The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.

HAPPY EASTER!

It is so nice to be starting to tiptoe out of lockdown! Shielding ended officially last week for my eldest daughter and so we had my son’s godmother over for a meal on Easter Day and she brought her new…well….look at this!!!!…..

Isn’t she adorable! She hasn’t chosen a name yet but I think Scamp is the most appropriate. She is always up to mischief and she is SO confident! I don’t know how well you can see in the photo but Dilys my sausage dog is there, cleaning her. Dilys loves looking after babies…she loves puppies, kittens, human babies. Dilys would have loved to have been this one’s mum but little one was off wanting to have adventures and did not want to be trailed by a fussy sausage dog. So we spent our Easter evening adoring the puppy and laughing at her antics.

I’m writing this from the resus department of the hospital. As I write this, my daughter is unconscious, with her system on shutdown. She is on intravenous fluids and meds, supporting her system while it tries to re-start and sort itself out. It’s very quiet in this cubicle, only the beep of machines and the whirr of the IV pump, so I thought I would write to you lot, to keep me company! Here goes….

Kebra Negast

55. How the People of ETHIOPIA Rejoiced And [the people of ETHIOPIA] took flutes, and blew horns, and [beat] drums, and [played on] pipes, and the Brook of EGYPT was moved and astonished at the noise of their songs and their rejoicings; and with them were mingled outcries and shouts of gladness. And their idols, which they had made with their hands and which were in the forms of men, and dogs, and cats, fell down, and the high towers (pylons or obelisks ?), and also the figures of birds, [made] of gold and silver, fell down also and were broken in pieces. For ZION shone like the sun, and at the majesty thereof they were dismayed. And they arrayed ZION in her apparel, and they bore the gifts to her before her, and they set her upon a wagon, and they spread out purple beneath her, and they draped her with draperies of purple, and they sang songs before her and behind her.

Then the wagons rose up (i.e., resumed their journey) as before, and they set out early in the morning, and the people sang songs to ZION, and they were all raised up the space of a cubit, and as the people of the country of EGYPT bade them farewell, they passed before them like shadows, and the people of the country of EGYPT worshipped them, for they saw ZION moving in the heavens like the sun, and they all ran with the wagon of ZION, some in front of her and some behind her. And they came to the sea AL-AḤMAR, which is the Sea of ERITREA (i.e., the RED SEA), which was divided by the hand of MOSES, and the children of ISRAEL marched in the depths thereof, going up and down. Now at that time the Tabernacle of the Law of God had not been given unto MOSES, and therefore the water only gathered itself together, a wall on the right hand and a wall on the left, and allowed ISRAEL to pass with their beasts and their children and their wives. And after they had crossed the sea God spake to MOSES and gave him the Tabernacle of the Covenant with the Book of the Law. And when the holy ZION crossed over with those who were in attendance on her, and who sang songs to the accompaniment of harps and flutes, the sea received them and its waves leaped up as do the high mountains when they are split asunder, and it roared even as a lion roareth when he is enraged, and it thundered as doth the winter thunder of DAMASCUS and ETHIOPIA when the lightning smiteth the clouds, and the sound thereof mingled with the sounds of the musical instruments. And the sea worshipped ZION. And whilst its billows were tossing about like the mountains their wagons were raised above the waves for a space of three cubits, and among the sound of the songs the [noise of the] breaking of the waves of the sea was wonderful. The breaking of the waves of the sea was exceedingly majestic and stupefying, and it was mighty and strong. And the creatures that were in the sea, those that could be recognized, and those that were invisible, came forth and worshipped ZION; and the birds that were on it flapped their pinions and overshadowed it. And there was joy to the Sea of ERITREA, and to the people of ETHIOPIA, who went forth to the sea and rejoiced exceedingly, and with a greater joy than did ISRAEL when they came out of EGYPT. And they arrived opposite Mount SINAI, and dwelt in ḲÂDÊS, and they remained there whilst the angels sang praises; and the creatures of the spirit mingled their praises with [those] of the children of earth, with songs, and psalms, and tambourines joyfully.

And then they loaded their wagons, and they rose up, and departed, and journeyed on to the land of MEDYÂM, and they came to the country of BÊLÔNTÔS, which is a country of ETHIOPIA. And they rejoiced there, and they encamped there, because they had reached the border of their country with glory and joy, without tribulation on the road, in a wagon of the spirit, by the might of heaven and of MICHAEL the Archangel. And all the provinces of ETHIOPIA rejoiced, for ZION sent forth a light like that of the sun into the darkness wheresoever she came.

* * *

Reasoning

From H.I.M. church….

Command:

Hosea 3 v5
5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, their God, and David their
king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

Will:

Psalm 19 v7
7 The law of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, is sure, making wise the simple.

Desire:

1 Kings 11 v38
38 And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.

Wish:

Isaiah 11 v10
10 And in that day shall be root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious

* * *

Psalm 118 is all about how mighty God is, how He takes care of us and how it is better to trust in God than in man. It’s is a beautiful psalm. I love, particularly, this….. “The Lord is my strength and my defence;
he has become my salvation.”

Psalm 118

¹ Give thanks to the Lord,^(A) for he is good;^(B)
his love endures forever.^(C)

² Let Israel say:^(D)
“His love endures forever.”^(E)
3 Let the house of Aaron say:^(F)
“His love endures forever.”
⁴ Let those who fear the Lord^(G) say:
“His love endures forever.”

⁵ When hard pressed,^(H) I cried to the Lord;
he brought me into a spacious place.^(I)
6 The Lord is with me;^(J) I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?^(K)
7 The Lord is with me; he is my helper.^(L)
I look in triumph on my enemies.^(M)

⁸ It is better to take refuge in the Lord^(N)
than to trust in humans.^(O)
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.^(P)
10 All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the Lord I cut them down.^(Q)
11 They surrounded me^(R) on every side,^(S)
but in the name of the Lord I cut them down.
¹² They swarmed around me like bees,^(T)
but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns;^(U)
in the name of the Lord I cut them down.^(V)
13 I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the Lord helped me.^(W)
14 The Lord is my strength^(X) and my defense^[a];
he has become my salvation.^(Y)

¹⁵ Shouts of joy^(Z) and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
“The Lord’s right hand^(AA) has done mighty things!^(AB)
16 The Lord’s right hand is lifted high;
the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”
¹⁷ I will not die^(AC) but live,
and will proclaim^(AD) what the Lord has done.
¹⁸ The Lord has chastened^(AE) me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.^(AF)
19 Open for me the gates^(AG) of the righteous;
I will enter^(AH) and give thanks to the Lord.
²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord^(AI)
through which the righteous may enter.^(AJ)
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;^(AK)
you have become my salvation.^(AL)

²² The stone^(AM) the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;^(AN)
23 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous^(AO) in our eyes.
²⁴ The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.^(AP)

²⁵ Lord, save us!^(AQ)
Lord, grant us success!

²⁶ Blessed is he who comes^(AR) in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.^[b](AS)
27 The Lord is God,^(AT)
and he has made his light shine^(AU)on us.
With boughs in hand,^(AV) join in the festal procession
up^[c] to the horns of the altar.^(AW)

²⁸ You are my God, and I will praise you;
you are my God,^(AX) and I will exalt^(AY) you.

²⁹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

* * *

Book Of Enoch

Chapter 9

1 And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being 2 shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. And they said one to another: ‘The earth made without inhabitant cries the voice of their cryingst up to the gates of heaven. 3 And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men make their suit, saying, “Bring our cause 4 before the Most High.”‘ And they said to the Lord of the ages: ‘Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, and God of the ages, the throne of Thy glory (standeth) unto all the generations of the 5 ages, and Thy name holy and glorious and blessed unto all the ages! Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou: and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all 6 things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee. Thou seest what Azazel hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven, which 7 men were striving to learn: And Semjaza, to whom Thou hast given authority to bear rule over his associates. And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the 9 women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. And the women have 10 borne giants, and the whole earth has thereby been filled with blood and unrighteousness. And now, behold, the souls of those who have died are crying and making their suit to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have ascended: and cannot cease because of the lawless deeds which are 11 wrought on the earth. And Thou knowest all things before they come to pass, and Thou seest these things and Thou dost suffer them, and Thou dost not say to us what we are to do to them in regard to these.’

* * *

The glory that was Solomon greater still reigns in Ethiopia. We can see all the Kings of the earth surrendering their crowns to His Majesty Ras Tafari the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Earth’s Rightful Ruler to reign forever and ever.

Upon His Majesty Ras Tafari ‘s head are many diadems and on His garments a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords oh come let us adore him for he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, The Conquering Lion of Judah, The Elect of God and the Light of the world.

His Majesty Ras Tafari is the head over all man for he is the Supreme God. His body is the fullness of him that fillet all in all. Now my dear people let this be our goal, forward to the King of Kings must be the cry of our social hope. Forward to the King of Kings to purify our social standards and our way of living, and rebuild and inspire our character. Forward to the King of Kings to learn the worth of manhood and womanhood. Forward to the King of Kings to learn His code of Laws from the mount demanding absolute Love, Purity, Honesty, and Truthfulness. Forward to the King of Kings to learn His Laws and social order, so that virtue will eventually gain the victory over body and soul and that truth will drive away falsehood and fraud. Members of the King of Kings arise for God’s sake and put your armor on.

Dear inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, the King of Kings warriors can never be defeated, the Pope of Rome and his agents shall not prevail against the King of Kings host warriors you all must stand up, stand up, for the King of Kings.

All ye warriors of the King of Kings lift high King Alpha’s Royal Banner, from victory to victory King Alpha shall lead his army till every enemy is vanquished.

* * *

Reading Psalm 118 earlier, I was reminded of this prayer. I put it into the newsletter about 6 months ago but thought it would really fit in here…..

Prayer

Thank you Jah.

You have given me the greatest gift any human could ever have…life.

I am in awe of your love and your power every day.

Thanks and praises unto The Most High, Jah Rastafari.

* * *

* * *

From the Sacred Texts website, here is the next folk story. I’m really enjoying reading them. I love how many forms the character of Anansi takes and how sometimes his sly ways help him win, like last time, and how other times he gets beaten at his own games….

The Yam Hills

One time Anansi start to work a groun’ at the road-side. After clearing up his field, he dig nine yam-bills. Now no one is allowed to count up to the nine. If he say nine, he drop down dead. So Anansi say, “I got to eat somet’ing out of this.” So he sat down an’ begin to cry. Hog was passing, say to him, “Br’er Anansi, wha’s the matter with you?” Anansi said, “My dear Bredder Hog, from mawning I dig these few yam-hills an’ trying to count them, but I can’t manage to count them yet.” Hog said, “Cho! you too wort’less! You mean say you can’t say, ‘One, two, t’ree, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine?‘” And as Hog say “nine,” Hog drop down dead. Anansi take him up, put him in his bag an’ carry him home an’ eat him.

