#WATWB April 2019 – Among the Good News A Closing Book

Welcome to the We Are The World Blogfest #WATWB offerings for April 2019.  Our co-hosts are  Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Uppal, Peter Nena, Lizbeth Hartz and Eric Lahti.   Please hop over to their pages and any others with a #WATWB post.

A flick through the ‘Good News’ tab of ABC News Australia reveals some interesting Stories:

Compelled by faith: Doctor relocates young family from Toowoomba to help PNG neighbours

 

Associated Country Women of the World meet to give rural women a voice

Since many of our #WATWB followers are avid book fans, I’m featuring this one:

Iconic bookstore’s final chapter has a happy ending

PHOTO: Three generations of the Dallow family have worked in the store, (from left) Avalon, Faith and Kay. (ABC Radio Brisbane: Loretta Ryan).

I’ve long been a fan of bookstores. So, I love stories like this one about Boswell’s Books and Coins.  As the ABC report shares:

Ms Dallow’s daughter Faith also worked in the store and said it was more than just a bookstore for the community. “My children grew up here and worked here; it’s like their second home,” she said.

The Dallows took over the store in 1997, when one particular genre of novels dominated the titles on offer.

“When we bought the store, it was mainly Mills & Boon books — lots and lots of romance books,” Kay Dallow said.

“We decided to add more bookshelves and offer more variety of other titles.

“Sci-fi fantasy and crime have been the most popular genres now; women especially like true crime novels.”

With so many books to move, the family has decided to donate the remaining books to aged care homes and charities.

“We want to see the books keep on keeping on and bringing joy to others,” she said.

“We really do have millions, nearly squillions of books — there’s containers full of them.”

Ms Dallow said the store had always been open to anyone who needed a book or a chat.

“We’ve always had acceptance here as we’re a quirky mob as well, and many people have told us it’s been a hub for the community,” she said.

“I had never really thought about the store like that before … people have said they’re really going to miss us.”

We get the picture.  This bookshop has been in the family for three generations. It is wonderful to see how it has built community and that they are handing the books on to people who may well love them.

You can read the whole story here. Why not post some of your favourite bookshops or bookstore experiences in the comments below.  Do you have a favourite bookshop that you like to support? Have you experienced community and friendship through bookshops?

For a poem in the mood…

A Romance of Sorts

Smooth, shiny and sliding

Under hands

Nestled between covers

Awaiting the night

more here.

 

 

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Looking for some more good news. Check out the ABC News ‘Good News’ section at the bottom of their page or, follow the #WATWB

 

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Cloth Chatter – Easter Triduum Weaving

 

Cloth Chatter – Easter Triduum Weaving

More reflections for Christians beginning the weeks of Easter.

(i)

His undergarment was seamless, so they cast lots for it (John 19:23-24)

I was fashioned to fit

My warp and weft

Wound in ways

To clothe the person.

The cloth maketh for the man.

I held his outer robes

And moved

With his healing hands.

I was a one-person piece

And they cast lots

For me

Like a commodity on the market.

 

(ii)

The veil in the Temple was torn in two (Luke 23:45)

I hung upon the threshold

Like a garment gathering greatness

A robe for the holiest place

Where God’s word reached

Human words

And was kept.

I held the holy in

And halted the passage

Of peoples coming into this sanctuary space.

At the Saviour’s final breath

I broke

In two

Both adorning the sanctuary

And opening

Like two arms

To welcome people into the holy.

No more a barrier

For the Saviour’s passing over

And now an entry point

For human

And divine.

 

(iii)

Saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head (John 20:6-7)

We held the battered body

One that had fashioned furniture

Fished with fisher disciples

Healed the sick

Broken bread and

Passed the cup.

We lined the lifeless body

In the cool, dark tomb

Holding the oils and spices

Upon the fragile flesh.

Now discarded

We are

On the ground

Back down to earth

Our role complete

We are now

A notion towards a mystery:

“Where is the Lord?”

 

(iv)

Do not cling to me (John 20:17)

I felt her touch

Urgent and inquisitive

Wondering

“Is it true?”

“Is it you, O Lord?”

As I held him in his new life

There was a quickening

So new

He was very alive

And love

Emanated from he

To her

And from her

As she ran

To share.

 

 

Simon C.J. Falk 20 April 2019

 

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More good news on the #WATWB coming soon

 

I Couldn’t Go to Jerusalem or Good Friday

I Couldn’t Go to Jerusalem or Good Friday

For Christians, Good Friday is a day to remember a life lived, and given away for others, even in suffering. This is for those who want to remember, but are not able to join others in Churches.

I couldn’t go to Jerusalem –

My mother-in-law just

Died

And we are mourning as

Burial is prepared.

 

I couldn’t go to Good Friday –

I’m a nurse

But

I saw the arms of the cross

In the open arms

Of a man

Reaching from the chair

As I moved him

To his bed.

 

I couldn’t go to Good Friday –

I’m at Lifeline

Taking calls

But

I heard the cry

“My God, why have you abandoned me!”

In the tone of a caller

Still reeling from abuse

By one once trusted.

 

I couldn’t go to Good Friday –

I’m old and

My days of driving

Are in the yesterdays of my life.

Family staying here

Won’t take me to Church

It means nothing to them

I wait in the

Tomb of my gloom

Longing to be

Raised to a new life.

