Perspectives from an old preacher...

My son-in-law, daughter and my wife link with our foster daughter (who has handicaps) to go for a walk.
We all should link with others in the journey of life.

I watched the action on the beach.

I wonder when the last sermon will be preached? Are our "isms" that important? 

I was an exhausted old man on top of my mountain.

Crimea... Putin.. the games we play
In the last post I mentioned that the dinosaurs ruled the earth for 135 Million Years. Humans have been around 200,000 years.... .000005 of the time dinosaurs lived. Some thinkers are saying that this decade is a make or break decade for the ongoing survival of humans... Will we adapt is the big question? These long term figures make the sorts of power games that Vladimir Putin is currently playing, and so much of the huff and puff of history meaningless piddle. They may feel big, but in the scheme of things, they are nothing.  He has claimed Crimea for Russia, but within a geological blink of an eye Russia will be no more. The land isn't ours, we have the use of it for a while. We, with all our grand schemes, whoever we are - the Queen of England, the President of the United States, Putin, the "supreme leader" of North Korea etc. - no matter how much we sword rattle or huff and puff, we will all be a forgotten part of the ongoing life of planet earth. It should make us just want to enjoy life, get on with and link arms with those we share the journey of life with and not take ourselves, our "isms" nor our nations too seriously. We belong together in this journey. The writer of 1st Peter comments, "All people are like grass, and all their glory is like flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall......" 
Working together...
We are all wondering what happened to the Malaysian Airliner. It is very sad. But within this tragic event I see hope. Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, the United States of America etc etc. are all working together looking for the plane. Isn't that good? It can happen! Thousands upon thousands of dollars are being spent.  I wish such international cooperation, such willingness to spend, would happen in an ongoing way to solve some of the world's less dramatic but even more tragic problems of poverty, bad health and inequality. 
Getting old... 
I am no doubt still recovering from my operation and the flu I got just after it. I went up "my" mountain on Wednesday. (Mount Cargill) Normally at the longest, it takes me one hour thirty minutes to go up and back on the Organ Pipe track. I have done it in one hour ten minutes without running. On Wednesday it took me two hours twenty minutes and I felt exhausted. I have lost lung capacity and fitness.  Is this a temporary set back or is this the new old man me? Is this what happens when you get old? You experience illness and when you bounce back it is at a lower level? On Friday I bought some lunch and went out to the beach eating while watching the world go by. Today we had morning tea overlooking the beach. On both visits I saw runners jogging along near the cafe. I used to do that not long ago? Just now it seems an impossibility. I would wheeze, cough and run out of steam. Will I do it again? On Saturday with my wife, daughters and son in law I visited beaches north of Dunedin. People were playing and swimming in the surf, or running around the beach. I was an observer watching the action of others. I used to be "the action", physically active, doing stuff, adventuring. I realised how easy it would be to get old, give up and just watch the action.  It takes will power to get active, to really bounce back and it feels so hard to get back the old flexibility and fitness.  I remember feeling disappointed when my Dad seemed to stop playing, swimming and mucking around with us and tended to just watch. (He was just in his forties - it must have been the beginning of his heart problems that ended with a heart attack that killed him at 49.) I do not want to just be an observer in life.  I will have to determine to keep active and take the necessary steps to ensure I bounce back. It would be easy to give up and get old.