Uncategorized – Page 2 – Journeys of Heart and Mind

Recent changes

Another change in the last month or two is the link to my Bluesky account at the top of the right-hand column. Click on that for smaller, more recent updates on what I’m doing.

Unless you’re very new to Journeys of Heart and Mind (JHM), you will have realised a few things have changed. It’s good to keep things fresh, and it’s good to make improvements.

The most obvious change (and the most recent one) is that I’ve removed the banner image that used to adorn the top of the site. I love that picture of Cirencester’s attractive, old Market Place; but it clutters the page and means readers have to scroll down even to see the title of any new article. I’ve taken out the logo as well, and I’m considering whether to remove the strapline. I’m not sure it adds anything of value.

Another change in the last month or two is the link to my Bluesky account at the top of the right-hand column. Click on that for smaller, more recent updates on what I’m doing. It includes a brief post every time I publish an article here on JHM, but most days there are three or four other items that are not major enough for an article here. They are often just personal, a sudden thought, something that caught my attention in the moment, or a photo I want to share.

There will be other changes as the weeks and months go by, but I don’t know what they will be at this point. My objective will be to simplify, make the site more user-friendly, take away what is no longer useful, and add new features as and when necessary.

I you are reading this, and you have ideas or suggestions, please leave them in a comment below. Thanks!

Did you know?

You can view earlier versions of JHM on the Wayback Machine (navigate through time using the banner). Or look for old versions of many other websites. See how things looked back in the day.

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

A moving story

Here, in brief, is the story of Sabeeta, beginning in Pakistan as a child with an awareness that she and her family were not entirely acceptable and eventually moving to the UK with her husband.

From Qayyumabad

Sabeeta Mushtaq writes about her life in Pakistan where she lived in constant awareness that as a Christian in a Muslim culture, she was seen as a misfit in her country of birth. It’s difficult for many of us here in the UK to imagine what this must be like. Though regrettably, some people living in Britain with non-UK backgrounds might feel related tensions and anxieties.

After finishing her education and working in management roles at a number of major companies in Pakistan, Sabeeta still had the continual feeling of background obstacles and pressures because of her faith. Later still she married a British citizen and after a few more years they made the decision to move to the UK…

To London

…arriving in the difficult early days of COVID.

Eventually she found friends and a spiritual home in a London Anglican congregation and has now become a Lay Deacon. I like her closing sentence and quote it here in full:

My journey, though filled with obstacles, has strengthened my belief that God’s plan for us unfolds in ways we cannot always foresee, but in the end, it is always for a greater purpose.

All of us are on our own, individual journeys, with or without Jesus. And in my opinion, far better with than without! Read Sabeeta’s full story at Anglicanism.org.

Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 56

For this holiday, Dad (a keen photographer himself) helped me out by buying me a colour transparency film and I used it to take the photo you see here.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every two days (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

I’m going to take a break from the Irish holiday photos I’ve been working through. Instead, here’s one of my earliest colour shots, from 1962 when I was fourteen-years-old. This is a holiday photo as well, we were spending two weeks on the Welsh coast at the village of Aberporth, a little north of Cardigan. From left to right you see Dad, Mum, Chloe the dog, and my three sisters, Cindy, Ruth and Rachael.

Colour film was expensive so usually I took black and white negatives and had the films developed and printed by a local chemist in the town. Later I started making contact prints myself though these were very tiny. Later again I learned to develop the negatives myself, and print them using an enlarger at the place where I worked. But for this holiday Dad (a keen photographer himself) helped me out by buying me a colour transparency film and I used it to take the photo you see here.

I’ve always been fascinated by old photos and the way they capture something long since gone – and now even some of my own photos are old enough to have that effect!

For a while I plan to continue with a range of different images, but then I’ll return to our Irish holiday again.

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 6

The unexpected appearance of this nosy character intruding while we were talking was enough to cause a lot of mirth.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). It might be a photo I took, an image from Wikipedia, NASA, or some other open source, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

I’d like to introduce you to Mugman! Some time ago I amused a friend during an online chat by moving this character slowly into view from the side of the camera frame while we were talking. I didn’t need to say anything, just the unexpected appearance of this nosy character intruding while we were talking was enough to cause a lot of mirth.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much. I’d really like to bring Mugman sneakily into shot during some of the political debate going on in the world. That’s not going to happen, of course, but it might be fun if it did!

Favourites

For convenience, here’s a list of my favourite images:

Anemone, Cloud, Honeybee, Hydrangea, Kiftsgate1, Kiftsgate2, Large White, Mugshot, Nelson, Robin, Rose, Spilhaus, Sunset1, Weston beach

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Thinking about the end

My friend, Chris Dryden, posts clearly on this topic. ‘The end’ can refer to many different things, and Chris mentions several of them in his piece below.

Do take a look, let me know what you think.

JJ24 #49: What About The End?