My Quotations

“Never be afraid to step over the shadow of your negativity”

“You can go back to the place but not the time”

“Life is about perception. Not what is but what we perceive it to be”

“We should do everything possible on our part to live in peace with everybody”

“I will have to stop reading all these books. It’s affecting my brain”

“It takes three seconds to say I love you but the effect lasts a lifetime”

“At some time in the human narrative…..in our history, man declared himself superior to women. It must have been an accident, or at least an act of gross stupidity. But that’s men for you”

“Life is about doing things, not having things”

“The pathway to the riches of knowledge is in the reading……..and the doing”

“Our lives have become controlled by the noise of the mass media. The sad thing is that we accept it”

"There are three kinds of people. Those who know. Those who know when they are shown, and those who don’t know at all”

“Perception interpreted unwisely can result in a mistaken conclusion of reality”

“History is just an ongoing commentary on the incompetence of men”

“We dislike and resist change in the foolish assumption that we can make permanent that which makes us feel secure. Yet change is in fact part of the very fabric of our existence”

“There is no such thing as an original idea because there is always a preceding pathway of thought”

Poem

I Wonder When The Seed Is Planted

I look upon the child’s face and see

Innocence - unblemished purity

Translated in looks virtuous

How sweet how incorruptible

Then it happens with measured subtly

The distortion of youthful thought

Insinuated into free

And immature minds

I wonder when the seed is planted

When evil first takes hold

And intolerance evolves

To become scum on the pond of life

Who grants permission to damage the child?

Of youthful purity

The wonderment of adventure

Unfiltered creativity

Is it the sin of the father?

That makes a child loathe

That makes them xenophobic

Racist just like him

When does it take root this hatred?

That enters the child’s mind

To be carried with them always

Fermenting as they grow

Are parents so imbued?

With experiences of the past

That forgiveness is impossible

Bad memories seem to last

So they pass it onto their children

And intolerance lingers on

Licking at the finger of hate

It seems to have no end

I can only pray to you Lord

In the hope that you will hear

The cry that is inside my heart

Please - let understanding in

Feb 08

Poem

Truth

Of truth we can say, we are all in need

How we use it creates God’s division

Between good, evil, right and wrong

Truth is never fragile but does require delicacy

It can be black or white or different shades of hue

We can misuse it, abuse it, distort it and with it cause despair

In discussion we can eliminate it altogether

Too suit our own need

We can manipulate it to bring about sorrow

We can leave it open to interpretation and disguise its real purpose

But we can never ignore it

Together with love it is an ingredient of faith

It is pure only when it is exempt from desires of self justification

In its purity it is the basic essence of reason

When used to clarify decisions, it is the ultimate influence

Truth is not dependant on age or experience

Truth does not compromise or need illusion,

And never needs to justify itself

It can only be wise when used wisely

But is there a truth absolute? Yes

It’s called God’s truth and it’s found in the

Word’s of Jesus

You see, without truth, we cannot hope too understand faith without faith we cannot understand truth

And without both we cannot comprehend love

Easter Narrative

Quotation

Portrait

This is my portrait of Anni Giannarelli who sings one of my songs "If You Could Look Into His Eyes" (See video clip on this page)

Poem

Quotation

“If you read the Bible with literal intent it becomes the only text book on living never updated. On the other hand, if you read it with the reason of an exploratory mind all manner of truths are revealed”


John Lord

Poem

Faith

Faith is the insight of truth hope and love
Those who don’t acknowledge it don’t see the human condition for what it is
A complex mixture of reason and emotion
They devalue the emotive ingredient
in the recipe of what we are
Faith surpasses the human condition called logic
It’s the residue when questions have no answers
Faith is God’s gift to those who see without seeing and know without understanding
It forms the missing link between what we know of God and what we don’t
It’s the gap in our inability too comprehend his actions, or often the lack of.
It’s more understood by those who have suffered and retained it
Than those who have suffered and rejected it
It can never be grasped by those who are not open to the experience of it
The reality is that faith cannot be obtained or appreciated without giving into its existence
For without faith doubt becomes the seed of disbelief
True faith is trusting God

Quotation

“Only faith resolves the irresolvable question
of the mysteriousness of God”

John Lord

 

Portrait of Beau

Comment

Some years ago, in answer to a question, my son gave what I considered an unsatisfactory, response and suggested he should look” beyond the answer”. At the time, he did not understand what I meant. In reading Barack Obama’s, book “The Audacity of Hope I came across a typical example of what I was suggesting. He was writing on the subject of abortion and stated that he was on the pro side of the debate, but then went on to say that common ground could be found, in that when he was asked . Are there to many abortions? he simply answered, of course. By looking beyond the answer he opened up a whole new, and perhaps more reverential debate about the need for abortion. One where both sides could find common dialogue, and perhaps better understanding.

