Shannan's blog

How to write a Praise Poem

A free booklet to download if you are interested

South African Anarchy 13 July 2021

Context – Third Wave of Covid Pandemic, now amidst the riots and looting of the KwaZuluNatal, South African, livelihoods. Gunshots have been ringing out beyond my window for 4 days now, with fewer shots starting on Saturday evening, to a more continuous stream this Tuesday morning. A WatsApp video showed police shooting at gatherers in my area to disperse them from a mall car park this morning. The government knew that this would be going down...

COVID-19

From full lockdown here in South Africa, wishing you all well. Hope the time of quiet, and option for stillness, brings great meaning, purpose, creativity and understanding that is filled with peace in your hearts. Take care of yourselves awesome ABC community. You rock. Cyber hugs, Shannan

A New Hope - ours to choose each day

“A New Hope” – that was the title of a daily reading forwarded to me today. It followed a special day yesterday for two individuals who, after meeting as colleagues, moved on from their shared employer to different offices, but their communications didn’t end and they eventually became engaged and got married yesterday. The reading today was about ‘lean not on your own understanding’ and it dawned on me that that is exactly what the action of ‘...

Why is letting go so hard?

Letting Go A really hard thing as a human and as a teacher, for me personally, is “letting go”. I am finding more and more that social media is absolutely horrible at helping me with this problem. A WatsApp group with my matric learners, for example, and when the year ends, they leave the group. It guts me. It really does. But, the time is done, the short interaction I had with them is over and, as a very different generation, they are not ones...

If I were chatting to God - a Lighthouse Parable idea - unedited

Well, in my efforts to post more blogs once more in 2019 ... I can cover a variety of topics... so why not post my morning musing writings... Here goes ... Lord? How do I get that joy, the joy of being with YOU to explode from me? IT ALREADY DOES MY ANGEL – IT ALREADY DOES – YOU COULDN’T FAKE TEETH PHOTO SMILE IF YOU TRIED ;) Heh heh, thanks Lord, wish I could come to terms with it all inside of me too… how does a lighthouse realise and know its...

Sunday Existential Vacuum – Right here – I’m getting life wrong – you?

So, is it only because I have been in contact with the literature on “Existential Vacuums” that I am going through this? If I had no idea what this “Existential Vacuum” was, would I still have experienced it/be experiencing it? The kuck thing about being a human with one life and one perspective, is that I will actually never have any definite answer to my question, because I can’t live two lives at once, and I can’t see two perspectives when I...

21st century manipulators / abusers

Abuse – to put to a wrong or improper use. To attack in words; to revile. To harm or injure by wrong or cruel treatment. (Penguin Dictionary) Manipulation – to handle or operate skillfully. To control, exploit, or influence by artful, unfair, or insidious means, esp to one’s own advantage. (Penguin Dictionary) When I write of ‘electronic devices’, I am writing about mobile-phones and their content, Tablets and their use, Ipads, laptops,...

In the Meantime, join the Fellowship of Suffering

My ponderings on the concept of the “Fellowship of Suffering” after watching Andy Stanley’s DVD on what to do “In the Meantime” whilst you are waiting for something, or are ‘stuck’ in a situation you can’t change. As God works in His AMAZING ways, I was reading “A Voice in the Wind” by Francine Rivers (a loan from a friend) at the same time as I was watching the Stanley series. The book is a fictional historical recapture of the Biblical times...

Believe or die! Follow or die! Islam?

I have been on our planet for over 3 decades now and I have heard of “jihad”, I have read of women being put to death, I have also studied a course with an Islamist woman who even in her tone was always forceful and pushy and made my anger levels rise with her unwavering voice of ‘or else’. I have never read a positive story about Islamists. I have not read of them starting orphanages or putting value on human life. I have not read of them...