The nex’ day he came back an’ eat up Goat, who share the same fate as Hog, an’ every day he went back dig the same hills. At that time Monkey was on a tree watching an’ seeing all that take place. He came down from off the tree, an’ while Anansi dig the same nine hills again an’ was sitting down crying, Monkey come up an’ said, Br’er Anansi, wha’ the matter with you?” Anansi said, “My dear Bredder Monkey, from mawning I dig these few yam-hills, an’ I’m trying to count them but I can’t manage!” Monkey said, “I will count them for you, but you mus’ sit down ‘pon one.” Monkey then said, “One, two, t’ree, four, five, six, seven, eight, an’ the one Br’er Anansi sit down upon.” Anansi said, “That’s not the way to count them!” Monkey said, “I’ll count them good for you now!” Monkey began, “One, two, t’ree, four, five, six, seven, eight, an’ the one Br’er Nansi sit down upon deh.” Now Anansi is a man with a very short heart.[1] He got vex an’ say, “You mean to say that you can’t say ‘One, two, t’ree, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine?” An’ as the word nine come out, Anansi drop down dead. Monkey took him up an’ said, “You can fool the others, but you can’t fool me!“

[1. “A very hasty temper.”]

* * *

This has NOT been a good couple of weeks….lots of bad stuff has happened, but I am not going to complain about it all on here…only say sorry to you all for being so rubbish at sending these letters. I have still been praying for you and I haven’t forgotten you all.

One good thing is that my daughter is back out of hospital, after a 2 week stay, and she is beginning to feel a little bit better.

Lenny the liability is just as good at ‘smash & grab’. This week he has specialised in eating the top of sandwiches. He has eaten the top piece of bread from 2 fried egg sandwiches that my son made and a tuna sandwich. He also managed to steal a bite of my son’s roast chicken, a banana out of the fruit bowl and part of my nectarine….happy Lenny!

In all the gloom of the last few weeks, I did have a nice day last weekend….I went to the garden centre to spend my Christmas money. I bought a crab apple tree that has bright red fruit on it, lavender plants, peonies, plants for hanging baskets, geraniums….all sorts! Then I came home and started planting them, so I have been glad of the rain this week to get them all soaked in.

Today’s writing companion is Gwen, the bog-snorkelling retriever. She is trying to tempt me to cuddle her instead of concentrating on writing to you….

Right, I will finally get this off to you. I hope you are all okay and I will try to be a bit more communicative now!

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Hi,

It was lovely to see everyone who made it to the meeting last week and my prayers are with those that didn’t manage to join us…I hope you are all okay!

I’m cuddled up under a pile of cats….Archie, Amy and the Scabby Tabby (poor cat, she’s so pretty, I should call her Chloe, her proper name!) and I’m listening to the wind rattle through the windows and round the house.

It was SO cold last night, down to 1*c. For the first time this year, when I went out, I had layers of warm on and the fire in the kitchen hasn’t been allowed to go out for weeks.

All the swallows left weeks ago and now we have the winter visitors arriving…the Canada geese….no, not the posh coats but an actual goose!On walks we are seeing the skeins of geese, flying in a ‘v’ formation….they are noisy flyers, chattering and honking to each other all the time. They land in our field in flocks and chat to each other.

Some of them stay on in the spring and nest in up the hills not far from us. There is a beautiful walk that I sometimes do, through a path in the forestry and out onto the hills. The fields up there are rough moorland grass. There are ruined cottages from the eighteenth century next to a pond. It’s really remote. The geese nest there and in the spring the geese and their baby goslings swim on the pond.

The good news from last week…Lenny is okay! He has a stomach of steel, that staffy. He’s been bouncing round the house, playing, today. In fact, he and my son have just come rushing into the kitchen. Lenny goes into overdrive when anyone says the word W. A. L. K. and my son has just said it. Maybe he won’t be quite as happy about it when he sees the weather.

*

Kebra Negast

40. How ZADOK the priest gave commands to DAVID the King And ZADOK the priest answered and said unto the young man, “Hearken unto what I shall say unto thee. And if thou wilt perform it thou shalt live to God, and if thou dost not God will punish thee, and thou shalt become the least of all the nations, and thou shalt be vanquished by thy foes. And God shall turn away His face from thee, and thou shalt be dismayed, and sad, and sorrowful in thy heart, and thy sleep shall be without refreshing and health. And hearken unto the word of God, and perform it, and withdraw not thyself either to the right hand or the left, in respect of that which we command thee this day; and thou shalt serve no other god. And if thou wilt not hear the word of God, then hearken to all the curses here mentioned which shall come upon thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the field, cursed shalt thou be in the city. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy land, cursed shall be the fruit of thy belly, and the herds of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep. And God shall send upon thee famine and pestilence, and He shall destroy that whereto thou hast put thine hand, until at length He shall destroy thee, because thou hast not hearkened to His word. And the heavens which are above thee shall become brass, and the earth which is beneath thee shall become iron; and God shall make the rain [which should fall upon] thy land to be darkness only, and dust shall descend from heaven upon thee until it shall cover thee up and destroy thee. And thou shalt be smitten in battle before thine enemies. Thou shalt go forth to attack them by one road, and by seven ways shalt thou take to flight before their faces, and thou shalt be routed; and thy dead body shall become food for the fowl of the heavens, and there shall be none to bury thee. And God shall punish thee with sores (or, leprosy), and with the wasting disease, and with the fever that destroyeth, and with the punishments (i.e., plagues) of EGYPT, and with blindness and terror of heart; and thou shalt grope about by day like a blind man in the darkness, and thou shalt find none to help thee in [thy] trouble. Thou shalt marry a wife, and another man shall carry her away from thee by force. Thou shalt build a house, and shalt not dwell therein. And thou shalt plant a vineyard and shalt not harvest the grapes thereof. Men shall slay thy fat oxen before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat of their flesh. Men shall snatch away thine ass, and shall not bring him back to thee. Thy sheep shall run to the slaves and to thine enemy, and thou shalt find none to help thee. And thy sons and thy daughters shall follow other people, and thou shalt see with thine own eyes how they are smitten, and shalt be able to do nothing. An enemy whom thou knowest not shall devour the food of thy land and thy labour, and thou shalt not be able to prevent him; and thou shalt become a man of suffering and calamity. When the day dawneth thou shalt say, ‘Would that the evening had come!’ and when the evening cometh thou shalt say, ‘Would that the morning had come!’ through the greatness of thy fear.-[All these things shall come upon thee] if thou wilt not hearken to the word of the Lord. But if thou wilt truly hearken unto the word of the Lord-hear thou-the goodness of God shall find thee, and thou shalt rule the countries of the enemy, and thou shalt inherit everlasting glory from the Lord God of ISRAEL, Who ruleth everything. For He honoureth him that honoureth Him, and He loveth him that loveth Him, for He is the Lord of death and of life, and He directeth and ruleth all the world with His wisdom, and His power, and His [mighty] arm.”

*

Reasoning

Command. Isaiah 48 v15, 17
15 I, even I , have spoken: yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.17 Thus saith the LORD,
Emperor Haile Selassie I, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

Will. Proverbs 8 v14, 17-18
14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. 17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.18 Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.

Desire 1 Chronicles 16 v11, 13, 17
11 Seek the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, and his strength, seek his
face continually. 13 O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 17 And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law,
and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.

Wish. Mark 11 v22, 24
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

*

Proverbs

I thought I would look at Proverbs 8, like in the Reasoning this week. Written by King Solomon, again like the Proverbs chapters we looked at a few weeks ago, it is advice to his son. It’s a long chapter, so I thought I would put the 1st half this week and finish it off next week. By the way, I would like you to notice that this is what is described as a poem to wisdom….and wisdom is referred to as female….of course! 😊

Wisdom’s Call

Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
² At the highest point along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
³ beside the gate leading into the city,
at the entrance, she cries aloud:
⁴ “To you, O people, I call out;
I raise my voice to all mankind.
⁵ You who are simple, gain prudence;
you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.^[a]
6 Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;
I open my lips to speak what is right.
⁷ My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.
⁹ To the discerning all of them are right;
they are upright to those who have found knowledge.
¹⁰ Choose my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
¹¹ for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.¹² “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;
I possess knowledge and discretion.
¹³ To fear the Lord is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech.
¹⁴ Counsel and sound judgment are mine;
I have insight, I have power.
¹⁵ By me kings reign
and rulers issue decrees that are just;
¹⁶ by me princes govern,
and nobles—all who rule on earth.^[b]
17 I love those who love me,
and those who seek me find me.
¹⁸ With me are riches and honor,
enduring wealth and prosperity.
¹⁹ My fruit is better than fine gold;
what I yield surpasses choice silver.
²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,
²¹ bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me
and making their treasuries full.²²

In this, wisdom says: I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice It’s what I keep on trying to do, myself. I would like to think that you all do too!

*

Nyahbinghi Chant

UNIVERSAL TRIBULATION

Universal Tribulation is upon mankind
There is only one conclusion we can find
Come together Brothers and Sisters
Time is drawing nigh
Hear the voice of Ithiopia – everyone

This is our liberation, let us all unite
Ithiopian Sons and Daughters
Wins the fight

There’s no power that can stop InI
While InI do the right
They say Jesus I say JAH JAH
True birthright

Hail our Emperor Haile Selassie I
Hail JAH the King of time
I must live in Zion City
Joy bells chime

Enemies of Ithiopia
Must go down in one
There will never be another
Mystery Babylon

*

The wisdom of Marcus Garvey. From an article in the Charleston Chronicle

Mr. Garvey always said, without fear, that “God almighty created each and every one of us for a place in the world.”‘ He also related, “If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race for life. With confidence you have won even before you started.” This concept of inner confidence has always been a part of my personal understanding of believing in one’s self in order to achieve or accomplish anything worth attainable in life. I’m honored to say that in over fifty years of study this proud son of Jamaica, I’ve gained tremendous intuition into who I am and also about the battles I, and others of my culture, have to face daily in the quest for freedom and liberation.

*

The Wise Words of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie l

What life has taught me on the question of racial discrimination, I like to share with those who want to learn.

That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and
permanently discredited and abandoned.
That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation;
That until the colour of a man’s skin is no more significance than the colour of his eyes:
That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race;
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of
international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained;
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique
and in South Africa in sub-human bondage have been toppled and destroyed;
Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self interest have been replaced by
understanding and tolerance and goodwill;
Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of the Almighty;
Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if
necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over
evil.
It will be self deceiving and a waste of time to advocate dialogue with those who are not
ready to listen, because it is obvious that the freedom of millions is not a commodity subject
to bargaining.

*

Prayer

In the name of His Imperial Majesty, Holy Emanuel l, King Selassie l. I and I give thanks for this blessed day. May all the land be touched by your presence beauty and power. Keep I and I protected from Babylon tricks and adversity. Give I and I strength to survive another Day in Babylon. Bless I and I that I may maintain a positive loving caring and sharing spirit as I serve you Jah on this day. Keep Satan and his workers out of I and I path as I trod the earth today. In the name of King Selassie I, Holy Emanuel I. Rastafari.”

*

A few days ago, my son & I were driving home and on the road just below our house I saw something I haven’t seen around there before. One of my favourite animals….a hare. I don’t know if any of you have ever seen a hare before….they are majestic, tall, swift. They can cover ground incredibly fast and in the spring the males box each other for territory….honestly, they box! It’s very rare to see them box but I have been very lucky and seen it once, on the moorland behind my old house. It reminded me of the story of the Welsh saint, Saint Melangell, who is the patron saint of hares and I thought I would find the old Welsh story about her. I decided to be kind and print it in English, rather than Welsh, as you are all kind to me and slow down so I can understand (most!!) of your Jamaican! 😊. Here you go…..

