Prayer Reflection

Life has been really hectic lately with mid year reports due and also there was the mid year exams so lots of papers to mark and then lots of comments to write.  Then my girl had her club championship today so I ended going to Sunday mass in a different parish which cater mostly to the university community.  While I was there I say this beautiful poem by Joy Cowley, a very famous author of children's books, in the weekly bulletin which I thought I'll share with you.

The Heart of Stone by Joy Cowley

There are times when I've cried out,

"God, give me back my heart of stone

and a ladder so that I can climb

up to my head and live there

with doors and windows shut on feeling.

God, God.  I'm tired of all the hurt.

For a little while, let me live

a second-hand life.  Let me tread

the safe path of other people's ideas.

Just let me  drop this awesome responsibility

you have given me, to grow

through love and pain."

Then I remember what it's like 

to exist with a heart of stone.

How cold and dead I felt inside,

and how divided the world was

when viewed without love in my heart.

Remembering, I poor myself before God

and whisper into His waiting,

"My God, there is no going back.

It has to be a soft heart,

one that is always vulnerable

to love and wounding

which is life,

which is growth,

which is You.

Keep within me, my God

the heart of flesh

Up again!!! This is ridiculous!

picture from www.raymond.cc

I have not filled up my tank but driving by a petrol station just now, I cannot believe my eyes!  Up again in the same week!!!

It now costs $2.13 per litre for 91 Octane!!!  How are we going to survive this?!!!

Our fortnightly paycheck is getting smaller with the ever increasing fuel costs!  I think soon we will be seeing restaurants closing as if they raise their prices, they will get less customers and the domino effect will be they have to close down if they do not get enough business.

Petrol Price Up AGAIN!!

Just one day after we got back from Christchurch, price of petrol went UP AGAIN!!!

91 Octane is now $2.07, up 6 cents!  Analysts blamed it on the rise of oil price worldwide as well as the Kiwi dollar dropping in value!  But the weakening dollar is always good for exporters as they have been suffering for a while with the strong Kiwi dollar.

Industries depending on petrol prices are calling for the government to drop some tax on the petrol.  Apparently there are 5 different taxes on petrol plus the GST of 12.5%!

We the consumers are just suffering the consequences as it has a domino effect on the price of everything else!!!

Disney Ice show in Christchurch

Jo-Ann and Winnie in front of the ice rink stage in Westpac Stadium, Christchurch

'Gabriella and Troy'

Troy and his mates after his winning goal!

We just had a busy weekend with a long drive to Christchurch and back to Dunedin. Normally it takes me about 4 1/2 hours to get to Christchurch but Saturday's trip took about 5 hours due to the sudden snow storm along the way about 2 hours away from Christchurch. It was quite a journey driving from a cloudy sky through to heavy snow in Timaru where everything was literally white as in postcard picturesque scene and then out of the snow when we were about an hour's drive to Christchurch. It also snowed in Christchurch but not enough to stick overnight.

After 24 hours in Christchurch, we drove back and all the snow was gone except for some small patches here and there outside Christchurch. But Boy! I had a hard time holding on to my steering as we had gale force winds along most of the drive back and I could feel the wind trying to push our Rav 4 off the highway! Today, my shoulders are aching from all that stressful holding on to my steering! Jo-Ann did take a picture of the snowstorm but unfortunately she deleted the picture by mistake!

Well, our trip to Christchurch was to watch the Disney on Ice -High School Musical show. The show was well choreographed and the lip sync was impressive, too. As for the skating, my daughter and her skater friend were analysing the jumps after the show and concluded that the male skaters were more impressive with their triple jumps. There were some spins but nothing really outstanding from a skater's point of view. But to them, watching triple jumps was thrilling as there are not many skaters in NZ able to land triples!

Finally! She landed a double salchow!

This month has been a milestone for my daughter, Jo-Ann. She finally landed a double salchow without the use of a harness. She actually landed one at the beginning of the month, 'lost' it for about 2 weeks, got sick and then landed another one again!!! I was not around to see the first one but did see the second one but did not video tape it so I downloaded one of Nancy Kerrigan's with step to step instruction of a double salchow. It always amazes me how the ice skaters defy gravity and twist their bodies in the air two, three and even quadruple times during their jumps! And if they make a little mistake, it will surely end up with a fall and hopefully not a bad one. Some days skaters can land their jumps with no problems while some days, they keep falling so much so that they had to give up and stop jumping for the day.