we have a bit of a tradition at new year of a meal on year's eve where we reflect on the year gone by and what things have been bitter and sweet. this is accompanied by a sweet and sour meal or someting bitter and sweet to taste. we write them down on sheets of paper and talk about them before reflecting on hopes and dreams for the year ahead (we also seem to always accompany this with james lavelle's remix of bittersweet symphony by the verve).
on new year's eve we only managed the first part so last night did our hopes and dreams in a meal. writing the words hope and dream in candles was a spontaneous last minute idea that made it that bit more special with hopes and dreams scribbled on post its and scattered round the meal table...
i had asssumed that the bittersweet ritual was a worship trick but it doesn't seem to be so this is no 90 in series 2.
somehow the pics look better in black and white - a few more at flickr of course
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Great pics. We have done a similar thing over the last couple of years. I draw my hopes and dreams on a single piece of paper and try and leave somewhere where I can see it fairly regularly throughout the year. I have found it really helpful in focussing what I think it important to me rather than getting lost in the distractions that come up.
Posted by: russell | January 08, 2007 at 09:37 AM
i like the photo. very dramatic and inspirational. cool concept.
Posted by: nakedpastor | January 08, 2007 at 01:37 PM
Love the pics jonny,
I will make it back to England one day....it is my wife and my heart to go and serve there one day.
She has family in London (Piner and Kensington)
Posted by: Mykel | January 09, 2007 at 06:40 PM
LOVE the pictures, seriously!
Posted by: emma | January 10, 2007 at 09:09 PM
thank you :-)
Posted by: jonny | January 11, 2007 at 10:03 AM
How funny - I was explaining to my husband the other day that Bittersweet Symphony seemed to me to be include nearly a postmodern, and maybe 'emergent', manifesto. (This will undoubtedly show my US-centricity, I realize as I write.) It just seems to me like the lyrics -
-need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me
-i'll take you down the only road i've ever been down
-i'm a million different people from one day to the next, I can change
...I mean, I realize it's hardly unique, and hardly new or cutting edge in 2006, but that just sounds like the call of the people, and some of what our community aspires to respond to.
Posted by: betsy | January 11, 2007 at 06:40 PM