Picture of love blog 10 'Fabric'

Our final guest blog for pictures of love before we come to Valentines week 2013 comes from one of the Venture FX Pioneers Lou Davis. She is based in Edinburgh and you can read about what she is doing here.

There’s something about fabric that sets my heart alight. Rolls and rolls of colour and pattern, texture and drape. I have to touch them, to feel the weight of the material, to begin the process of imagining. 

My favourite places are where the rolls are piled high, and I need to rummage to find jeweled treasures buried deep beneath the strata of linen and silk.

And when my eyes see something that resonates deep within, and the touch of the fabric is just right, I’ll take down the roll from the shelf and let out a metre or so. I’ll move it gently so it catches the light, to see how the fabric drapes.

And in my mind, I’m not holding a bolt of fabric in a store, I’m on a beach in a flowing skirt, with sand in my toes and the sun in my hair, or I’m celebrating with friends as their new baby wears one of my dresses, or I’m sending a friend off for a special night out, looking fabulous in a cocktail frock, or I’m watching a glowing bride take careful steps down the aisle into a new life.

I love the possibilities that exist in those rolls of fabric.

I wonder for a minute about the love and care that has already gone into creating these beautiful threads. They are the product of growers and spinners, weavers and dyers, and I don’t know their names or which dusty factories they serve. I can only hope that in the lifetime of these fabrics there was as much hope and love and beauty as I see in them now.

Before these fabrics can fulfill any of their potential, I need to buy them, take them home and cut into them. I must do violence to their patterns, cut across their warp and weft, I need to weaken them so that they may be re-shaped, to fit.

That is always the hardest part.

Before I cut I need to be sure of my pattern. I check and double check, measure and remeasure. I close my eyes, take a deep breath and cut.

http://www.mandors.co.uk/ 

Pictures of love blog 7 'A symbol of love'

October's guest blog comes from Rev Carla Hall, she is a minister in my local circuit 'North Shields and Whitley Bay' and she is based at St Johns Methodist Church. Once again please feel free to leave a thought or comment at the bottom. 

Like many little girls, I dreamt that wedding bells might one day chime out for me – but I knew that it had to be with someone I regarded as the ‘one and only’; a man who would not only bring out the best in me, but for whom I could do the same; a relationship in which both people would complement each other, enabling both to flourish. This is only possible, I believe, through love.  Not lust but genuine love – something that can survive even the difficult times.

A year ago this month, I began to hear those bells ring out for me.  The setting was next to a stunning harbour in Northern Cyprus, where my fiancé (as is now) gently asked me the question “will you marry me?”.  Not isolated as a couple, but near to my family and close friends.  In an intimate and delightful moment, he and I shared his question and my positive response before announcing our exciting news with those who were there with us.  My fiancé knew that family and friends are so important to me that I would want to share this precious moment with them.

A further beautiful part of the story is that the ring that I now wear upon my finger once dressed his maternal grandmother’s hand, as the gold he used to commission my engagement ring is taken from her wedding ring.  This band of gold remains for another generation a symbol of love.  I am certain that, if it could speak, it would tell of times of difficulty as well of immense joy – but the love remains constant, firm and deep.

As you pause for this moment to reflect, perhaps you might want to think about what your significant symbols of love are.  I appreciate that love is too complicated to be confined to an inanimate object, but what prompts you to think of love and why?  What’s the narrative that lies behind the article?

Sometimes earthly love, for many reasons, can feel to be wounded or even broken.  Relationships can falter and fail yet in the Bible we read these words in 1 Corinthians 13: 13 (NIV, UK)

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

As a Christian I believe deeply in God, and if I had to describe God in one word, I would choose the word LOVE.  To me, all that God represents, all that God does, all that God is, is love; evident in such things as creation, stories of healing and wholeness as well as in relationships.  I believe that, as humans, we love because God gave us a perfect model.  I might not always express my love perfectly, but as a Christian I seek to reflect the love of God throughout my whole life.  The love that God offers is always trustworthy, always dependable, always pure and always life-giving. 

May we always know love in our lives.

Pictures of Love blog 4 'Creativity'

As we journey on exploring what love means to us our next blog for Pictures of love comes from my superintendent minister Rev Stuart Earl... 

