. However, I don’t like creatures swimming anywhere near me (this is the woman who ventured into Lake Galilee, took one look at all the fish, and walked straight back to the swimming pool). And I don’t like ‘deep.’ I think I am as much scared of depth as I am of heights. I once had to swim a race at Wigan International Pool (now gone) which was a 50m pool with a 5m deep end. I’d never been so fast at the beginning of a race as I was that day.

This song, however, took me to the seawater pool at Southport on the first time of hearing it. Possibly not in January as the song suggests but there were days in May and June when you couldn’t feel your hands or feet

Red bikini, running, slipping
Get your stuff, we’re going swimming
In January
I can’t feel my feet or my hands
Making me watch you do handstands
Is this why you brought me?

I love it when a song conjures up nostalgic feelings where we can place our own images onto it. You don’t have to be from the north-west to understand handstands in water and shivering until the warmth of towels and clothes take effect. Of course, the rest of the song takes me further down memory lane as it’s all about Liverpool (where the band are from) – a pool where I would happily drown.

Don’t let me down
If you listen, there’s a beautiful sound
In a cold north western town
We found a pool where we’d happily drown
I wish I was there right now

One of the phrases that have crept into our vocabulary fairly recently is ‘making memories.’ I can’t say that I warm to it really. There’s something a bit too ‘consumerist’ in it for me, and it goes hand in hand with visiting a place because it looks good on Instagram. Perhaps I’m too much of a cynical Gen X-er but this phrase attributed to AA Milne (but probably not from him at all) works better for me – ‘We didn’t realise we were making memories, we were just having fun.’

I do concede, however, that it’s important to stop and savour the moment. We can be so caught up analyzing yesterday or preparing for tomorrow that we are not actually living in the present and noticing the small moments. I can’t, therefore, argue with the intentionality of ‘making memories.’ I think that great memories in our lives are of moments when all of our senses are engaged; we feel valued and loved; and we feel connected with others.

This song captures these feelings for me because my memories of living in Liverpool are full of love, laughter, new experiences, adventures and feeling liberated. It goes without saying that watching the video is no less nostalgic for me.

And because I was living in the moment so much, I can appreciate those days with lots of affection without a desperate yearning to go back to those times and places. They were special there and then; it wouldn’t be the same if I returned to try and recapture it all. After all, I am too busy living where I am right now.

Happiness Researcher (yes, it is an actual job) Meik Wiking says in his book ‘The Art of Making Memories’ – “As long as you live, keep learning how to live. And remember: one day, your life will flash before your eyes – make sure it is worth watching.”

I hope this summer is a time where you are blessed with moments of feeling connected, noticed, and loved. Go ahead and make some memories – and take time to be in the moment.

If you’d like to know more about Red Rum Club, check out their website at https://www.redrumclub.com/

Alison writes:

Kate Bush’s iconic “Running Up That Hill” song from 1985 is back in the UK charts thanks to ‘Stranger Things’ Series 4.

*MINOR SPOILER* The song is Max’s favourite and her friends work out that listening to it saves her from a monster.

‘Stranger Things’ is a magnificent TV series where friendship is celebrated, friendships brought together by being the weirdos, and unexpected friendships across.

I didn’t realise that the full title of this song is “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”. The chorus starts

“And if only I could

Make a deal with God

Get him to swap our places”

I don’t think God is ever likely to answer that prayer and swap people around, but the passion and the love to want what is best for our friends surely is part of the answer to the prayer.

We see Glimpses of God in the friendships on Stranger Things. A rare celebration not of Eros love but philia.

How often have we all felt like that when friends who we love are in dire straits?

The other week Deacon Jon Miller asked this on Twitter

My answer was that I saw glimpses of God when friends put together a magnificent party for another friend who turned 50. She is single and is used to providing for all her own needs and this gift of a surprise (kind of) party blew her away.

So my question for the week is, what are you and I going to do this week that if our friends were asked ‘where have you seen glimpses of God this week’, we could have been part of the answer?

Jane writes:

Sometimes when you hear a track it, sends you off on a path of discovery around an artist. In the case of RLM, it was something on the Saturday ‘Dermot O’Leary Show’,. The old Saturday afternoon one and not in his current slot. It wasn’t “Trouble” either but a cover, although try hard as I might, I cannot now track it down.

Anyhow. What it made me do was that terribly modern thing of wander through his back catalogue – courtesy of Spotify. “You terrible woman” I hear the music purists cry, and in a way, I agree but I fear if I hadn’t done so I would not have been near this track.

