We’ve been getting to zero and below the last couple of mornings. Give me hot over cold for sure. LLet me tell you getting up for night feeds at that temperature sux bad. Lucky Nina has only being wanting two, sometimes even one of late. Although, last night despite wearing a spencer and long johns under my pyjamas and having a sheet, blanket, doona and bed spread on the bed, I was still cold. Unbelievable.

Esther – Esther was one of my favourite stories when I was a little girl. It is the story of a brave woman who makes a brave choice. Not knowing what would happen she made a decision to help her people even though the consequences could have been tragic for her. She put her hope her God and took a leap of faith. It worked out for Esther. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out like that for all people who hope and pray but I was inspired none the less and it certainly was a significant story to be reading as I made some decisions myself. Like Exodus, Esther presents us not with an abstract concept or a how to do it set of instructions but with a story, a story we can try to live into as we too take up the challenge to trust in God.

1-2 Peter – I really like this line from Peter. “So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast drink deep of God’s pure kindness.” From The Message obviously. It is easy to forget how damaging things like pretense and envy can be for our souls. There is not a lot of focus on them really but the Bible reminds us a lot to try to keep them at bay. I also like the motherly image of God that is presented here and I love the idea of drinking deep from God’s kindness. Doesn’t the world need more kindness?

Mother’s Day came and went fairly unremarked upon. In the lead up I kept watching the different ads for mother’s day gifts and thinking how much my mum would hate them. When I commented on this to Martin, he said, “you wouldn’t like them either”. Funny that it hadn’t even occured to me that I was now someone who receives gifts on Mother’s Day. Obviously, Nina is too little to give me anything but Martin gave me a big sleep in and some flowers on her behalf.

I took my mum to the movies cause she’s a great mum. Then we went to dinner, although Keith paid for the dinner for the mums. We saw a movie called Babies that was really great. It was just based on four babies, one from Mongolia, Nambibia, The USA and Japan and how they interacted with their environment, It was really cute and funny and interesting to see how similiar babies are but how different their environments are. It was a reminder to be a little less precious. Babies are actually quite resilient.

My gorgeous little girl is going pretty well. She says mama now and has one little tooth. She also crawls around. Well commando crawling, not quite up yet but she can get where she wants. She doesn’t seem to particularly enjoy it though. Although, I guess it is something she has to do on her own and she is not that into that. She likes being very close to people, preferably being carried. Other things she likes are eating, especially sand and leaves and anything she shouldn’t, putting her feet in the dirt, watching people brush their teeth, the new Alice Springs indoor pool, pulling DVD’s off the shelf, being thrown around by Martin, “if your happy and you know it clap your hands”.

I’m not happy that Osama Bin Laden is dead. I don’t trust the media or the politicians one bit but if it was him that masterminded the September 11 attacks I think that was a terrible thing to do. I also get the impression that Osama was a horrendously violent, ungracious, arrogant and unkind man and he and I probably wouldn’t have got along very well at all but does that give me the right to celebrate his death? I do have to remember that I am not perfect either and that the side on which my country is fighting has far more blood on their hands than Osama Bin Laden.

Murder (which is what I believe it was) is sad no matter how bad we think the person is. Quakers believe that there is “that of God in all people” and I don’t think Osama Bin Laden is any different. I have been deeply saddened by the shows of enthusiasm and glee displayed by leaders and people around the world. I would think that even if people did believe that Osama was better off dead that there would be some regret that it had to come to this. I would have thought at least one person would take the time to remember all the people that have also died in the search for Osama Bin Laden and asked the question if the “collateral damage” is acceptable.

And the discussion about if we can trust Pakistan or not. Are we serious? Has anyone stopped to ask the question can Pakistan trust us? Are we really so arrogant to believe that the lives of those in the West are so much more valuable than the lives of those in the middle east? Why do we believe that it is okay when we kill people but not when they do? We have to remember today that the people who have really suffered are not Americans or Australians or Europeans but the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.