Gardening in the middle of the road

Just back from a great gardening session. A planter in the middle of an intersection has been transformed from weedy mess to beautiful garden, all in the space of an hour. I got to meet Richard, the guru of London guerrilla gardening, and a couple of other folks who came out to help. The patch was mangled by bindweed, but once we got that out we found some really beautiful plants underneath. Add a couple of Euonymus and Fuschia, and job's done.

Beautiful Day

The weather is amazing today. 27 degrees (that's about 80 F) and bright sun. We met in the market for prayer this morning, finishing with a reading from Mark 1 to give us fuel for the day. Then this afternoon, wanting to make the most of the weather, I met with two other guys in Regents park for a bit of Lectio Divina - which is basically reading a text of Scripture several times through as a means of praying. Again we used Mark 1, this time reading a bit more. For one of the guys, it was the first time he'd used the Bible to pray like that, and for me, it was the first time I'd prayed with others in Regents park. We all really enjoyed it, and definitely met with God. It looks like we might make the afternoon thing a regular occurrence, maybe twice weekly or something like that. It's good. Camden needs it. I need it.

Foreskin's Lament

This past Saturday I went to see Foreskin's Lament. Not being a regular consumer of plays, you might wonder what I was doing there. A friend of mine that I met at our regular Tuesday book table was playing one of the rugby players - a bit of a flippant, no-cares kind of guy who's easy-going approach to the game is confronted by the death of one of his teammates. The play mixes a bit of light-hearted comedy with powerful social commentary to great effect. The first and second acts were extreme contrasts, the first taking place in a locker room and involving jokes and banter between the guys; the second taking place at an after-match party and involving more intense dialogue and an incredibly powerful Maori dance (traditionally done by the New Zealand rugby team before matches). It wasn't a 'feel-good' story, so it's hard to say 'I enjoyed it' - because actually it was more about feeling the intensity of the social issues as felt through the conflict of the main character. But it was good.