It’s a simple, little repeated tune – sounding for all the world like it won’t affect anyone or anything in sharp contrast to its lyrical content. All statements and questions

Why so many people always run around

Looking for a happiness that can’t be found

For everyone resplendent in the wealth of kings

Thousands upon thousands only suffering

Why so many people only close their hearts

Turn their eyes as others’ lives are torn apart

When kindness is the greatest gift that one can share

Why choose hate to subjugate your fellow man

And the constant refrain… I don’t know, I don’t know.……

The world painted is an all too familiar one, and as we look across the global landscape with its many, many stories of tragedy and suffering, and downright greed or self-centredness, then we too may have a repeated refrain of ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’….. around what to do.

As people of faith though, I believe we do know what is right and what to do.

Oddly the answer is the same as the one RLM comes up with

Be part of the light

Try to be part of the solution. In any big or small way that you can lay your hands on.

God requires both nothing and everything from us. Most clearly we are called to love God with all our hearts, our souls, our strength and our mind AND our neighbour as ourselves. Our next-door neighbours and our global neighbours. So let’s rail against injustice. Let’s not close our eyes but open them wide, and notice in a way that makes it impossible to be passive. Let’s not become resplendent in a stack of stuff we don’t need. Let’s be as kind as we possibly can, whenever we can.

I want to be a part of the light

Please let me be a part of the light

I want to be a part of the light

I choose to be a part of the light

So take up this challenge, and choose somehow today and every day, to be part of making a world full of light.

You can find out more about Ray here. Do have a listen it’s mighty fine… https://www.raylamontagne.com/

Marc writes:

I took the kids to see Sing 2 at the cinema and was reminded that Scarlett Johansson doesn’t just kick ass but also has a fine set of lungs on her… Trading her Black Widow leather cat suit for a porcupine-tailored rocker’s leather jacket, for me she steals the show!

As a result I jumped on Spotify and looked up what she’s done outside of films, and I stumbled across “Iguana Bird.” Further Google rabbit-hole wanderings confirmed magnificent creature pictured above doesn’t actually exist, and I have absolutely no idea what the title is in reference to. That said, the simplicity of the whole song, tune, rhythm and lyrics drew me in to hearing God’s voice speaking to me.

It’s clearly a song about what we go through post-heartbreak, that way that you might scroll through their TwInstaBook feed to check out what they’re doing, who they’re with, how happy they are without you, and then wanting to ask those questions:

Do you like how you’re spending your time?
Do you like how you’re living your life away from me?

If we’re talking about a break-up then there’s inherent judging in those questions. “Look what you’ve got now… Is it really as good as it was when you were with me? Is that new partner, that new life, are those new friends REALLY as good as what we had?”

But when that voice was God speaking to me this morning that wasn’t the case. I didn’t get the sense of judgment, of guilting or shaming. Once upon a time, I would have done… Once upon a time, I’d have felt like I was letting God down, that I was an awful person living an awful life and that I needed to change everything.

That’s not to say I’m perfect now, but it is to say that my perspective has changed.
God isn’t saying “Your life looks rubbish without me in it.” I get the sense that he’s saying to me as a Christian as much as he is to the rest of the human population regardless of religion or not
“What do you see when you look at your life? I want you to have life in all its fullness. Is that what you’ve got?”

The God I know at the moment prefers to invite me into conversation and relationship that way, and to explore more of life. The God I know at the moment wants to remind me of his heart for me and for the world, and calls me into a fuller existence alongside him. With ALL of the “L’s” I hear God saying to me, and you, and all of us:

L-l-l-l-l-l-love you
L-l-l-l-l-l-love you
L-l-l-l-l-l-love you
Woah, oh oh oh

But as with any invitation there is an opportunity to RSVP “no”, and that should be OK!
There should always be that ability to close the door, to say “You know what, I’m doing alright just now, thanks.”

I think there are genuinely people who would look at what they have and be content with their lot in life, happy enough with how they’re spending their time and living their life without the interruption of a deity, or at least the white western God that we’ve created and could be accused of trying to impose on people.

I think there are people who once knew that God, rather than the one I know now, and quite rightly shut the door on a relationship perceived to be abusive, and manipulative, and conditional, on a system based on performance and living to a standard, rather than one based on accepting love and living fully as a response from the depth of our hearts.