Poetry

Doubt

Doubt be not our fear
Truth be our desire
Critics don’t condone us
Our contradictory thought

Doubt makes us wise
To question not a sin
Doubt be our journey
Enlightenment within

Questions be inspired
Answers revelation
Integrity walk beside us
Truth will always win

Faith be our companion
Doubt our inner voice
Truth be the search
That brings us close to him

Poetry/Art

Quotation

“History is just an ongoing commentary on the incompetence of men”

John Lord

Quotation

“We dislike and resist change in the foolish assumption that we can make permanent that which makes us feel secure. Yet change is in fact part of the very fabric of our existence”

John Lord

Portrait

poem

The Boat

Based on this painting by John Tunley

The tranquil water illustrates

The passing of a storm

The boat tells its story

The journey life’s sojourn

The picture is of stillness

The ocean calm serene

The clouds they look over

The sea that has no end

The boat is not perfect

The hull in need of work

The boat it seeks calm waters

The sand its final rest

The boat is at its journeys end

The boat has had its day

The boat seeks its place in heaven

The boat no longer sways

The people who have rowed her

The journey has an end

The resting place is near the shore

The waves they come and end

The boat will sail in heaven

The people will row on

The horizon meets the sunset

The work of God is done

Photography

A portraiture study in black and white of Beaumont Coleman Lord. Our eldest grandchild.

Quotation

“the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages… It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom or our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

Robert Kennedy 1968

Quotation

“At some time in the human narrative…..in our history, man declared himself superior to women. It must have been an accident, or at least an act of gross stupidity. But that’s men for you”

John Lord

Portrait

A self portrait painted on MDF Board coated with household spackle filler useing Acrylic paints.

The following portrait is of my wife Virginia.Painted in acrylics on canvas, size 500x600.

Portrait

Poem

Love

Even though I may express myself eloquently
And with divinity of thought
And my knowledge be full of profound enlightenment
When what I have learned is only surpassed by
what I am yet to
Does all this amount to wisdom?
When I want for nothing can it be said that I
Have everything
Alas no. For all these things are nothing without love
Without love my words become scrambled and incoherent
Without love life has no absolute truth, no purpose and ultimately fails
Love is the pregnancy
That gives birth to truth and faith
Nothing can be fully understood unless it is with love
So if I were to lose all my possessions, all that I own, but still retain love
Then I must be considered wealthy by whatever measure
If I cannot give of my love as one would a gift to another
If I cannot share my love and want of it in return
If I cannot plant it and water it so that it might mature and grow
Then in the end I may as well wither and die
For in the end I am nothing without love

Inspired by 1 COR. Chapt 13

My cup runneth over. Pastel drawing by Bev Palmer

Poetry

The Gift of Love

Frequently I ponder just what love is
And it’s part in the meaning of life
Is it different things to different people?
An accumulation of various experiences

You see I love my children but
Do I love them equally, I don’t know
It seems I do but in different ways
So I love them diffently, love allows it]

If love is given is it conditional on
Something in return or is it an
Individual experience and not
Dependent on a need to be shared

How does it happen, how do I feel it
Can it be forwarded like an email?
Is it just emotional or does it
Have a logical attachment

I confess at times I just don’t know
Sometimes when I forgive I get confused
If I still feel bitterness instead of love
So baffling love can be

Why did I meet my wife, who arranged it?
Why could I not live without her?
Is that how deep love runs
I don’t know I can’t explain it

Sometimes it makes me angry
How much in love I can be
With the wide screen TV, the DVD and
The surround sound with Dolby 5.3
Materialism, it makes me furious
But I love it

Indeed love can be so silly and
Illicit the strangest behavior
Or be sensually stunning, oh yes
You see sex is love, where there is love

I even love Oscar, He’s our dog
He barks so much, it get’s me angry
Then he looks at me with those big
Melancholy eyes, and I just fall in love, he’s our dog

I love men for their manliness
And I love women because they have
So much to teach us men
Extensive isn’t it….love I mean

Am I making any sense of it?
Well I don’t know that love does really
It’s just so mysterious, so deep, and so expansive
God can be like that, mysterious I mean

But let’s get serious, no one owns it
Well except God…. That’s it that’s the answer
You see it costs nothing, it’s wonderful
It’s a gift; he gives it to you for free

Exciting isn’t it, you have to experience
The intent of it, feel it explore it
Wonder at the beauty of it, its possibilities it’s
Dimensions, its endless variations, its grace
It’s wisdom, its truth and it’s compassion

Go for it, you can only know love when
The gift is taken freely with due consideration
Of the giver………and that’s God, feel worthy of it
Embrace it, place in the labyrinth of you heart

Pass it onto others, pass it around
Oh I’m not finished; you see I’m passionate about it
Thank God for his greatest gift
His love for us to share

Poetry

The Art of Quiet

Pray we do

Listen we must

Very still

Relaxed

In the stillness we grow

The mind

Insightful thoughts

From silence

Answers arrive

Responses unforeseen

When stillness prevails

Over the soul

Very still

You hear

His voice

In the serenity

Of silent prayer

The art of quiet

Poetry

The Fragrance of Life

When finally I saw the light

I found that all the things

I thought I needed

I didn’t need at all

That the joy and beauty of life

Was to be found most often in a quiet garden

Reclining in a chair with a book

Surrounded by the fragrance

And sounds of life itself