 

They couldn’t go to Good Friday –

But we bring them there

If we go

And hold them there in prayer.

 

 

Simon C.J. Falk 19 April 2019

 

Casting For Laws

Casting for Laws

Another reading of John 8:1-11

 

Casting stones

And aspersions

He said

I thought

He said

Nasturtiums

Anyway

There was this lady

Supposed adulteress

They were to stone her

Where was the bloke?

Or blokes?

How inconceivable

That so called

‘Civilisations’ have

Bad laws!

Perhaps

Some still do?

 

Simon C.J. Falk 7 April 2019

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Looking for some good stories?  Follow #WATWB

Her Name is not Spoken But her Face is Seen

 

Her Name is Not Spoken But her Face is Seen

A reading on John 8:1-11

 

I cast a stone but

It ricocheted back

To me

In her plight I saw

I was not

Free.

In my grasping, accusing

Tone

Did I not notice the sin

Was not her’s alone?

But my vile need

For adulation

From the mob.

Her name was not

Spoken

Yet her face seemed to say:

My name was not called

As they allow me no dignity

Let alone integrity.

But my face

Is known

It is seen in many

A place, or stage

And age

Where nameless women

Are objectified and tried

By the menacing mob

Ironically lustful

For their own ends.

Who can cast a stone?

It comes back

To stony hearts

That know not they are flesh.

 

 

 Simon C.J. Falk 6 April 2019

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Don’t forget to follow the good stories on #WATWB

Second Anniversary – #WATWB March 2019 – Ricky Grace’s Girls Academy helps Indigenous girls become tomorrow’s leaders

Welcome to our Second Anniversary Post!  For the inaugural post we looked at a novel way of living with Usher Syndrome in Sunsets for Kate.

March 2018 brought the story of Kevin Hines, his remarkable survival, and other supports to help people cope in life.

This time we focus on giving Indigenous girls a better today and tomorrow.

PHOTO: Christal Quartermaine fell pregnant with her son “Junior” when she was in Year 11. (ABC News: Briana Shepherd)

 

 

Our co-hosts for this month are

Sylvia McGrath,
Damyanti Biswas,
Shilpa Garg,
Dan Antion,
and Belinda Witzenhausen

Please check out their posts and others tagged with #WATWB.

Back to our story as reported by Briana Shepherd from ABC News, Australia.

Christal Quartermaine was 15 years old when her 13-year-old sister took her own life, just four days before her birthday.

“You don’t ever get over losing someone in that sense,” Ms Quartermaine said.

As the oldest of five girls, now four, Ms Quartermaine had little time to deal with her grief.

“I did have to step up,” she said.

“My mum was finding it hard losing a child and I was finding it hard at losing a sister, but there were still three other siblings that I had to worry about.”

Ms Quartermaine worked during the school holidays at a bank to help support her family.

Little more than a year later she fell pregnant while in Year 11 at school.

“The hardest part was still dealing with losing my sister and then, you know, you’re going to have a kid,” she said.

As a student at Clontarf Aboriginal College, a Catholic school in Waterford in Perth’s south, Ms Quartermaine thought her academic life was over.

But the college, along with her mother, were insistent she finish school.

But they more or less said ‘why do all these years and then not graduate’, you know, not get anything out of it?”

Ms Quartermaine said had it not been for the support of her school and in particular the Girls Academy — a not-for-profit charitable organisation that places mentors and role models at schools — she did not think she would have made it through.

The Girls Academy was founded by a former basketballer. Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander women feature in the organisation. They are not just the helped people, they are the majority of the staff.

As their website says

The Girls Academy program was founded in 2004 by Olympian and champion basketballer Ricky Grace (MEdL, BPoLSc) and works within the school system to drive community-led solutions aimed at overcoming the obstacles that prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls from attending and achieving at school.

Academy Girls receive intensive one-on-one mentoring and support from our team of skilled field staff, 80% of which are highly accomplished Indigenous women.

Our program increases the skills, employability, mental health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls throughout Australia – providing them with better opportunities to contribute to the social and economic outcomes of the wider community.

Christal Quartermain’s story is a poignant one. It is delightful to see how such an academy can help her find a path for her life.

You can look up The Girls Academy on LinkedIn,  follow them on Facebook and tweet them on Twitter. They share images on Instagram.

The featured poem is also about ladies achieving, by Ada Limon:

How To Triumph Like A Girl

I like the lady horses best,
how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles per hour
is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger,
after winning. Ears up, girls, ears up!
But mainly, let’s be honest, I like
that they’re ladies.

More from the source at poets.org

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We love bringing you the We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB of good news on the last Friday of each month.  Please join our anniversary celebrations by reading and sharing other posts. Thanks so much!

 

I Dreamed An Angel of Light

I Dreamed An Angel of Light

For Christchurch, NZ and too many others

I dreamed

An Angel of Light

Came down in the

Silence

Of the still dawn.

It gathered up

And held

The fallen

Close

To its bosom

And then rose

On great wings

To soar like eagles

Bringing them to

Eternal light and peace.

 

Simon C.J. Falk 18 March 2019

 

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Some bloggers spread STORIES OF LIGHT & PEACE on the final Friday of each month. Follow the hashtag #WATWB on social media.