Saint Melangell was a Welsh saint of Irish descent who came to Wales to escape from forced marriage arranged by her father who was an Irish King.  Unhappy at the prospect of an arranged marriage to a man she did not love she left Ireland to become a hermitess in the wilds of  Powys, Wales.

Saint Melangell and the Hare

Saint Melangell is the patron saint of hares and there is a remarkable legend that tells how this association was created.  According to the legend to escape marriage, she took a vow of celibacy and travelled across the Irish Sea to take refuge in a remote spot in Powys, Wales.  There she lived in isolation without seeing the face of any man for fifteen years.

The Prince of Powys goes hunting

It so happened that one day the Prince of Powys whose name was Brochwel Yscythrog was out hunting nearby to her hermitage and his dogs roused a hare and chased it forcing it to take refuge in a thicket. The prince thought his dogs had the hare at their mercy so when he caught up with them he had a surprise. The hounds all stood at bay around the hare that sat defiantly glaring at the dogs from the fold of the dress worn by a woman of great beauty who was in deep prayer. All around the dogs howled and bayed but they would not go near the hare that stared boldly at them from the shelter of the the folds of the woman’s dress. The Prince and his huntsmen urged his hounds to go in for the kill but they would not venture near the woman who continued praying fervently. Prince Brochwel Yscythrog ordered his chief huntsman to blow on his horn to encourage them to the kill but when he tried to blow the horn no sound was made and it stuck fast to his lips preventing him from opening them. The Prince then spoke to the woman who told him her history and that she was a hermitess who lived nearby and had dedicated herself to God. She told him how she had arrived and lived here and that she had vowed chastity and that his and his huntsmen were the first men she had seen in fifteen years. She had lived a life of hardship and dedication to God and her bed been the hard cleft of a nearby rock.

Shrine Church of St Melangell

Brochwel Yscythrog was so impressed by her story and what he had seen he gave her the land thereabout to live on and to be a sanctuary to any who fled there. The Prince asked her to found an abbey on the site which she did and became the abbess living there for many years and dying at a great age.

Her latin name is Monacella though it is rarely used and her feast day is May 27th and was established in the year 590. The legend of Melangell and the Hare can still be seen carved on a wooden screen that depict hares running to her for her protection. Because of her association with them she was made the patroness of hares which were sometimes called St. Monacella’s Lambs or Oen Melangell. Today the saint is still remembered at the beautiful and peaceful shrine church of St. Melangell.

*

Its one of the places I would love to visit. It’s not far from Berwyn at all, up in the hills. I wonder if there are still many hares around there.

*

This week I’ve….I can’t believe I’m going to admit this to you lot! This week I’ve managed to accidentally dye myself bright blue. Not my hair….all of me. Think avatar without the glamour & the cooool tail….no, actually, think smurf! Yes, smurf blue!

I bought a new navy jumper, online. I opened the parcel and tried the jumper on and it was really cosy so I kept it on til bedtime. We are still camping in the spare room while our bedroom is being decorated….so, all of my bedroom stuff….in with all of the actual spare room stuff….and the Christmas shopping started. The main light bulb has gone and it’s such a mess that we are only using one useless bedside light to be able to see.

In the morning it was cold so when I got up I put that nice cosy navy blue jumper on and went to get on with my studying. Pete got up later than me and when he made the bed it was blue! Completely blue….just on my side, one edge of the 2 pillowcases and the top of the sheet. Really bright blue!

A couple of weeks ago there were beautiful soft cat beds in Aldi so I bought my spoilt cats a lovely blue velvet one and put it on my bed during the day. I thought the blue must be that. It seemed the only explanation…until I rolled my sleeves up and my arms were completely blue! Investigation proved that I was navy blue all over, from neck of jumper, down my arms to where jumper met jeans…..yes, completely smurf all over.

Since then I have had 3 long scrubby sort of showers and I’m now only vaguely smurf in a fairly good light….and my family have mostly stopped laughing at me, unless a strong ray of light hits me and they notice all over again my blue skin. As I keep on telling you, my life is just so glamorous!

So, if you notice a faint blue colour to me, please be kind and pretend you can’t!

Blessings, Elizabeth

Hi,

I hope you are all well and managing.

The Welsh lockdown does seem to be showing signs of having worked, the cases do seem to be reducing so I’m really hoping that this will continue and it will be considered safe to start up our group again.

It’s been a scrabbly sort of week, trying to get everything done in time…I had lots of reading and preparation for my course tutorial. I have an extra seminar this week, to discuss our essay plans. I keep on asking myself what on earth I was thinking, signing up for this course….I can’t write an essay! I don’t know if I have enough of the right sort of words in my head!

The biggest problem this week has been that the whole family has been glued, almost 24/7, to the television, watching the presidential elections. We never watch television usually but all of us have been obsessively running 3 different news channels, refreshing news websites, comparing count projections. We’ve all been meeting in the kitchen for moments of despair and hope, predictions and announcements and staying up all night, fuelled on rubbish food and popcorn. It was quite a relief, when the results were announced, to go back to normal sleep patterns, usual diet, to switch off the television, step away from the news websites and let normal life resume.

I’m trying to write this while Anya is doing ‘loopy-laps’ of the living room….she’s got the puppy zoomies. That dog has SO much energy! She is Pete’s dog. It’s quite funny, Pete didn’t grow up with pets at all….then he met me!

I was given my first pet of my very own, a cat called Brithig, by my mum and dad for my 21st birthday present. Pete swore he was not going to have anything to do with her, that he hated cats, they were a waste of space….but as time went on, Pete would sit down for his morning cup of tea, and it wouldn’t be discussed but Brithig would join him and she would sit with him, purring. It was also noticeable that Brithig had a lot of new toys, that I hadn’t bought her, and there was only Pete and me living in the house….no good explanation for that one!! 😊

One cat turned into many cats, and Pete didn’t seem too worried. All sorts of outside animals happened and again, he didn’t seem too bothered. Then I went out for the day and accidentally chose myself a sausage dog puppy….sooooo cute….

Nope, he didn’t want a dog. Dogs were a pain and a waste of space…..so we got a dog. He swore he was going to have nothing to do with her….except when he took her out to chose new toys and a new bed, insisted she came on holiday with us…..but he didn’t like her AT ALL!

Four dogs later…one for each of us except Pete who had been mostly working away from home, Pete left his job and decided to start up his own company working from home. The children, my friend and I had been teasing him that once he was working from home, he needed to get himself a puppy, never believing that he actually would. We were out for the day when he saw an elegant, golden-red dog with amber eyes and said, if I get a dog, it’s going to be one of those…he researched it and discovered they were Hungarian Vizslas, and then, completely surprised us all by actually buying himself one….Anya!

She is an absolute muppet!

Pete has worked very hard on training her and it’s true she is the best of our dogs at recall (Dilys is so bad she even turns around and runs away), she sits when she’s told, she does a beautiful’walk to heel’…BUT…if she’s left to her own devices she does BAD things! She eats socks and anything left out on the kitchen surfaces, she makes cushions explode into tiny pieces, she greets visitors with her front paws out, standing on her back legs and insists on cleaning their ears (not popular) and every evening she plays a long game of ‘the floor is lava’ and makes the living room fall to pieces. But Pete loves her very much!

Pete thinks she can’t do any wrong, that she’s mostly not naughty…just ‘misunderstood’. And he spoils her so much!

He decided that the poor little puppy needed a nice warm coat for the winter (never mind the fact that if we put her on a treadmill she could generate enough power to light up the whole of Berwyn) but he couldn’t decide which coat to buy her….so she now owns SIX. He claims they all have ‘different purposes’….warm coats, waterproof coats, smart ‘going to town’ coats, all in an array of colours and shapes. Seriously, she lives in Wales, she just needs what all our other dogs have…one waterproof for the worst of the Welsh weather. Spoiled!!

The one he likes her in is a fleece. It’s orange. Erm….we all think it makes her look like a traffic cone…..

Oh well, at least he can’t complain when all the rest of the dogs do anything wrong now!

Kebra Negast

38. How the King planned to send away his son with the children of the nobles And then SOLOMON the King went back into his house, and he caused to be gathered together his councillors, and his officers, and the elders of his kingdom, and he said unto them, “I am not able to make this young man consent [to dwell here]. And now, hearken ye unto me and to what I shall say unto you. Come, let us make him king of the country of ETHIOPIA, together with your children; ye sit on my right hand and on my left hand, and in like manner the eldest of your children shall sit on his right hand and on his left hand. Come, O ye councillors and officers, let us give [him] your firstborn children, and we shall have two kingdoms; I will rule here with you, and our children shall reign there. And I put my trust in God that a third time He will give me seed, and that a third king will be to me. Now BALṬÂSÔR, the King of RÔM, wisheth that I would give my son to his daughter, and to make him with his daughter king over the whole country of RÔM. For besides her he hath no other child, and he hath sworn that he will only make king a man who is of the seed of DAVID my father. And if we rule there we shall be three kings. And REHOBOAM shall reign here over ISRAEL. For thus saith the prophecy of DAVID my father: ‘The seed of SOLOMON shall become three heads of kingdoms upon the earth.’ And we will send unto them priests, and we will ordain laws for them, and they shall worship and serve the God of ISRAEL under the three royal heads. And God shall be praised by the race of His people ISRAEL, and be exalted in all the earth, even as my father wrote in his Book, saying, ‘Tell the nations that God is king’;¹ and again he said, ‘Announce to the peoples His work, praise Him and sing ye unto Him’; and again he saith, ‘Praise God with a new song. His praise is in the congregation of the righteous, ISRAEL shall rejoice in his Creator.’² Unto us belongeth the glory of sovereignty and we will praise our Creator. And the nations who serve idols shall look upon us, and they shall fear us, and make us kings over them, and they shall praise God and fear Him. And now, come ye, let us make this young man king, and let us send him away with your children, ye who possess wealth and position. According to the position and wealth that ye have here shall your children [rule] there. And they shall see the ordering of royalty, and we will establish them according to our law, and we will direct them and give them commands and send them away to reign there.”

And the priests, and the officers, and the councillors answered and said unto him, “Do thou send thy firstborn, and we will send our children also according to thy wish. Who can resist the commandment of God and the king? They are the servants of thee and of thy seed as thou hast proclaimed. If thou wishest, thou canst sell them and their mothers to be slaves; it is not for us to transgress thy command and the command of the Lord thy God.” And then they made ready to do for them (i.e., their children) what it was right to do, and to send them into the country of ETHIOPIA, so that they might reign there and dwell there for ever, they and their seed from generation to generation.

*

Reasoning

Command:

Deuteronomy 6 v4-7
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, Emperor Haile Selassie I,
is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Will:

Psalm 18 v28, 30
28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God, Emperor Haile Selassie I, will enlighten my darkness.
30 As for God, his way is perfect: the world of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.

Desire

Mark 9 v42
42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone where hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

Wish:

Joshua 24 v15
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, Emperor Haile
Selassie I, choose you this day whom ye shall serve; whether the gods
which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or
the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my
house, we serve the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I.

*

Wise Words of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie l

Knowing that material and spiritual progress are essential to man, we must
ceaselessly work for the equal attainment of both. Only then shall we be able
to acquire that absolute inner calm so necessary to our well-being.

