BUT A POOR REFLECTION

The Great Cormorant

abspoel — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:08:07 +0000

On my way to Hoofddorp’s rail way station I always see this piece of art. I am talking about a statue of a man dancing on the water. During the Winter he looks like a figure skater, but in the Summer he’s more like a dancer. He spreads his arms as if he is ready for take-off. I don’t know, but maybe he is Icarus – the mythical man that used his wings to fly to the sun. Too close to the sun, as a matter of fact, so his wax wings melted and he fell down to earth…

The flying man is a great piece of art, but so are the Great Cormorants that use this statue as their point of view. If they spread their wings, like they often do, it makes a great image. I have made several pictures of this combination of flying man and sitting birds – this is just one of them.

And by the way, I am still blogging in Dutch on Vrijspraak – and terribly neglecting this blog in English… Anybody still with me?

Click on the pic for bigger size and look below for a full size picture of the entire statue with birds.

I Will Never Take Your Love For Granted

abspoel — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:19:39 +0000

I didn’t make the rose. I just took a picture and fooled around with it. Like we sometimes do with love.

Click pic to enlarge & feel free to use it as a wall paper.

Misty Electricity

abspoel — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:23:46 +0000

Took this pic this morning. Had to walk through some muddy grass to get the right view. Photograph processed with www.picnik.com Orton-ish effect.

Wounded tree

abspoel — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:12:10 +0000

Wounded tree
Wrapped up
Like a mummy
Or a swaddled baby
bundled up
for the night

hush now, don’t you cry
your end is just the start
of something new

It’s a cross, for heaven’s sake

abspoel — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:55:20 +0000

“The simple way is not the easy way. No one ever promised us that community or Christian discipleship would be easy. There’s a commonly mistranslated verse where Jesus tells the disciples, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me… For my yoke is good and my burden is light.” People take that to mean that if we come to Jesus, everything will be easy. (The word good is often mistranslated as easy). Ha, that’s funny. My life was pretty easy before I met Jesus. In one sense, the load is lighter because we carry the burdens of the world together. But he is still telling us to pick up a yoke. Yoke had a lot of different meanings. It was the tool used for harnessing animals for farming. It was the word used for taking on a rabbi’s teaching (as Jesus seems to use it here). Yoke was also the word used for the brutal weight of slavery and oppression that the prophets call us to break (Isaiah 58, among other passages). One of the things I think Jesus is doing is setting us free from the heavy yoke of an oppressive way of life. I know plenty of people, both rich and poor, who are suffocating from the weight of the American dream, who find themselves heavily burdened by the lifeless toil and consumption we put upon ourselves. This is the yoke we are being set free from. The new yoke is still not easy (it’s a cross, for heaven’s sake), but we carry it together, and it is good and leads us to rest, especially for the weariest traveler.” Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution, p. 135, 136

Close Encounters in Frankfurt

abspoel — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:16:18 +0000

Picture taken from the car window. (No, I was not behind the steering wheel, but we were driving through the city centre). Last week I was in Frankfurt because of the book fair. More pics on my Dutch blog.

Beautiful Word Cloud

abspoel — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:49:55 +0000

Thanks to Wordle

Playing for Change

abspoel — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:04:25 +0000

Expecting too much from music alone, in my humble opinion, but still… I love Playing for Change! I’ve bought the CD and ask you to support this project as well. Peace through music. Who can be against that?

Insalvation

abspoel — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:28:31 +0000

Insalvation, a Dutch worship band, playing at Challenge 2.0 in Hoofddorp. Youth service organized by our church.

I took Robin to this celebration – in his wheelchair, because of his broken leg. Good to see him having fun with his friends again.

Light in the Night

abspoel — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:39:35 +0000

Muziekgebouw aan het IJ – I guess that name doesn’t make any sense to you if you don’t understand my funny language. It means: “Music Building at the IJ”.

I know you will not be able to pronounce the name of this river if you don’t speak Dutch. And it’s not really a river, but it’s sort of a lake, formerly a bay and now the waterfront of Amsterdam behind the Central Train Station.

There are many ambitious building projects in this area and as you can see some of them are quite spectacular when you look at them at night.

I use a simple Kodak EasyShare Z1012 IS camera with tripod. This camera has a night panorama mode and this is very convenient for a non-technical photographer such as I. Look at my photo blog to see some more examples.