Dear Friend,
There’s something about the way we live with technology that can become exhausting.
We have technology to move our physical selves around the planet so quickly, you can go to sleep on one side of the earth and wake up on another.
Information, whether in numbers, or letters, or images or spoken words or music, flies around the globe. We have access to tools that mean we can create in hours what would have been near impossible a relatively short time ago. With AI, it’s weeks or months that make the difference.
New tools, that we can use or be used by.
I love what I can do with technology. But.
To be always on.
Can become a problem.
There has to be a time when we cut the machines some slack. Maybe your phone would like some time off?
How about giving your computer a vacation. It will most happily sit someplace and enjoy the stillness along with you.
Maybe even your television and radio, they might appreciate some quiet time.
Be kind to the machines. They deserve some recuperation and leisure too.
But what then if unplugging we find we cannot be still within ourselves?
Maybe then we are approaching something closer to the problem. Doesn’t our technology amplify and communicate our inner state, which is itself impacted by our use or over use of technology?
If you read Spiritual Sundays | Number 8, the update is that I did ask and was moved into a much nicer room by the receptionist. The crows are more subdued today, must be because of the rain. I have a view of trees and the house grounds.
I’m feeling a little overwhelmed this morning, which is natural. This morning we’ll be collecting mam and dad’s ashes in a ceremonial casket and burying them in the family grave.
My body needs to weep.
It’s not complicated.
The tapestry of relationships we’ll be celebrating today was complicated, but not the present need to feel.
Here’s a picture of the tombstone, taken yesterday by my brother in the spring sunshine. This morning the weather is grey and it’s raining. Two generations of people out of who’s lives and loves came my own and my brother’s.
Today’s burials are a right of passage. I’m thankful to my brother in law Peter who’s the driving force behind organising things. He is a rock.
We visited Derwent Water yesterday and stood at Friar’s Crag. There’s a monument to John Ruskin on which you can read the following inscription.
"The Spirit of God is around you in the air that you breathe,—His glory in the light that you see; and in the fruitfulness of the earth, and the joy of its creatures, He has written for you, day by day, His revelation, as He has granted you, day by day, your daily bread.”
On the other side is a relief of Ruskin and his motto “To-day”.
Ruskin considered the view to be one of the most beautiful in Europe.
The county of my birth is beautiful beyond words. Home to Wordsworth and steel.
It was steel that brought my family to this place. Beauty that draws me back.
Later this morning I’ll read the words from Ruskin’s monument as part of the ceremony. We’ll go to Butterfly’s tea rooms in Workington where Mam liked to go and then I’ll get in a machine and drive it back to London.
Tomorrow I’ll be running the workshop on The Art of Surrender for the Miracles Network. We can use technology in the name of peace and connection.
Today’s post may be a little more rambling than others but more like a letter to a friend. I am understandably all over the place this morning.
Why not finish with a picture of me and Kevin taken yesterday by the lake.
If you would or know someone who might want to join the workshop, here’s the link;
Here’s me and Kevin.
I like to think Mam, Dad, Nana and Grandad are in the beam of light, the air, the water
and the earth.
Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey