Now She’s Sixty-Four!

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This day, but long ago on a Monday, 

was born to Hans & Dell in Brisbane town

a baby girl, who hadn’t much to say

except some crying. Third child, not a frown

from Mum & Dad, they knew the drill by then,

the crying was no problem, just the deal.

So soon she joined her fam-i-ly again 

(for she was there before, but not for meals).

And grew up, finished prim’ry school and more.

She went to Grammar for High School you know.

Then Rot-ar-ry exchange brought a new store

of chances, changes happened on the go.

For there, she says, she bowed her knee to who

was once anointed by creative love

itself to lead all humans so to choose

to live obeying word from up above,

instead of just their own desires or whims.

This magic might seem more than could be true,

but I have seen her choose to learn from him,

so i would vote with her, and also do

that shrink to little children learning love

within this power-centred world down here.

Though years have gone (full sixty four have shoved

their ways across her path), she’s staying near

to who she covenanted with - for life:

her God, her husband, children, grandies too.

Katrina you are more than just my wife,

my friend as well, and Dear Girl, I love you.

Paul.

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Unless you change

(and become like a SMALL ONE, A CHILD…)

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Dear God you are our father (and our friend),

you know we are but dust, though with your breath.

We take from Jesus that his life don't end,

though we may sleep, love never meets real  death.

For love continues, never ends, or stops,

but finishes what's started - til complete.

And it's complete is not some static Top, 

some journeys rest &  strengthen up your feet.

Dear God your "Paul" (that does mean "small" we know)

has taken Jesus's wisdom here for real.

The small child holds its parents' hands and shows

its heritage and future, thus revealed.

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confidence

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Hey folk, I am hoping to make it to breaky in the morning at 7:30am.  I'll see anyone else who makes it too. Either way...

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Oh God, we love you, and we want your reign

of quiet confidence, and contentment,

with content meant to bring futures again

into this place below where you have sent

your spirit into Jesus, your own Christ,

and then together your son and yourself

sent this same spirit, to help us (suffice

ta say) - our en-er-gy, and too our health. 

And just this way, our fam-i-ly grows true,

and thus true sons and daughters are grown up.

We have the highest confidence in you -

your Jesus way to let your life erupt!

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Door ta …

.. a new world... Just thought of you, seeing that picture of you on the fridge wishing us a Happy New Year 2026. Love.

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God help this daughter there in Dubbo town,

to rest in your good company today,

(including those in whom you walk around)

where she lives, moves, and "be"s, within this fray.

Please give protection from the sin that seems 

to be a crouching predator that wants

to have her, as a "thing", not just in dreams,

but as a slave, or food to fuel it's nons-

ence. She is your own daughter, as she's mine, 

(and Trina's too - & we are yours as well).

Please give your wisdom, at the precise time

it's needed    to build heaven's hopes, not hell's.

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Renewed

(in the spirit of our mind)

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      “...we cannot possibly restrain ourselves from speaking about what we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears.” (Acts 4:20)

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Wow, what a principle to see myself.

I think it’s true. I’ve seen it in my life.

At ev’ry level where insight is health

of "human" being seen as Love's own wife.

Ones who are intertwined themselves with who 

is being in itself, but wants to share

this way of living life, designing you

& me to model “fam-i-ly” that's there.

What is it that I've seen and heard with my

own eyes and ears? Because I probably

won’t possibly be able to comply

with orders to restrain myself from spea-

king of not “what I think”, but “clearly see”.

It’s no longer exper'enced in me as two-

step process which I undertake in me,

(and though I do suppose that I must do

it, for it is in fact an act that’s done,

if it is to occur within this world).

I must be trained to see, not as a one-

off instance, but as process that’s uncurled

in me as was the sitting with my views 

of left eye, and the right one too, in head,

and trusting that designers' work ensues..

..let it add third dimension there instead.

So here I am, I do hear things, … those birds

at 5 am they warble-in the sun,

add to the views of heaven that have stirred

somehow within this heart.  New day’s begun!

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cross the road

(yet overdoing it becomes a double crossing)

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That fellow neighbour in my street who lives

quite close, but is quite angry with me now,

for reason that I do not know, which gives

me wonderings - leaves me scratching my brow…

…and other neighbours can not get along

with him just now, they keep their distance well,

to not be damaged, hurt, or then take on

the rolê of target, in his “practice” hell.

A hell that’s made from human choices to 

be portals into this world of that stance

which focuses alone, with self in view-

keep it maintained, protected, then enhance.

This is too limited, a one-eyed view

of life on Earth, where we since birth have learned

to leave all the relating which we do

to others who must oversee; we’ve spearned

apprenticeship to none less than the love,

creative energy, integrity,

design, which bounces atoms in each glove

that’s called a human self - so you and me -

to give us human selfhood, in a world

that speaks an action language, of symbol,

to give us insight; not as though we’re hurled 

by chance & indescriminate “gamble”.

Though maybe “gamble” isn’t quite all wrong

for in that process, someOne has a will, 

a hope that actual is well,  more strong 

than actuarial, statistical.

One learns that acts can trump the stat’s themselves,

some trust is put on that, to outsmart odds;

it's living dangerously, not “off the shelf”,

in hands of God, or maybe just some gods.

But getting back to two eyed view, where the 

view that’s from second eye which sees the big-

ger picture, from above, not just where we

live on this ground of being; it’s a sig-

nal, or more symbol, of that we’ve been “dacked”,

so let a bigger understand ing act,

impact this world. If we were made in fact

to here enflesh LOVE’s word/ will with impact!

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long haul..

(Roe, Paul)*

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The greatest pilgrimage, reserved for each

who’s ever had the chance to live on Earth

(that’s under heavens, over land or sea),

should occupy some time and thought.. since birth…

At least we model it, as Jesus spoke

of having naps or sleep (like ev’ry night).

A portion of each day*, we find each bloke

or sheila loses consciousness, all right?

Then, we are not “in charge”... not “calling shots”;

or if we do, most sane folk will ignore

the words we say. What acts we do are lots

less able to be blessing others, for

we’re not attending well to things around,

not able to participate down here.

That's not to say that no story has found 

us, will not carry us, till we appear

- back here, on waking up again; or else,

as we might learn from this symbol each day, 

- in bigger, smaller, dream-time. Better health’s

an oft repeated blessing either way.

For even this small symbol helps itself

(not meaning on its own, to take away,

but though this life’s a given thing), our health

will often turn within our sleep. We pray

for symbol to be quite fulfilled at last..

To die within a restful sleep seems best

to many folk - that’s even who live fast

and furious. I’m curious to rest.

And I think Paul the row-er ’cross that stream,

(not on his own no more, but) spirit’ed

within the Dreamtime Jesus said had beamed

into this world, will not be really “dead”.

Except to this “ol’ way” where we adore

the spirit of compet’iveness, & “seize”

on what’s not melody; but something for

the sporting field, the game - with boundaries.

Remains - the rest of peace, in hands well proved,

who sides with keeping one’s own word, & trusts

the word of that creative love which rooved

this “home”, protecting little ones of dust.

But not to stop adventures! Not at all!

- to snip that mortal coil - umbillical,

and learn to live quite partnered, standing tall,

and seeing God (which is quite biblical)..

..and knowing him who is, Pa Excellence - 

the biggest Dad-Joker around the place,

this won’t be just an inconvenience*,

but what his life’s equipping him to face.

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Notes underfoot

)*- another subtitle possibility is "like father, like son"

y* - An eighth (3hrs) to a third (8hrs) of most days, most humans “fall asleep” into unconsciousness. Many have learned to look forward to it, as a time of refreshment.

e* - recalling G. K. Chesterton’s quip that went something like “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” [1]

his life - obviously means “all his life up to (& including) now”; but with Paul there is another metaphorical (& metanarratival) meaning as well; as when his namesake, Jesus Christ’s Apostle (=Ambassador), Paul wrote in the First Century, to a motley crew (including slaves) of new Jesus followers in the provincial Roman town of Colossae: “When Christ, who is your life, appears…” (Col 3:4)

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1st Draft Audio recording of a reading of the text above.

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… the Man!

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Hmm mate... How are things? 

Your boy is suffering some sort of weird “spiritual” attack… please pray… 

Ok, until we get to talk...

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Oh God, we're asking you to be the God,

and we will be your people on your Earth.

Please do protect this boy from evil's odd

and pow'r-less ways, since he is yours from birth

into the fam'ly of his father who

has given his allegiance to your son.

And so this boy is holy unto you

since he is covered until he's begun

to choose himself, as young man, on your earth.

I think the sooner he takes this on too,

the sooner he is partnered, with new birth

as son himself, well loved, the son of you..

with your eternal life - immortal stuff,

that swallows up our old self that's a prick.

Please grow us up, we can't do it enough

un-partnered on our own. We are too sick.

But healing, by your own design is good;

self-healing bodies, what a lurk to have.

And so we thank you God (just as we should)

and ask you to help us see how to nav-

-i-gate through all these weird things round about. 

Please give the wisdom of creative love

to us to learn to serve, and not to pout

just because we aren't quite wise enough..

Since if we’re partnered with the very one

who keeps the universe existent and

is glad to have a child join in the fun,

there’s heaps we don’t yet need to understand!

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Dear Robyn.

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God, help this lady, who is your small child,

to cry as is the right emotion to

express the kind of sadness, grief as styled

by you our God, & Jesus son of you.

And same for Paul, her husband; may they smile

as Jesus did to people whom he met, 

as well as crying loudly in the style 

of prophets of the God we've not seen yet

we love him, 'coz he sources all OUR love, 

and answers all requests as he thinks good.

We trust his wisdom as from far above

our own, which is just sense. And so we should.

And thanks for blessing them together with

the offspring that you gave them, so to more

bring blessing from the heavens to the ear-th

to help embody what we’re put here for.

They never thought they’d live eternally

in mortal bodies, any more than those 

of ante-natal foetuses which be

fed, breathing and excreting through that hose -

the cord that is um-bill-i-cal that goes

to the placenta, inside womb of Mum,

but after birth the after-birth, and hose

are well, discarded - “bigger” life has come.

But also all the after-birth may well

be buried with some honour & some grace,

because it served, sustaining life; and tell

the story of its work in that small space.

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A day like today

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They say that ev’ry day is much the same

as ev’ry other day that comes along.

At times it seems to be true, since each name

of days within a week may start off strong,

Like Mon-, or Choose-, or When’s-, or Thirst-, or Fry-

(or even when you’ve Sat- in Sun- they say),

all of them end the same, that is in my..

my lingo (English), where each ends in “-day”.

Though this is not so strong an argument, 

there is the fact that feelings worlds can be 

discounted by the fact-y part that’s lent 

more power by our culture. Let me see.

Today is When’s-day, though I don’t spell well,

I slept last night in Dubbo town on mat-

ress on the floor, and then I saw my gal

for breaky, just before I walked and sat

in driver’s seat, of our car, and came back

to Orange, where I had a school-day which 

a lot might say is just another day

but we got through a lot of stuff and learned 

a bit in different areas of life,

and gave some “yindyamarra” as folk say 

around here, that lets people who’ve been burned

move forward, even though there’s still some strife.

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My th eos

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Oh God, we thank you for your presence with 

us any where we go, and how we feel.

It's better for us than the best-est myth

about old Zeus with Hermes on his heel.

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a tension

to “negative space”..

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Be ready any time to “drop and turn” -

not physic’lly to drop what will just break,

but let my super focus torch “unburn”,

and lift my head up, look around, and take

what time it takes to see the world around,

so turning from the habit of recluse

(the loss of tending to acts, sights, and sounds

around about). An act that is incluse-

ive of the other actors here on earth

(& maybe those in heaven too as well),

and with that spirit of helping a birth

of someone, to someone; can’t always tell

who’ll live, or die, or ’s worthy to go on.

I'm acting as a mid-wife here myself.

I don’t know what’s been happ’ning in someone

else, at least I need to check the health

of people round about, or of the group -

the spirit of the classroom that I'm in

and is there some way I can really stoop

down, pick up stuff that should be in the bin..

and put it there, or prop’ly clean it out.

To keep the classroom healthy. I’ve done this

before, and it did not mean I must pout,

just act, and then keep positive. Don’t hiss!

But also do not miss the chance to see

and act in helpful ways to benefit

the people round about, not my glory

(short-sightedly considered). Nail’s been hit!

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cloud of forgeting

(...helps in growing love…)

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(First day of Spring) 

We were not now fighting, just feeling like love was dying.. old wounds had been opened, and not healed, just reminding us of diff’rences that feel to be an abyss between us, across which no warmth can be conducted, no convection currents could carry any excitement. We needed the kind of radiant heat that can travel across vacuums.

My wife was being cordial, and said that she was riding to work, and “Good-bye.” & took off on her bicycle - around 8:10am.  I had just enough time, if I used it well, before I needed to be at work. As I was collecting my bits and pieces together before driving directly to work in the car… I found her phone sitting on the loungeroom coffee table …

Different to me, she rarely leaves things behind by mistake. So, I thought, “It’s possible that she left it home on purpose (say to minimise interruptions at work etc)..” I thought I should ring her to check … (then realised what I was considering)... So I just had to make my “own” judgement (I addressed myself to creative love, “Please give me some of your wisdom here!”)...

On my way to work, I made the 5 or 10 minute detour to her work, to give it to her.

When I walked into her office it looked like she was trying to log into an account that required receiving a phone text as verification, and later she said she was on to trying other options. She beamed when she saw it, got out of her computer chair, smiled, took steps to receive the phone, full-heartedly said “Thank you!”, and hugged me.  She said “I really needed that.”

What a gift from God to help our difficulties in expressing love in tangible ways to  creatures from other planets.

I think God used that cloud of forgeting to help love grow, as we looked past our needs to the other... and let love connect us…

As I drove on to work, I looked up again.. “Thank you”.

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lava

(dependent on creative love’s gift of A PLACE..*)

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Oh Lord! I’m not at all in charge down here.

Remembering the picture which that man*

found helpful, in his mind, to live with fear 

of all that could go wrong, since life began..

a picture of just tentatively grow-

ing one’s own trust, as one finds underneath

the surface of the ground of all our know-

ing is depths of a dark heat, un-belief,

abyss, that crushes human life complete-

ly, it’s so empty, OR so monstrously

full of an anti-life stuff that we meet

occasion-ly, upheaving stressfully.

It feels volcanic, or like seismic waves,

where all we thought so solid melts away.

Reality as it seems, no “behaves”

(and as we learn, it’s right here it will stay),

is not at all conducive to hist’ry.

We’re visiting - just like a Goldilocks.

Those bears will soon hunt us out till we flee.

The “just right”s all forgotten at their knocks.

But I see now a lovely, wondrous thing;

a sandbox made to teach us partnership,

not just as equals - One is Fathering

the others - teaching, training not to slip,

but to have def’nate, actual  habits that

grow trust in who made all this world - by words.

Our biggest need is to depend, as F.A.T.*...

true children, who have listened, once they heard.

So, then I think his plan for us was more

than best parts of the Greek and Roman guess-

-es of what gods are like - not how they war,

but strong, immortal; not their cause of mess-

-es, nor their lack of love and wisdom too.

For these ones are re-sourced con-tin-u’lly

from the creative love that’s “you know who”-

the one who IS (that’s is, was, & will be).

So “self-existece” brings heavens & Earth

to being, in a Universe that’s held

within the mind, then spoken, so ’s to birth

it as participant whom GOD “lets” weld,

or move, or shine, or grow, or part, or rise…

to make this place so solid that it's “good”

enough for love, creative, strong, & wise

to see it as “just right” for what it could

be good for, with large insights (as we learn)

into a wondrous pow-er far above, 

and underneath us. Let us not now spearn

this chance to partner with creative love.

**

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Footnotes

..* - a place .. to belong, a place in this whole she-bang to be existent (no, to be living, even to be thriving), and a place to (as we long to), be leading well)

n* - Henri Nouwen in his depression reported in The inner voice of Love - A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom1, 2, 3.… an experience of standing as though in a place of turf, with a great hole in the middle looking into an abyss. The way forward was to grow the grass until it slowly covered over the abyss, and then he could still live his life in that place over that abyss: "There is a deep hole in your being, like an abyss. You will never succeed in filling that hole, because your needs are inexhaustible. You have to work around it so that gradually the abyss closes.".

This, it turns out, is not much different to the actual facts of all the Earth’s crust being afloat on the molten larva of its mantle.

T.* - F.A.T. stands for Faithful, Available,Teachable

**  - A realisation, as pieces of the jig-saw puzzle fit together, from PSYCHOLOGY (in overcoming  existential angst), and  EARTH-SCIENCE (the Earth as we experience it is very much like some ancients saw it - a "flat plate (we'd say plates)" floating or somehow held up over a sea (it's just that it's a sea of molten swirling larva) etc.[https://appallinglife.blogspot.com/2026/09/larva.html]

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