"It may seem egocentric or mercenary to have a photo of myself or my books under the heading "pictures of love", but read on. What I love is creativity - which for me at the moment is words and stories wrapped into thoughts about how the world and church and faith and love are and what they might be. I have dragged my own thoughts into two books so far published, and one (I hope) about to be published. It's not the money that I do it for (though I need to sell a few more before I can afford to publish the third!), but the risk of having a go, the thrill of completing it, and the risk of what others think of it. Because creativity involves risk - and thrills, and so, of course, does love.

Others of you will have other ways to be creative - the big creativity of producing and rearing children, or smaller projects such as how you decorate your home, how you order your garden, your appearance. Or it might be that you love music or art and have a go at them occasionally or that that is your "big thing". It might be photography, or poetry, or... When we are creative, we are illustrating that we are made in God's image, as the Bible says. He created, so can we. You can't love without having something or somebody to respond to, to risk rejection from, to engage with, to give yourself to. That's what God does with us. That's what, I suppose, in a strange way, we do when we share our creativity with others. Thank God, right now as you read this, for the ways in which you can be creative."

Pictures of love blog 1

Welcome to the first guest blog featuring the 'Pictures of love' project, this has been written by Rev Andrew Dunlop, if you want to know more about him check out his blog. Please feel free to leave comments at the bottom, and don't forget that you can join in the project by sending me a photo via the info on the 'Pictures of love' page and also at rob.dimension@tiscali.co.uk 

I lost my wedding ring. I'd had it on as usual - I never take it off -when I turned up to an outdoor Karting Centre to enjoy a day team endurance racing, a celebration of someone’s birthday. It was a cold day. We were hanging around in the briefing area for quite some time waiting for the safety announcements and for the melting snow to be cleared off the track. Suddenly I looked down and noticed that my ring had gone. I retraced my steps from the car to the centre, via the burger van, looking for something shining in the snow. I even went through the paper towel bin in the men’s toilets. No luck. It was gone. Eventually I suited up and enjoyed the day’s racing (my team came last), all the time with this lost thing hanging heavy in my mind. Messages were left with the staff of the centre to call me if anything turned up and on returning home, I scoured the house and thoroughly went through my bag to no avail.

Arriving home, I was really quite gutted that I had lost my ring. It wasn’t the cost that annoyed me - a replacement ring would only cost about £150-200 and most of that would be covered by my home insurance. It was the item itself, as if a part of me was missing. I didn’t realise how much it had come to be a part of me until I lost it. I was reminded of the parable of the lady who lost a silver coin, searched high and low and threw a massive party for all her friends when she found it. This ring had been used at my wedding, with my wife making promises of commitment and fidelity “for richer, for poorer, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health... till death do us part”. The ring symbolised those vows, secure and unending. My marriage, and those vows were, of course, still intact. Nevertheless, it felt like something had been lost.

A week later my wife and I were packing and overnight bag for a weekend trip. Just the basic pyjamas and change of underwear needed. Picking up my bag, it fell open and out of a hidden pocket fell a couple of old leaflets and... my wedding ring. It must have slipped off my fingers during the karting trip whilst I was rooting around in the bag searching for something. Time to rejoice, to enjoy a weekend away, to share the good news on facebook, and see the ‘likes’ pile up.

"Imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbours: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God." (Luke 15:8-10)

Picture of love poem

Couples in Krakow lock padlocks to a bridge as a
symbol of unbreakable love 

Have a read of my poem which goes a little further with this idea of 'pictures of love'... eventually this will be able to be heard as an audio piece. 

‘Pictures of love’

Where and how do you see love?

Is it in the eye of the one you love?

Is it there as you chant for the team you love?

Is it seen in the beating of a heart?

Can you pick it up and throw it around?

Can you watch it from a distance?

Can you take a microscope and see inside it?

There are songs that are sung, words that are written

About this word, this metaphor, this slippery thing

That can’t be held down or hung on a hook

 So I’m scouring, looking under rocks and stones

Ripping up roots trying to discover just what it is

And what it does

And what it means.

For there are moments in life when love actually smacks us around the face

For love finds a way

So I picture this love in so many ways

It’s démodé in people that are great actors

But It’s not in the acting of love actually

But in the reality of a kind word said or deed that’s done

Or is it in the words of ‘I do’

Or a man that bled and died on a tree

A picture of love that’s held in a photo of something tangible, of something real

That’s not hidden or fake or fleeting like cake

There are pictures of love in many places

With many people

So take your eyes off the floor and look around

And see the pictures of love that are scattered around.
So maybe the pictures of love are obvious, you see.