He came to see her, never did meet her
Close the door in his face again
Time overwhelms you, let it get away
The life you had imagined just slipped away.

And yet there’s something about “Life in abundance” that is worth exploring.
It’s something that we should try not to let slip away.
I think we should try and find safe spaces for people to re-visit God and re-frame him from the less helpful images we’ve previously had.

It’s one of those things we shouldn’t put off, or store away with the bottle of whisky that’s only for special occasions, or the best china, or the pants we save for “date night”, that might never end up being used…

I wonder, do you like how you’re spending your time?
Whether you’re currently doing life with or without God, do you like how you’re living your life?
Is there a way it could be fuller?

Find out more about Pete Yorn’s music at http://www.peteyorn.com/

Gill writes:

Here we are on that most devastating of days, Good Friday. The day when a world of hopes and dreams, of justice and liberation, came crashing down. There couldn’t be a better soundtrack to the day than this song of sheer hopelessness from Radiohead.

Today we walk the journey with Jesus as he takes his last steps towards crucifixion. We walk along the narrow Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem as

Rows of houses, all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me

We’re bemused by a system that allows an innocent man to be put to death; that continues to rule with tyranny; that prefers lies to truth; that lines its own pockets and laughs in the face of the poor and sick. We’re angry, we’re frustrated, we’re disgusted, we’re crestfallen, we’re broken.

This machine will, will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again

We watch with horror and distress as this man, who has shown us God and changed our lives completely, struggles under the weight that he is bearing on his shoulders. This is surely not what is supposed to happen. There has to be a reprieve. There has to be a change of mind.

Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes

There he hangs. Our Messiah.

All these things into position
All these things we’ll one day swallow whole
Fade out again
Fade out again

Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.

Immerse your soul in love
Immerse your soul in love

Just a ‘heads-up’ that this song contains the f*bomb a few times – a song of passion and justice sometimes does.

Max (age 17) writes:

‘Three Rivers’ is a poignant reminder of the trials and tribulations that immigrants face, not only in their home countries but also in this country – their so-called ‘refuge’. It follows the idea of 3 different groups of immigrants who have faced challenges from government and local communities in Britain – from the Windrush generation of the 60’s to the Syrian refugee crisis of the late 2010’s. 

This song seems particularly relevant at this point in time with what is going on in Ukraine at the moment. The second verse strikes home particularly to me. The similarities between what Dave is saying about the conflict in former Yugoslavia seem almost eerily identical to what is happening in Ukraine. For me, this song is a masterpiece and really identifies the faults within society and our country’s immigration system. It’s a real ‘head wobbler’ and hopefully if more people hear it, more people may start looking at refugees and asylum seekers as humans running from an unspeakable evil, rather than foreigners ‘taking our jobs’.

A line that catches my attention is

We rely on migration more than ever before

They’re key workers, but they couldn’t even get in the door

It seems to me that throughout the COVID pandemic, we forgot the foreign nationals who kept our infrastructure afloat. 

In conclusion, ‘Three Rivers’ is a song to make you think – which it does phenomenally well. Reflecting is the most important thing about humanity and I think with a little bit more Dave in our lives, everyone can become a little bit more human.

Look

Imagine an island where the party never ends
Where it’s less about money and it’s more about friends
Where the vibes can’t done
It’s less about fundin’ and and more about fun
Tropical sun, that’s life in the ’60s comin’ from the Caribbean
You know Ian, Delroy, Vivian, Winston
Who got drafted to England
Windrush babies from Kingston to Brixton
To say they’re the life of the party, you’re wrong
My Jamaicans the entire party, you can’t see?
Big Notting Hill carni, you can’t see?
And the ride’s fiberglass, G, you wan’ see?
Imagine a place where you raise your kids
The only place you live says you ain’t a Brit
They’re deportin’ our people and it makes me sick
‘Cause they were broken by the country that they came to fix
It’s like

They came at the invitation of the British Government
The passports were stamped indefinitely to remain
But for some who were children then, that was a false promise
“Thirty-seven years of paying taxes
And I got a letter saying I was an illegal immigrant
I came to England at the age of ten and I’ve lived here all my life”

Look, imagine a world that’s flawed and full of evil
Where dictators and leaders are persecutin’ your people
The bodies of the innocent are pilin’ to the steeples
The ironic part is they’re preyin’ on the feeble
That’s life in the 90’s, you’re Eastern European
And you seein’ people dyin’ ’cause they’re fightin’ for their freedom
And show you violence for havin’ a voice
You move out with your kids in hope of havin’ a choice
Life throws you a spanner, you can’t handle the pain
So you gamble and you drink and then you gamble again
You argue with your wife and then you sleep on the couch
You hit your children, then start freezin’ ’em out
You try and work things out, but it’s never the same
All the women in your household are livin’ afraid
When you look into the mirror you’re reminded again
That you’ve become the dictator you were fightin’ against
It’s like

We’re fightin’ for our rights, for all our mothers
And then we, we
We are fighting for our homes
We are fighting for our own

Look, imagine a world that’s fucked and untrue
Where the many pay a price for the few
And every day the sun rises a little later
That’s how it is when your oppressor is your liberator
That’s right now livin’ in the Middle East
Praise Allah for the peace
Death from a sky littered with stars
You run away with your kids so you can give them a chance
But your asylum has got you in a different war
Because the British wanna know what you’re livin’ here for
We rely on migration more than ever before
They’re key workers, but they couldn’t even get in the door
When you’re at Heaven’s Gates, what you tellin’ the Lord?
You wouldn’t even let a kid into some steadier shores
That’s a life they may never afford
Surely you would wanna give your people chances
That were better than yours?
No?

“In ten years of conflict
More than twelve-thousand children have been killed or injured”
“The children here are just a tiny fraction
Of the estimated six-million
In need of emergency humanitarian assistance
It’s thought perhaps, as many of three-million
No longer live in their own homes
And up to two million children no longer attend school
The opportunities of this generation
Have been changed forever by this conflict”

“I went to silence when I need to who the, who the fuck I was, bro
Like, I won’t hear anyone else, shut everyone else out
So I could just hear myself, bro
You know what I’m sayin’?
‘Cause we live in this world, yeah
You stand still, the way the tides set up
It will take you away from yourself, you feel me?
So then I was like “Aight, cool”
But, I had to get silent, but it’s not like mans goin’ against the tide
‘Cause goin’ against the tide still makes it about them
Still makes it about the poison
That you’ve internalized in your mind, you feel me?
It’s like “Bro, why am I in this water?
Man, this water doesn’t even like me, it’s not even for me
It’s not takin’ me where I wanna go, it’s not takin’ me where I wanna go
It’s who the fuck I am, bro, you know I’m sayin’?
It’s like the tide will tell me that bein’ black is an obstacle
See what I’m sayin’?
I had to, switch rivers, bro
It’s like bein’ black is an asset
I am who I am because I’m black
And I love everything about it, you feel me?
And that’s who the fuck I am”

Find out more about Dave at https://santandave.com/

Alfie (13) writes:

‘Darkside’ can be seen as a sad song, but it can give hope to people (especially teenagers).

The lyrics can make many people sad because the song is slow and the lyrics are not the happiest, but it can make teens feel not alone, and the sad but true truth is that this world isn’t always bright and colourful.

When you feel sad, you might want to be alone but not feel alone because you could be alone and switch the song on, and feel like there is someone there for you. The song makes the sad lyrics feel happy as the music is slow but makes the lyrics – which are sad when you read them – sound happy.

The tune is upbeat to pump you up, even though the lyrics are sad. Looking over this song from a different angle makes me see how much this song could make a person full of hope and can get some people through their day.

We’re not in love
We share no stories
Just something in your eyes

Don’t be afraid
The shadows know me
Let’s leave the world behind

Take me through the night
Fall into the dark side
We don’t need the light
We’ll live on the dark side
I see it
Let’s feel it
While we’re still young and fearless
Let go of the light
Fall into the dark side

Fall into the dark side
Give into the dark side
Let go of the light
Fall into the dark side

Beneath the sky
As black as diamonds
We’re running out of time (Time, time)

Don’t wait for truth
To come and blind us
Let’s just believe their lies

Believe it
I see it
I know that you can feel it
No secrets worth keeping
So fool me like I’m dreaming

Take me through the night
Fall into the dark side
We don’t need the light
We’ll live on the dark side
I see it
Let’s feel it
While we’re still young and fearless
Let go of the light
Fall into the dark side

Fall into the dark side
Give into the dark side
Let go of the light
Fall into the dark side

Take me through the night
Fall into the dark side
We don’t need the light
We’ll live on the dark side
I see it
Let’s feel it
While we’re still young and fearless
Let go of the light
Fall into the dark side

Find out more about Alan Walker’s work at https://alanwalker.com/