It is only when a people strike an even balance between scientific progress and
spiritual and moral advancement that it can be said to possess a wholly perfect
and complete personality and not a lopsided one. The type of progress we
have chalked out for Ethiopia is based on these fundamental principles.

*

Psalm 104

This is an incredibly beautiful psalm which people who know these things think was written by King David. It is a celebration of God’s Creation that was described in Genesis and is supposed to have been one of Bob Marley’s favourite psalms! Orthodox churches use this psalm at the start of Vespers, the evening prayer service. I thought it would be a good psalm for you to read at night, to remind you of God’s majesty and his amazing works….

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul.Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

² The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
³ and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He makes winds his messengers,^[a]
flames of fire his servants.

⁵ He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
⁶ You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
⁸ they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
⁹ You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰ He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
¹¹ They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
¹³ He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
¹⁴ He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
¹⁵ wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the junipers.
¹⁸ The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

¹⁹ He made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
²⁰ You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
²¹ The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
²² The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.
²³ Then people go out to their work,
to their labor until evening.

²⁴ How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
²⁶ There the ships go to and fro,
and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

²⁷ All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
²⁸ When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
³⁰ When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
³² he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³ I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
³⁵ But may sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more.Praise the Lord, my soul.Praise the Lord.^[b]

*

*

Prayer

This time I’ve put in a very old prayer, it’s been prayed for nearly a thousand years. It’s called the Sarum prayer and it was written in 1100. I have been praying this prayer this week and I thought at the beginning that the change that you would make was to put in ‘overstanding’ but now I’m not so sure. I’ve been thinking about the idea of that first line: ‘God be in my head and in my understanding’. To start off, I thought it was about thinking and knowledge and ‘brain stuff’. This week I have thought this and prayed this many many times and I’ve come to a different conclusion….

I think that ‘understanding’ is one of the best sorts of love. If you are feeling unhappy or happy or sad or grumpy or….or any other emotion, someone can acknowledge how you feel with their brain, they can ‘know’ it but someone who loves you will understand it.

My eldest daughter, the one that is not very well, is busy getting ready for another operation as I write this. She was only warned of it two days ago, even though she’s been waiting for it for a year. We’ve had to rush to get everything ready for it and she knows that it’s going to be pretty horrific, they’ve warned her. She also can’t have any anaesthetic because it shuts her system down, so she’s got to do this without. So she’s backwards and forwards as I write, getting her hospital bag ready. We’ve got to set off in 22 minutes….she’s nervous. She’s mainly being very brave about it but every so often, just for a minute she keeps on losing her temper or getting panicky. It would be very easy for her brother, sister or me to react to this, but we don’t because we understand. We love her and we understand.

I would say that instead of ‘overstanding’, this is ‘innerstanding’. I think the very best we can do for the people that cross our lives is to give them some ‘innerstanding’.

*

So, obviously, with 15 minutes left now til we have to leave I better get ready fast! I haven’t managed to ask Alan whether the group is on tomorrow but I do know that I won’t be there. I will need to stay with my daughter just to make sure that this operation doesn’t do anything nasty to her system, to sort out IV fluids and painkillers and just to keep her comfortable. I’m sorry not to manage to be with you all and I hope it goes well…if you can go to the group.

Right, deadline almost there! I must go….but my prayers are with you, as always.

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Hi,

It’s Christmas week.

Hi,

Wow, it’s been cold this week. I hope you have all coped with it…I know some of you really hate the cold. We’ve had about a foot of snow in all, which the dogs have loved playing in but was not the best week to take the radiators off in some of the rooms so we could get work done!

Lenny, Anya, Carrie and Gwen all have had a lovely time playing in the fields. They have been running, rolling, bouncing, dashing…but Dilys, my sausage dog, decided that it was waaay too rough to play with them so she stayed in the garden and played short dog snow games with the 2 ginger cats.

This week’s statistics have been tough…there have now been over 100,000 people died with COVID-19 in the UK since the pandemic arrived here. There have been scary comparisons to make it seem more real….enough people to fill 2 premier league football grounds; every person in a city the size of Durham; the whole number of people who go to Reading Festival (on a normal year…obviously not this year). Numbers with so many noughts on the end are really difficult to get into your head, these comparisons make it horribly real. I really hope that none of your lives have been badly touched by this virus. I am afraid that with statistics like this many of us will soon have our lives affected. So far I have been really blessed. I have known many people who have gone down with this. Some have been really poorly but all of them have recovered. I pray you are all safe and that your families and friends are safe.

This is usually the bit where I witter on about the weather, the garden, my lots of various pets or I worry about the hay crop for this year (if you didn’t see last year’s newsletters you’ve got all the hay time drama to come…I become obsessed!) and these letters are supposed to distract you from a bad situation, but I am aware that some of you may be having a really difficult time, with mental and physical health, news or worrying about home. I know there isn’t a lot I can do, other than keep on writing to you and praying for you (which I do always!) but if there is something specific to pray for, let me know through chaplaincy and I am sure they will let me know.

Right, enough seriousness…you didn’t read this to be reminded of the bad stuff going on. So, more of the…

Kebra Negast

48. How they carried away ZION And behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared again to AZÂRYÂS and he stood up above him like a pillar of fire, and he filled the house with his light. And he raised up AZÂRYÂS and said unto him, “Stand up, be strong, and rouse up thy brother ÊLMĔYÂS, and ’ABĔSÂ, and MÂKARÎ, and take the pieces of wood and I will open for thee the doors of the sanctuary. And take thou the Tabernacle of the Law of God, and thou shalt carry it without trouble and discomfort. And I, inasmuch as I have been commanded by God to be with it for ever, will be thy guide when thou shalt carry it away.”

And AZÂRYÂS rose up straightway, and woke up the three men his brethren, and they took the pieces of wood, and went into the house of God-now they found all the doors open, both those that were outside and those that were inside-to the actual place where AZÂRYÂS found ZION, the Tabernacle of the Law of God; and it was taken away by them forthwith, in the twinkling of an eye, the Angel of the Lord being present and directing. And had it not been that God willed it ZION could not have been taken away forthwith. And the four of them carried ZION away, and they brought it into the house of AZÂRYÂS, and they went back into the house of God, and they set the pieces of wood on the place where ZION had been, and they covered them over with the covering of ZION, and they shut the doors, and went back to their houses. And they took lamps and set them in the place where [ZION] was hidden, and they sacrificed the sheep thereto, and burned offerings of incense thereto, and they spread purple cloths over it and set it in a secret place for seven days and seven nights.

*

Reasoning

Command

Deuteronomy 7 v6-7
6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, Emperor Haile Selassie I: the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people
that are upon the face of the earth.
7 The LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people;

Will

Psalm 50 v5, 14
5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
14 Offer unto God, Emperor Haile Selassie I, thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

Desire

Mark 13 v20
20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

Wish

Jeremiah 51 v9-10
9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10 The LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, hath brought forth our
righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD,
Emperor Haile Selassie I, our God.

*

I know, the same as last week, another poem by Marcus Garvey. It isn’t that I’m stuck for something to put in here (believe me, I could bore you almost to tears with more stuff about stars and meteors and on and on and…!) His poetry is often so simple, very few words but big ideas….

Your Duty To-day (Marcus Garvey)

Believe in God

Lift yourself

Lift your family

Lift your clan

Lift your race

Lift your country

Lift your nation

And be

An imperial whole.

*

It is 81 years this month since the speech by His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie to the people of Ethiopia encouraging them to overthrow the occupying Italian army……

ON LIBERATION: “THE GOLDEN DECLARATION”

Our people of Ethiopia! Listen!

Thanks be to Almighty God who is impartial to all. Who can break the arms of the strong and who stands by the oppressed.

When Our long-time enemy, Italy, crossed Our border and occupied Our country by aggressive force, we fought to defend Our country as much as we could and then went to Europe to solicit help while you, patriots of Ethiopia, continued the struggle and waited for us fighting day and night in the forests and mountains against the militarily superior brutal enemy, in taking advantage of your natural heroism as your greatest weapon, never putting aside your swords, abandoning your flag or surrendering to alien rule.

As you now see, your five-year struggle has made it possible for you to witness the fruits of your efforts and sacrifices.

We have told you before that we have brought for you with us, the aid of Great Britain which promised us to completely dispel Our enemy from Our country and restore Our independence. Our happiness is boundless when we announce to you that we have returned to Our beloved country, with God’s will, and to be present amidst Our people whom We have been missing for some time.

Our people of Ethiopia

You know how grim life is to people robbed of their government, independence and their motherland. The time has now come when each and everyone of us should protect and serve Our beloved country, Ethiopia, with more zeal and vigour.

The Almighty God has been merciful to all of us. Therefore, we have given mercy to those of you who, willingly or unwillingly, betrayed your country and your Emperor while here or abroad, and we urge you, wherever you may be, to raise your arms against the enemy who has come, determined to destroy your race, confiscate your property and spoil your name. Now you must throw him out of Ethiopia.

Italy is now in great despair, pressured by Great Britain’s air, sea and land forces and those Italian soldiers remaining in Our country will not be beyond the challenge of Our reliable patriotic forces.

We express Our gratitude to the government and people of Great Britain, for all the world to hear, on behalf of you and Ourselves, for the warm, generous and cordial reception and welcome they accorded us during Our most trying period.

Long live independent Ethiopia! Long live Great Britain!

Jan. 22, 1940.

*

This week, before the snow, we had rain….Oh! My! Goodness! did we have rain!! I’ve never seen floods like it here. One house not far from us, tucked into the hillside, had a stream which came in at the back of the house and flowed through the house, out of the front door and carried on downhill.

You know how I’ve said in the past, that bad things only happen when my phone isn’t charged or there isn’t any fuel in the car and I need to get out or there is awful weather…well, it took til the worst floods I can remember in this area for my poor old cat Archie to get poorly.

Archie is my big grey teddy bear of a cat. He is 13 years old. I like to refer to him as middle-aged but really…if he was a human he would be…oh, I’ve just worked it out (well, Pete did for me. I’m not very good at mathing) ..he would be 91! That’s definitely late middle-aged. But he’s the best cat ever. He’s mine and he’s cuddly and he cheers me up when I’m sad. He’s always looked really good, not old at all. My family say it’s cos he’s really lazy, all he likes to do is cuddle up and go to sleep. They say it’s because he’s never done stuff that a real cat should, like catching mice, so he’s never worn himself out.

So as the floods hit and all the roads around me closed I had to set off driving, with my son holding the cat in his carrier, to get to the vets. We had fog and floods and torrents…it took me an hour to do a half hour drive, so many roads were closed, to get him there. Why am I telling you all of this, when I’m supposed to be just giving you this week’s Bible verses? Well, because as I was driving I thought of these verses and Gods promise that “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you”. And I thought of flood waters and that I was really worried about Archie and of the lockdown. And I remembered in these verses too, God’s promise “Do not be afraid, for I am with you”…

Isaiah 43:1-13

43 But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush^[a] and Seba in your stead.
⁴ Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
⁵ Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
⁶ I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
⁷ everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

⁸ Lead out those who have eyes but are blind,
who have ears but are deaf.
⁹ All the nations gather together
and the peoples assemble.
Which of their gods foretold this
and proclaimed to us the former things?
Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right,
so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”
¹⁰ “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
¹¹ I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
¹² I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—
I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
¹³ Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?”

*

Here is the next chapter of the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, from the Apocrypha, taken from the ‘Earth, Culture, Roots‘ Rastafari website….

[Chapter 2]

1 Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they do not change their orbits, and the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and 2 transgress not against their appointed order. Behold ye the earth, and give heed to the things which take place upon it from first to last, how steadfast they are, how none of the things upon earth 3 change, but all the works of God appear to you. Behold the summer and the winter, how the whole earth is filled with water, and clouds and dew and rain lie upon it.

*

Prayer

It is a while since I printed this for you, from the H.I.M. church website…

RASTALOGICAL PRAYER TO
HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I

Yanna (Our) Abbat (Father) Fatari (Creator) who art in
Zion Axum (Heaven) Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I is thy name.

Thy Kingdom come,
thy ‘Will’ be done on earth as it is in Zion Axum (Heaven).

Give us, your children, our daily bread and forgive us our
errors because of the feebleness of our heart.

Deliver us from the Adversary of the day,
and bless our hands and the things that we do.

Grant us long life, good health and strength,
to live and fulfill thy ‘Holy Will’.

For thine is the earth, power and glory forever and ever.
Amen. Amen. Amen.

21st Century prayer to Emperor Haile Selassie I
proclaiming His Kingdom now on earth.

Blessed be Jah-Rastafari-Haile Selassie I
The Living God! Amen!

*

Last week we watched Joe Biden become the 46th US president. My eldest daughter was glued to it and discovered that there had been a playlist made between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, of 46 tracks to represent the going out of the last president and the inauguration of the new. One of the tracks chosen was by Chronixx and I found this very short clip about it in the online newspaper Jamaicans. Com….

Chronixx Featured On Biden-Harris Inauguration Playlist.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Inauguration Day, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris unveiled a 46-song playlist in honor of their administration’s upcoming arrival in the White House.

Rolling in at #18 is “Eternal Light,” the song sung by Chronixx and backed by the Free Nationals band. Chronixx and Bob Marley & The Wailers shine as the only Jamaican artists featured on this curated selection by DJ D-Nice and Issa Rae’s music company Raedio.

*

Archie, my big grey cat, is feeling a bit better. He’s been given painkillers which have made him a lot more comfortable. It looks like he’s got a big ulcer at the back of his tongue. It’s obviously painful so he hasn’t wanted to eat or drink or wash himself, which is why he looked so tatty and had lost so much weight. I’ve bought him some posh cat food which is easy to eat and tastes really nice (apparently…I didn’t try it! It smells revolting) and he’s really enjoying that. Hopefully in another week’s time he will start looking better.

There are signs of spring here. The snowdrops have come up by the stream…

I can see the shoots of the crocuses and daffodils emerging and the evenings are getting longer. We’ve just had January’s full moon which is known in the old calendars as the Wolf Moon, because traditionally this was the time of year that wolves howled on the edge of villages. We don’t have wolves round here, although they have re-introduced them into Scotland, but the foxes have been coming closer up to the house and making a real racket! The other night, at about 4am, I think one had caught a rabbit and the noise was awful! It woke us all up. It only stopped when my son opened the window and shouted at it.

There’s still plenty of winter mud around, especially after all that rain, and Lenny is back from his walk with my son looking like he’s been to a spa and put on a whole-body mud pack. Hmmm, my son doesn’t look too clean either. I think I’m going to need to end where I usually do….off to bath the Len!

Take care, all of you!

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Hi,

It feels a very long time since I’ve been in to Berwyn, to be able to meet with you all and check that you are all okay. The new case numbers are beginning to fall although the death rate is the worst it has been in North Wales….I’m hoping though that we are slowly creeping towards it being safer to meet. There is talk of schools unlocking by February half term. I honestly can’t see that being a good idea, but we will see. I hope you are all coping with the difficult conditions you are living with still.

The snow from last week has taken a long time to clear. Tiger and Netty, the two ponies, and George the horse, are sick of the snow and ice. They’ve had to stay in the stable at night because the yard has been frozen over. The ponies are okay with that…a night in a cosy stable, with a deep bed of shavings and a hay net of their own. George hates it so all through the night we can hear thump! Thump! Crash! as George throws himself around the stable and kicks the door, so we know he is cross. If there is deep enough snow and the yard isn’t slippy they are allowed out in the day but last week we had one day where the yard was just sheet ice the whole day so they had a whole 38 hours straight in their stable. George was so livid he managed to push a hole in the stable wall with his bottom by body-slamming himself backwards into the stable wall until it gave way. This is George…

We call him Uncle George because he is really good at leading young horses out for their first hack or fun ride. Even though he’s huge, he is reliable and steady enough to take disabled riders and young riders…he’s just great and he’s got the BEST set of ears, almost like donkey ears, even if he does body-slam stables into splinters!

Kebra Negast

49. How his Father blessed his Son

And then the King of ETHIOPIA rose up to depart to his country, and he came to his father that he might pray on his behalf, and he said unto him, “Bless me, father”; and he made obeisance unto him. And the King raised him up, and blessed him, and embraced his head, and said, “Blessed be the Lord my God Who blessed my father DAVID, and Who blessed our father ABRAHAM. May He be with thee always, and bless thy seed even as He blessed JACOB, and made his seed to be as many as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. And as ABRAHAM blessed ISAAC my father even so shall thy blessing be-the dew of heaven and the spaciousness of the earth-and may all animals and all the birds of the heavens, and all the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, be in subjection unto thee. Be thou full, and not lacking in fullness; be thou perfect, and not lacking in perfection; be gracious, and not obstinate; be in good health, and not suffering; be generous, and not vindictive; be pure, and not defiled; be righteous, and not a sinner; be merciful, and not oppressive; be sincere, and not perverse; be long-suffering, and not prone to wrath. And the enemy shall be afraid of thee, and thine adversaries shall cast themselves under the sole of thy foot. And my Lady ZION, the holy and heavenly, the Tabernacle of the Law of God, shall be a guide unto thee at all times, a guide in respect of what thou shouldst think in thy heart and shouldst do with thy fingers, whether it be far or near to thee, whether it be low or high to thee, whether it be strong or weak to thee, whether it be outside or inside thee, whether it be to thee in the house or in the field, whether it be visible or invisible to thee, whether it be away from or near to thee, whether it be hidden from or revealed to thee, whether it be secret or published abroad to thee-unto thee our Lady ZION, the holy and heavenly, the pure Tabernacle of the Law of God, shall be a guide.” And DAVID was blessed, and he made obeisance, and departed.

*

Reasoning

Command

Deuteronomy 1 v11, 39
11 The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many
more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!
39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your
children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall
possess it.

Will

Proverbs 22 v6, 19
6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
19 That thy trust may be in the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.

Desire

Isaiah 42 v6, 12
6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.
12 Let them give glory unto the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, and
declare his praise in the islands.

Wish

Mark 10 v13, 16
13 And they brought young children to him, Emperor Haile Selassie I, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

It keeps coming back to this, week after week…the bible seems to be the best parenting manual we have!! Every week, without really realising it, the bible quotes I have put in have been about being a better parent. I know some of you are dads. I think it’s really interesting to think about putting these quotes into action with our own children.

*

Here is chapter 3, a short one this week, from the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, in the Apocrypha, taken from the ‘Earth, Culture, Roots‘ Rastafari website….

The Book of Enoch

[Chapter 3]

Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.

*

One of this week’s Reasoning readings is Isaiah 42. Last week we has Isaiah 43. Last week we had awful flooding with all that rain. This week we’ve had more floods….but this time in the house! It’s a good thing for you that I have all these disasters because otherwise, during this lockdown, my letters would be very short and very dull…you know “nothing has happened, I got up had breakfast, blah blah blah”. Luckily for the contents of these letters there is always a disaster to tell you about…the house is flooded, I’ve broken my arm, I’ve dyed myself blue by accident….it’s a good thing I’m clumsy, for you but not really for me! Anyway, I will tell you about the flood disaster later. For now, Isaiah 42…

Isaiah 42:1-13

The Servant of the Lord

42 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
² He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
³ A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
⁴ he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

⁵ This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
⁶ “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
⁷ to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

⁸ “I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
⁹ See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”

¹⁰ Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
¹¹ Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;
let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout from the mountaintops.
¹² Let them give glory to the Lord
and proclaim his praise in the islands.
¹³ The Lord will march out like a champion,
like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
with a shout he will raise the battle cry
and will triumph over his enemies.

*

I saw this ⬆️ a couple of weeks ago and I’ve thought about it ever since. This lockdown affects us all in so many different ways. I know you have to face some very harsh circumstances. For me, with a daughter in palliative care, we have not been out of the house, seen family and friends for such a long time. There are really odd things about now. I get my shopping delivered….you should see the gloves, masks, disinfectant, hand washing etc that goes into a shop arriving, it’s like some alien version of real life. It’s really scary too…my daughter wouldn’t stand a chance against this virus. I’ve noticed though, the difference in the way I think about the day affects the way I live the day. If I head into it thanking God for my blessings, like our group has taught me, then I live the day thankfully. I hope there are things that you are all able to be thankful for…..and I really look forward to when some normality returns and we can re-start the meetings!

*

This week it is the anniversary of Bob Marley’s birth (6th February 1945). I found this article in The Guardian. It was written this time last year, what would have been his 75th birthday, and talks of Bob Marley’s incredible legacy…

Bob Marley at 75: how a ghetto reggae star rebranded Jamaica

Seeing fans and family gather in Kingston to celebrate the late musician’s 75th birthday, music writer Vivien Goldman reflects on his indelible legacy

At 7am on 6 February, on what would have been Bob Marley’s 75th birthday, the abeng conch shell blows at his old home at uptown Kingston’s 56 Hope Road – now the Bob Marley museum – as it did in the days of the long-gone indigenous Taino tribe, and later as a call to slave uprisings on the plantation.

Today, the museum is the Jamaican capital’s hottest tourist ticket, drawing more than 60,000 visitors a year. But in the turbulent 1970s, when the downtown area was torn between superpower ideologies and their local paymasters, it was audacious of Marley to insert his ragtag “ghetto star” Rasta crew into Hope Road – also home to Jamaica’s prime minister – a process he described to me in the 1970s as “bringing the ghetto uptown”. He hoped to make a safe space for the gangs of youth who were controlled on their home turf by opposing political forces: it worked, at least until gunmen tried to kill him there in 1976. It worked again when he triumphantly returned later in the decade to build a studio.

Witnessing police politely dealing with the crowd gathered for the Marley 75 celebration offered a strange disconnect: back then, their presence outside the gates would have suggested a raid. These are different times, as evidenced by the MC who announces: “Big up to all the Airbnb-ers in Trench Town!” – the dangerous downtown “ghetto” of Marley’s teenage years. His message and mystique have mobilised a peaceful army of international followers, such as those holidaymakers venturing where few wealthy Kingstonians go.

The music at Hope Road shows how Marley helped lay the foundation for the island’s enduring music industry, as a new generation of voices such as Jesse Royal, Kelissa and Kim Nain perform alongside Bob’s original bred’ren including Bongo Herman, Marcia Griffiths and Toots of the Maytals. Alone with a guitar, Toots explains that “Bob Marley was my friend” and had liked 54-46 Was My Number, the 1960s gem that thrills the crowd.

The celebration features a strong focus on family. Rita Marley, Bob’s widow, puts in a regal appearance from her wheelchair during the daytime children’s event, as pupils from St Andrew prep school sing and dance to Redemption Song, while the night’s show was headlined by the Marley Brothers, Julian and Ky-Mani, and dynamically led by Damien Marley, who crowned the night with a deft mix of authority and playfulness.

Marley’s estate is one of music’s biggest earners: the event was supported and organised by the Bob Marley Foundation, with similar festivities taking place in London, Lagos, Los Angeles, Singapore, Paris, Hawaii and New Zealand. What has made Bob Marley’s music settle so bone-deep worldwide? Following Marley’s powerful template, there can be a tendency for artists to become didactic, plodding in their litany of social woes. That was never Marley’s way. He was proud of the chop of his rhythm guitar, but it was his skill at sugarcoating the toughest frontline communiques in sticky melodies that is arguably his creative essence.

As Marley once explained to me, he wanted to make his music so simple that a child could sing it. Babies famously respond to the directness of his music, and reggae’s heartbeat has been credited with healing properties: Marissa “Mar” Lelogeais, an American living with cerebral palsy and reduced vision, sang about how Marley’s music had freed her to accept her body on the song Embrace It.

Above all, Marley effected a triumphant cultural flip, one founded on political truth but also will and vision. At Hope Road, Brother Westie, a Nyabinghi (Rasta) priest clad in dramatic white robes, intones prayers in Amharic. When he invokes Igziabeher, a name for the Rasta deity Jah Rastafari, he demonstrates that change in action: when Marley was the age of the attentive, uniformed school children sat before Brother Westie, he never learned the history of his own island or people. The postwar Wailers generation came up with a British colonial education that taught them more about the Battle of Hastings in 1066 than pan-African history. Marley was a leader among Rasta artists who painstakingly researched and pieced together their concealed past and communicated it in music so effectively that it became the new orthodoxy – certainly where the island’s official cultural representation is concerned. Once reviled as “dutty Rastas”, they have become crucial to the island’s brand.

Though the Marley machine has made efforts to defang the lion by focusing on his more feelgood crowdpleasers – the One Love effect – his commitment to the sufferer, and unflinching confrontation of unpalatable truths as he saw them, is ever more necessary: a cause for continued celebrations like these in Kingston.

*

Prayer

This week’s prayer is the Courage Prayer, taken from the H.I.M. Church website….

Rastalogical Prayer to His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I

I will praise thee, O LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, with my whole heart; I will show
forth all thy marvelous works.

I will be glad and rejoice in thee; I will sing praise to thy name, Emperor Haile 
Selassie I, O thou most High.

When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging 
right.

Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out 
their name for ever and ever.

O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end; and thou hast destroyed 
cities; their memorial is perished with them.

But the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, shall endure for ever; he hath prepared his 
throne for judgment.

And He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

The LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge 
in times of trouble.

And they that know thy name, Emperor Haile Selassie I, will put their trust in thee; 
for thou, LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, has not forsaken them that seek thee.

LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in 
thy holy hill?

He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his 
heart.

For from the rising of the Sun (Friday morning) even unto the going down of the same 
(Sunday evening), my name, Emperor Haile Selassie I, shall be great among the 
Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, Emperor Haile 
Selassie I, and a pure offering; for my name, Emperor Haile Selassie I, shall be great 
among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.

Blessed be JAH, Rastafari, Emperor Haile Selassie I Liveth!

*

So, this week’s disaster….the flooding! (This one is weird!!)

My daughter and I were curled up on the old armchair in the kitchen, with a cup of tea, watching YouTube…its what she and I sometimes do together in the evening. She loves reggae and we were listening to Chronixx (she loves Tenement Yard and Spanish Town Rockin’) and suddenly we heard water flowing and my sausage dog Dilys barking. My daughter just thought it was the tap left running and went through to the bathroom. She shouted for help…there was scalding hot water rushing out of the loft, down the walls, through the ceiling! Priorities!….get the cold water feed to the house switched down. Then investigate…. the hot water is not from under the hot water tank, so its not a problem with the tank. But it is absolutely pouring, and its scalding, so investigating is difficult….

It’s from a pipe that seems to be just cut off. It’s not a burst pipe, there’s no ‘other end’ that has got detached….and it’s coming through from next door?! Our house used to be one bigger house with next door but it was split into 2 houses years ago. So Pete headed over to next door and realised that when the houses were split, the two heating and hot water systems were split, but the plumber, instead of doing a proper job had just cut the pipe between the two and switched an isolator to off. Next door had some plumbing done that day, the plumber must have turned the isolator so that when the system was switched back on, it emptied into my house…right onto all my clean washing! The upside is that with all that very hot water on it, the floor is sparkling clean, but the loft insulation has had to go and I have a huge pile of soggy washing to re-wash.

Who would just cut the pipe between the two houses??? I would like to meet the wombat that did that!

Right, I have to get started on my college course reading, mixed in with changing the washing in the machine around…..only about 45 loads of washing left to go!

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Hi,

I hope you are all well and still coping with the lockdown. I have heard that the rates of the virus are still not good and I am praying that every one of you is still safe.

Two exciting things have happened today (lockdown exciting, not real life exciting, obviously!) Today my eldest daughter (who is marked as clinically extremely vulnerable) and I (as my daughter’s carer) had our first vaccines. This is the start of our world returning to normal, at last! We had to have the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine because the Pfizer vaccine is linked to problems with allergies and my daughter is allergic to all sorts of stuff but whichever one it is, I am so relieved to have had it.

The next exciting thing is….A SKIP! Yes, I know that isn’t most people’s idea of a good Friday’s entertainment, but it means that I can get the garden and the yard cleared, especially after all the building work. It just arrived about 20 minutes ago, the driver is just unloading it with my son excitedly supervising. He has plans to use our old farm truck with a trailer on the back to get everything rounded up and loaded in to the skip this afternoon…so that’s our day sorted!

Today it is Chinese New Year, the Year of the Ox, so we have Chinese food for tea that my middle daughter and I are going to cook. Her favourite food is duck pancakes, so we are having that and then vegetable stir fry with noodles for our main course…..we will all be needing it once we have finished loading the skip!

Kebra Negast

50. How they bade farewell to his Father and how the city mourned And they bade [the king] farewell and departed. And first of all they set ZION by night upon a wagon together with a mass of worthless stuff, and dirty clothes, and stores of every sort and kind. And [when] all the wagons were loaded, and the masters of the caravan rose up, and the horn was blown, and the city became excited, and the youths shouted loudly, awesomeness crowned it and grace surrounded it (i.e., ZION). And the old men wailed, and the children cried out, and the widows wept, and the virgins lamented, because the sons of their nobles, the mighty men of ISRAEL, had risen up to depart. But the city did not weep for them alone, but because the majesty of the city had been carried off with them. And although they did not know actually that ZION had been taken from them, they made no mistake in their hearts and they wept bitterly; and they were then even as they were when God slew the firstborn of EGYPT. There was not a house wherein there was not wailing, from man even to the beast; the dogs howled, and the asses screamed, and all those who were left there mingled their tears together. It was as though the generals of a mighty army had besieged the great city, and had captured it by assault, and looted it, and taken its people prisoners and slain them with the edge of the sword; even thus was that city of ZION-JERUSALEM.

And King SOLOMON was dismayed at the weeping and outcry of the city, and he looked out from the roof of the palace, the fort of the king’s house, and saw the whole city weeping and following them. And as a child, whom his mother hath removed from her breast and left, followeth in her footsteps crying out and weeping, even so did the people cry out and weep; and they cast dust upon their heads, and they shed tears with their eyes. And when SOLOMON saw the majesty of those who had departed, he was deeply moved and he trembled, and his bowels quaked, and his tears fell drop by drop upon his apparel, and he said, “Woe is me! for my glory hath departed, and the crown of my splendour hath fallen, and my belly is burned up because this my son hath departed, and the majesty of my city and the freemen, the children of my might, are removed. From this moment our glory hath passed away, and our kingdom hath been carried off unto a strange people who know not God, even as the prophet saith, ‘The people who have not sought Me have found Me.’¹ From this time forth the law, and wisdom, and understanding shall be given unto them. And my father prophesied concerning them, saying, ‘ETHIOPIA shall bow before Him, and His enemies shall eat the dust.’² And in another [place] he saith, ‘ETHIOPIA shall stretch out her hands to God, and He shall receive her with honour, and the kings of the earth shall praise God.’³ And in a third [place] he saith, ‘Behold, the PHILISTINES,⁴ and the Tyrians, and the people of ETHIOPIA, who were born without the Law. The Law shall be given unto them, and they shall say unto ZION, ‘our mother¹because of a man who shall be born.’ Will this man then be my son who is begotten of me?”

*

Reasoning

Command

Ezekiel 20 v40-42
40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your
offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all our holy things.
41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you and of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.
42 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I lifted up mine hand
to give it to your fathers.

Will

Psalm 34 v11-14
11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the
LORD.
12 What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Desire

Isaiah 60 v20-22
20 Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
22 A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.

Wish

Daniel 2 v22-23
22 He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the
darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
23 I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.

*

Usually when I read the Bible verses for the Reasoning, one of the verses stands out to me. That’s usually the one I highlight at the top of the page. Today, the verses are a richness…where to start? Maybe with the wise advice for living well, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” By doing this you will enjoy life. What a promise there is in Isaiah… “Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the
days of thy mourning shall be ended.”

The whole of the ‘wish’ verse is beautiful. From Daniel, it is reassuring, especially maybe a little bit for those of us (me!) who are sometimes just a fractional tiny amount afraid of the dark….

When my eldest daughter was younger she used to have a feed pump that pumped liquid feed into her stomach from 7pm until 3.30 in the morning and I used to have to stay up while she was feeding (she would be in bed asleep) to check she didn’t choke. Now she has to feed at a slower rate, still with a special liquid feed, 24 hours a day. Instead of going into her stomach now, the feed goes into her bowel because her stomach gave up working about 3 years ago. This is mostly not a good thing, but it does mean that she can’t sick it up and choke so I don’t have to stay up with her anymore.

The feed kit is huge: long tubes; bottles; packets that contained the powder and none of it is recycle-able, it has to all go in the bin. The binmen came on a Tuesday and it always seemed a shame to fill up the newly emptied bin with all that waste. So last thing on a Monday night I used to get all the bins emptied, get into my nightclothes and a big coat, clean my teeth, get all ready to go to sleep. The final thing to do was to take off the feed equipment, put it in the bin bag and run (like there were a whole pack of zombies chasing me) down the path, in the dark, to put the bin bag in the bin, to be collected at 7am the following morning.

It was never my very bestest part of the week, but it was okay…I could manage. I could pretend I was brave….until one night. The bin was under a huge old apple tree and just as I dropped the bin bag into the bin there was a massive SCREAM from up in the tree. I fled! I ran back down the path, this time like there were a whole troop of killer werewolves chasing me (I was completely sure there was), threw myself through the door, slammed it shut, locked it, bolted it and huddled down on the floor, hiding from whatever it was out there, trying to catch my breath.

