Haiku

Today, the vicar spoke of 'Haiku moments'. She defined these as small moments that speak to the soul.
I didn't realise that a Haiku had the meaning of speaking to the soul attached, and on looking it up in Oxford Online, nor did they, however, what she said spoke to me.

Haiku moments would thus be those moments in the day which sometimes seem normal but which lift us, like waking up and seeing my partner in the first light; the first sight of the mountains as I cross the field; an old lady smiling back at me as I walk to work; a beautifully turned phrase; the smell of coffee; frost on blades of grass; the moment when someone you are teaching grasps the idea.
Everyone, every day has their own list.

She told us of a such a moment described to her by a friend. Looking up as the sun rose in Yellowstone Park, as the geyser 'Old Faithful' shot steam into the air just as high above, a flock of birds flew over.
She asked the question about whether that beauty would be there if the person had not been present to experience it. 'If a tree falls and there is no-one there...etc.'
The vicar said yes, I say no.

Our Haiku scenes would still happen whether or not we were there, but the beauty, the drawing in of breath, the perception of that moment that touches our soul is because of our presence. God's work would carry on in a mechanical fashion without us, but we give it meaning.
Even in trying to re-create that work, or represent it in some way, we can make those moments for ourselves or others.
The sentences that others write, the beauty of human voices raised in song, the arch of a body in dance or drama, all these are moments of intense beauty that are caused by human action and human perception.

On the other hand....one of the hymns today, one I'd never heard before, claimed that 'God's people are salt to the Earth.'
No bloody kidding, we don't just destroy it, we make it uninhabitable.
The hymn went on to explain how we give the earth flavour, but my head was stuck at the first line.

Last night, on TV, we watched the 2006 film, 'The Nativity Story'. We watched it because of Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) as Mary, but in fact we both found it just captivating. It stuck closely to (mostly) St. Luke's Gospel, a little help from Matthew, and wasn't afraid to show divine intervention. We were both mildly amused to see Alexander Siddig, whom I assume, but perhaps wrongly, there are many Arabic Christians, to be Muslim, playing Gabriel. No-one looked as though they worked in Hollywood normally. They in fact looked as though they lived in the Holy Lands.
I don't know if Herod Agrippa is a promotion or demotion for Ciaran Hinds, who played Julius Caesar in 'Rome'.
Just looking at the story once again made me wonder whether there is any mention of the Holy Ghost (not the lego one Karen) in the Jewish faith.
It was a beautiful portrayal and however early, a fine start to Advent.

The bird in the picture isn't a partridge or even a robin, it's a hawk, a Cooper's hawk.