It took about 15 minutes for my breathing to return to normal, for my heart to stop pounding and re-enter my rib cage, 25 minutes to scrape myself off the floor and shake through to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea. And a whole half hour for it to dawn on me that werewolves do not sit up apple trees in the dark, waiting to scream at the locals…but owls do!

It seems like a very good idea for those who are maybe just a little bit concerned about the local population of apple tree dwelling werewolves to pray to the God of Light, the God who “knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.” That’s my thought, anyway!

*

From the website ‘Earth, Culture, Roots’, here is this week’s passage from The Apocrypha ‘Book of Enoch‘. Again, its a short chapter….

Chapter 4

And again, observe ye the days of summer how the sun is above the earth over against it. And you seek shade and shelter by reason of the heat of the sun, and the earth also burns with growing heat, and so you cannot tread on the earth, or on a rock by reason of its heat.

*

This week on February 11, we celebrate RAS TAFARI became Crown Prince and Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia 1917 at the age of 25.

This is from The Wise Mind of Emperor Haile Selassie I…..

Government
The world is only now coming to realize what Ethiopia and Africa 
have long recognized, that peace, independence and the prosperity 
of mankind can be achieved and assured only by the collective and 
united efforts of free men who are prepared to maintain eternal 
vigilance and labour unceasingly to protect these most precious of 
God’s gifts.

Those who lack the vision and foresight to realize that Africa is
emerging into a new era, that Africans will no longer be denied the
rights which are inalienably theirs, will not alter or reverse the
course of history, but will only suffer the inevitable consequences of
their refusal to accept reality.

*

The bible verse I have chosen for this week is Psalm 117. It is the shortest psalm in the Bible. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible and Psalm 117 is the 595th, which makes in the middle of the bible. As well as being interesting mathematically (if mathing can be interesting, not just nasty!) its also a beautiful chapter of praise….

Psalm 117

¹ Praise the Lord, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
² For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord.^[a]

* I thought that it would be a good meditation verse, its so simple but contains so much!

*

This is from H.I.M. Church website….

*

Prayer

O Jah our strenght and our redeemer, Jah who seated in Zion and reigneth in the hearts of all flesh, O thou Most High eternal Father Jahovia God Jah Rastafari hear us and bless us O Lord keep and sanctify us all cause thy Holy face to shine upon us thy children so we shall be saved and redeemed, O thou Most High God Jah Rastafari. Amen Amen Amen.

*

I’m really sorry this has taken so long to finish….my daughter and I have been really poorly after the vaccine. It isn’t a nice experience at all! I had heard that some people have bad reactions to the AstraZeneca vaccine but….! We’ve had really high temperatures, achy all over, bad headache, very very sleepy, just really grotty.

My son who is 14 had a lovely time that afternoon driving the truck around with the trailer attached, with Lenny sat next to him wrapped up in blankets so he didn’t get cold….

The two of them got all the skip loaded up and had a lovely time together, practicing reversing and turning the trailer…he’s going to have no problem passing his driving test in 3 years time (my son, not Lenny…Lenny’s legs don’t reach the peddles).

I started getting our Chinese New Year dinner ready…and I felt worse and worse after the vaccine, until I managed to get it all cooked, then went to bed and left the rest of them to eat it. Today is the first day I feel any better and my eldest daughter is still feeling not that great. The last few days we kept meeting in the kitchen, all shivery and achy, to take more painkillers and to remind ourselves that vaccines are good for us.

Right, I will get this emailed to chaplaincy before it’s so late that the next one is due. The good thing is that by 22 days after the vaccine, I should have a good immunity, we still won’t be able to have meetings but I will hopefully be able to come back in to check that you are all okay!

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Hi,

It’s all re-starting! If everything goes to plan I will come to see you all in the next few weeks…not groups yet I don’t think, but I will be able to check you are all okay in person, face to face….wow, its been a long time!!! As always, I can’t promise anything, it all depends on whether my eldest daughter is well enough to be left but she does seem to be staying relatively (for her) healthy.

It feels like a really good time to re-start….Its spring, I am listening to all the birdsong in the garden as they settle down for the evening. It has been beautiful weather today. The horses have gone out onto the fields for the first time this weekend since the beginning of October….its a long 6 months for them. In the winter months they have a concrete yard with lots of hay nets to pick at while the fields are too damp, but they get really fed up…its just not the same as being out on the fields. They were completely overexcited going down to the field, bouncing and bucking and walking just on their back legs. When they got out to the field they ran around squealing and kicking out their back legs. I’m hoping they are a bit calmer on the way back in.

I have spent the weekend gardening…my idea of bliss! I’ve been listening to music, singing along (badly) and digging, weeding, planting, pruning and everywhere is starting to look a bit smarter. Like last year, I’ve got some garden vouchers to spend that I have saved from Christmas. Now the ‘Stay Local’ rule is lifted I can’t wait to get to the garden centre…there is just a 3,000 word essay between me and freedom! I suppose really truthfully I probably should be writing my essay instead of writing to all of you, but here we are!!! 😊 …

* * *

Kebra Negast

54. How DAVID [the King of ETHIOPIA] Prophesied and Saluted ZION And King [DAVID] came and stood up before ZION, and he saluted it, and made obeisance thereto, and said, “O Lord God of ISRAEL, to Thee be praise, because Thou doest Thy Will and not the will of men. Thou makest the wise man to forget his wisdom, and Thou destroyest the counsel of the counsellor, and Thou raisest the poor man from the depth, and Thou settest the sole of his foot upon a strong rock. For a full cup of glory is in Thy hand for those who love Thee, and a full cup of shame for those who hate Thee. As for us, our salvation shall go forth out of ZION, and He shall remove sin from His people, and goodness and mercy shall be poured out in all the world. For we are the work of His hands, and who shall rebuke us if He loveth us as ISRAEL His people? And who shall reprove Him if He raiseth us up to heaven His throne? For death and life are from Him, and glory and dishonour are in His hand, He hath the power to punish and to multiply His compassion, and He can be wroth and multiply His mercy, for it is He who trieth the heart and the reins. He giveth and He taketh away, He planteth and He uprooteth. He buildeth up and He throweth down. He beautifieth and He deformeth; for everything belongeth to Him, and everything is from Him, and everything existeth in Him. And as for thee, O Tabernacle of the Law of God, salvation be whither thou goest, and from the place whence thou goest forth; salvation be in the house and in the field, salvation be here and be there, salvation be in the palace and in the lowly place, salvation be on the sea and on the dry land, salvation be in the mountains and in the hills, salvation be in the heavens and on the earth, salvation be in the firm grounds and in the abysses, salvation be in death and in life, salvation be in thy coming and in thy going forth, salvation be to our children and to the tribe of thy people, salvation be in thy countries and in thy cities, salvation be to the kings and to the nobles, salvation be to the plants and to the fruits, salvation be to men and to beasts, salvation be to the birds and to the creeping things of the earth; be salvation, be an intercessor, and a merciful one, and have regard for thy people. Be unto us a wall, and we will be unto thee a fence; be thou a king unto us and we will be thy people; be thou a guide unto us and we will follow after thee. And be not impatient, and mark not closely, and be not angry at the multitude of our sins, for we are a people who have not the Law, and who have not learned Thy praise. And from this time forward guide us, and teach us, and make us to have understanding, and make us to have wisdom that we may learn Thy praise. And Thy name shall be praised by us at all times, and all the day, and every day, and every night, and every hour, and all the length of time. Give us power that we may serve Thee. Rise up, ZION, and put on thy strength, and conquer thine enemies, and give us strength, our queen, and put thou to shame those who hate thee, and make to rejoice those who love thee.” 

And then he made a circuit and said, “Behold ZION, behold salvation, behold the one who rejoiceth, behold the splendour like the sun, behold the one adorned with praise, behold the one who is decorated like a bride, not with the apparel of fleeting glory, but the one who is decorated with the glory and praise which are from God, whom it is meet that [men] shall look upon with desire and shall not forsake; whom [men] shall desire above all things and shall not reject; whom [men] shall love willingly and shall not hate; whom [men] shall approach willingly and shall not keep afar off. We will draw nigh unto thee, and do not thou withdraw far from us; we will support ourselves upon thee, and do not thou let us slip away; we will supplicate thee, and do not thou be deaf to us; we will cry out to thee; hear thou our cry in all that we ask of thee, and desire not to withdraw thyself from us, until thy Lord cometh and reigneth over thee; for thou art the habitation of the God of heaven.”

Thus spake DAVID the King, the son of SOLOMON, King of ISRAEL. For the spirit of prophecy descended upon him because of his joy, and he knew not what he said and he was like PETER and JOHN on the top of Mount TÂBÔR.¹ And they all marvelled and said, “This, the son of a prophet, is he to be numbered among the prophets?”

* * *

From H.I.M. Church…

Reasoning

Command:

Deuteronomy 4 v40
40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments,
which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with
thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon
the earth, which the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, thy God giveth
thee, for ever.

Will:

Psalm 27 v4, 8
4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, and to inquire in his temple.
8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, will I seek.

Desire:

Isaiah 51 v11
11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy
shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Wish:

Revelation 7 v15
15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, Emperor Haile Selassie I, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

* * *

Bible Verses

Deuteronomy 5:32-33

³² So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.

³³ Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

Deuteronomy 6:4

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[a]

⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

* * *

The Book of Enoch Chapter 8

1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all

2 colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they

3 were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, ‘Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .

* * *

Here is the next chapter of…

All the Churches Religious system of today, claims to represent the Lord God of Israel; but the Pope who is satan the devil, false organization is a hypocritical religious system that has three elements, first commercial political and ecclesiastical, to keep the people in ignorance of their wicked course.

Money powers are the great bulwarks of their organization and they use the Religious elements as a smoke screen to keep the people in ignorance of the truth.

The false teachers under the supervision of the Pope of Rome who is satan the devil. The agents of his speaking lies in the churches and let the people walk in darkness.

My dear Readers you can see that all their foundations of the earth are out of course. Allow me to say that there is no throne for the Anglo Saxon white people, they must come down and sit in the dust on the ground there is no throne for them. See Isaiah 47th chapter.

King Alpha was wroth with us the Black People and had polluted our inheritance for 2520 years and had given us into the hands of the Anglo-Saxon white people, they showed us no mercy therefore evil shall come upon them suddenly.

Now let the Astrologers and Stargazers stand up and save the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom from the vengeance that shall come upon them suddenly.

* * *

A Speech About Life By His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie

What life has taught me on the question of racial discrimination, I like to share with those
who want to learn.

That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and
permanently discredited and abandoned.
That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation;
That until the colour of a man’s skin is no more significance than the colour of his eyes:
That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race;
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of
international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained;
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique
and in South Africa in sub-human bondage have been toppled and destroyed;
Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self interest have been replaced by
understanding and tolerance and goodwill;
Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of the Almighty;
Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if
necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over
evil.
It will be self deceiving and a waste of time to advocate dialogue with those who are not
ready to listen, because it is obvious that the freedom of millions is not a commodity subject
to bargaining.

* * *

The Shepherd’s Prayer By Athlyi

O God of Ethiopia, thy divine majesty; thy spirit come in our hearts to dwell in the path of righteousness, lead us, help us to forgive that we may be forgiven, teach us love and loyalty on earth as in Heaven, endow us with wisdom and understanding to do thy will, thy blessing to us that the hungry be fed, the naked clothed, the sick nourished, the aged protected and the infants cared for. Deliver us from the hands of our enemies that we prove fruitful, then in the last day when life is o’er, our bodies in the clay, or in the depths of the sea, or in the belly of a beast, O give our souls a place in thy kingdom forever and forever. Amen.

(From The Holy Bipy by Robert Athlyi Rogers)

* * *

I guess you all realise that I really like traditional folk stories. I’ve sent you enough in these letters to bore the socks off you! My 3 children would sympathise with you, that’s what they were read when they were little. I used to light the fire and all the candles ready, so the room was nice and cosy. They would get changed into pyjamas, have a wash and clean their teeth. Then they would each bring a blanket and we would cuddle up in front of the fire and I would read them a folk story.

We are lucky in Wales (not just cos our rugby team is the best! 😊), we have an amazing history of folk stories. We have The Mabinogion (I’ve sent you quite a few of those stories) as well as stories about Welsh saints and other traditional stories, like the one about Gelert the dog I put in the letter last year.

I love noticing the similarities between my Welsh history and traditions and your Rastafari traditions. I think its one of the ways that you can really get an understanding of a culture…their stories and their cooking. Luckily our stories are good because have you ever tasted traditional Welsh cooking?…its a bit grim! Any country whose traditional dishes are fairly bland lamb stews and seaweed (yes, really 🤢) needs to have a good set of stories (and a decent rugby team) to redeem itself.

Rastafari culture has both….amazing cooking with beautiful flavours AND, I’ve just discovered, some fascinating traditional stories to go with it. So I thought I would put one of them in this letter. Here goes….

Tying Tiger

One great hungry time. Anansi couldn’t get anyt’ing to eat, so he take up his hand-basket an’ a big pot an’ went down to the sea-side to catch fish. When he reach there, he make up a large fire and put the pot on the fire, an’ say, “Come, big fish!” He catch some big fish put them aside. He said, “Big fish go, make little fish come!” He then catch the little fish. He say, “Little fish go, make big fish come!” an’ say, “Big fish go, make little fish come!” He then catch the pot full an’ his hand-basket. He bile the pot full and sit down and eat it off; he then started home back with the pot on his head and the basket. Reaching a little way, he hide the pot away in the bush an take the basket along with him now.

While going along, he meet up Tiger. Now Tiger is a very rough man an’ Anansi ‘fraid of him. Tiger said to him, “What you have in that basket, sah?”–speak to him very rough. Anansi speak in a very feeble voice, say, “Nothing, sah! nothing, sah!” So both of them pass each other, an’ when they went on a little way, Tiger hide in the bush watching Anansi. Anansi then sit down underneath a tree, open his basket, take out the fishes one one, and say, “Pretty little yallah-tail this!” an’ put it aside; he take out a snapper an’ say, “Pretty little snapper this!” an’ put it one side; he take out a jack-fish an’ say, “Pretty little jack-fish!” an’ put it one side. Tiger then run up an’ say, “Think you havn’t not’ing in that basket, sah!” Anansi say, “I jus’ going down to the sea have a bathe, sah, an’ I catch them few ‘itte fishes.” Tiger say, “Give it to me here, sah!”–talk in a very rough manner. An’ Tiger take it an’ eat them all an’ spit up the bones. Anansi then take up the bones an’ eat them, an’ while eating he grumble an’ say, “But look me bwoy labor do!” Tiger say, “What you say?” Anansi say, “Fly humbug me face, sah!” (brushing his face). So booth of them start to go home now with the empty basket, but this time Anansi was studying for Tiger. When he reach part of the way, Anansi see a fruit-tree. Anansi say, “What a pretty fruit-tree!” (looking up in the tree). Tiger say, “Climb it, sah!” (in a rough manner). So when Anansi go up an’ pull some of the fruit, at that time Tiger was standing underneath the tree. Anansi look down on Tiger head an’ said, “Look lice in a Brar Tiger head!” Tiger said, “Come down an’ ketch it, sah!” Anansi come down an’ said to Tiger he kyan’t ketch it without he lean on the tree. Tiger said, “Lean on the tree, sah!” The hair on Tiger head is very long. So while Anansi ketchin’ the lice, Tiger fell asleep. Anansi now take the hair an’ lash it round the tree tie up Tiger on the tree. After he done that he wake up Tiger an’ say that he kyan’t ketch any more. Tiger in a rough manner say, “Come an’ ketch it, sah!” Anansi say, “I won’t!” So Anansi run off, Tiger spring after him, an’ fin’ out that his hair is tied on the tree. So Tiger say, “Come an’ loose me, sah!” Anansi say. “I won’t!” an’ Anansi sing now,

“See how Anansi tie Tiger,
See how Anansi tie Tiger,
Tie him like a hog, Tiger,
See how Anansi tie Tiger,
Tie him like a hog, Tiger!”

An’ Anansi leave him go home, am’ a hunter-man come an’ see Tiger tie on the tree, make kill him. (By George Parkes, Mandeville.)

* * *

This is a bit of an explanation from Wikipedia…

Anansi (literally means spider) is a folktale character. He often takes the shape of a spider and is sometimes considered to be a god of all knowledge of stories. Taking the role of trickster, he is also one of the most important characters in folklore. Anansi is most well known for his ability to outsmart and triumph over more powerful opponents through his use of cunning, creativity and wit. Despite taking on the role of the trickster, Anansi’s actions and parables often carry him as protagonist due to his ability to transform his apparent weaknesses into virtues.

* * *

When I was little, my dad used to tell me stories about Brer Rabbit, you all might know those stories, and it seems that they come from the same tradition. Brer Rabbit is a trickster, just like Anansi, and sometimes Anansi is given ‘Brer’ before his name too. There are lots of these stories….so watch out, you know what you will be reading the next few weeks!

* * *

We had a hail storm and snow here last night. It’s completely different to the weather we had when I started writing this letter!

My son has been rushing to get all the harrowing done again, like last year….for those of you who weren’t on board with these letters this time last year, harrowing is what you do to break up and smooth the soil in a field and remove the dead grass. They look a bit like the ones in the picture below but ours are much bigger and loads rustier. So he’s trying to harrow all our fields at least twice, then roll them and then he’s going to his godmother’s farm to harrow all her fields too.

This all has to be done while the ground has dried out a little bit, but isn’t too dry, and it’s not too late in the season so the grass hasn’t really grown too much…quite a juggling act with Welsh weather thrown into the mix.

You remember a couple of weeks ago Anya, my husband’s puppy, managed to run into the gate and bump her eye?…this week my son left the harrows in the field overnight and Anya didn’t notice. Yes, she’s now got a big lump on her side where she boiiinged straight into it. She lives life full-pelt does that one.

To finish off, here is a picture of Lenny the Liability being a foot warmer and cook’s help this evening. He’s probably just waiting for an opportunity to grab the food, but he is a gorgeous boy….

Blessings,

Elizabeth

This week I have said this over and over and over and…….!

This week I have been trying to get an essay written, a tractor towed home, a mammoth pile of sleeping bags and blankets washed (but more about why all the blankets later!) as well as all the usual stuff…shopping done, care for my eldest daughter, housework stuff, looking after the animals etc etc.

I still can’t quite believe that I should be doing an essay, that’s the problem. What was I thinking, signing up for a degree?

* * *

Kebra Negast

53. How the Wagon was given to ETHIOPIA And they halted by GÂZÂ, the city of the mother of the king, which SOLOMON the king had given to the Queen of ETHIOPIA when she came to him. And from there they came in one day to the border of GĔBĔṢ. (EGYPT), the name of which is “MESRÎN”. And when the sons of the warriors of ISRAEL saw that they had come in one day a distance of thirteen days’ march, and that they were not tired, or hungry, or thirsty, neither man nor beast, and that they all [felt] that they had eaten and drunk their fill, these sons of the warriors of ISRAEL knew and believed that this thing was from God. And they said unto their king, “Let us let down the wagons, for we have come to the water of ETHIOPIA. This is the TAKKAZÎ which floweth down from ETHIOPIA, and watereth the Valley of EGYPT”; and they let down their wagons there, and set up their tents.

And the sons of the warriors of ISRAEL went and drove away all the people, and they said unto [DAVID] their king, “Shall we tell thee a matter? Canst thou hold it [secret]?” And the King said unto them, “Yes, I can [hold it secret]. And if ye will tell it to me I will never let it go forth or repeat it to the day of my death.” And they said unto him, “The sun descended from heaven, and was given on SINAI to ISRAEL, and it became the salvation of the race of ADAM, from MOSES to the seed of JESSE, and behold, it is with thee by the Will of God. It is not through us that this hath been done, but by the Will of God; it is not through us that this hath been done, but by the Will of Him that fashioned it and made it hath this happened. We wished, and God hath fulfilled [our wish]; we agreed concerning it, and God made it good; we held converse [concerning it], and God performed; we meditated [upon it], and God devised the plan; we spoke, and God was well pleased; we directed our gaze, and God directed it rightly; we meditated, and God hath justified. And now God hath chosen thee, and is well pleased with thy city, to be the servant of the holy and heavenly ZION, the Tabernacle of the Law of God; and it shall be to thee a guide for ever, to thee and thy seed after thee if thou wilt keep His command and perform the Will of the Lord thy God. For thou wilt not be able to take it back, even if thou wishest, and thy father cannot seize it, even if he wisheth, for it goeth of its own free will whithersoever it wisheth, and it cannot be removed from its seat if it doth not desire it. And behold, it is our Lady, our Mother and our salvation, our fortress and our place of refuge, our glory and the haven of our safety, to those who lean upon it.”

And AZÂRYÂS made a sign to ÊLMEYÂS, and he said unto him, “Go, beautify, and dress our Lady, so that our King may see her.” And when AZÂRYÂS had said this, King DAVID was perturbed and he laid both hands upon his breast, and he drew breath three times and said, “Hast thou in truth, O Lord, remembered us in Thy mercy, the castaways, the people whom Thou hast rejected, so that I may see Thy pure habitation, which is in heaven, the holy and heavenly ZION? With what shall we requite the Lord in return for all the good things which He hath done for us? there being with Him no glory and praise! He hath crowned us with His grace, so that we may know upon earth His praise and may all serve Him according to His greatness. For He is the Good One to His chosen ones, and unto Him belongeth praise for ever.” 

And King [DAVID] rose up and skipped about like a young sheep and like a kid of the goats that hath sucked milk in abundance from his mother, even as his grandfather DAVID rejoiced before the Tabernacle of the Law of God. He smote the ground with his feet, and rejoiced in his heart, and uttered cries of joy with his mouth. And what shall I say of the great joy and gladness that were in the camp of the King of ETHIOPIA? One man told his neighbour, and they smote the ground with their feet like young bulls, and they clapped their hands together, and marvelled, and stretched out their hands to heaven, and they cast themselves down with their faces to the ground, and they gave thanks unto God in their hearts.

* * *

Reasoning

Command

Joshua 1 v8
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Will

Psalm 68 v11
11 The Lord, Emperor Haile Selassie I, gave the word: great was the
company of those that published it.

Desire

Deuteronomy 29 v29
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I,
our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Wish

Isaiah 56 v6-7
6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD,
Emperor Haile Selassie I, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, to be servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my
covenant;
7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be
accepted upon mine alter; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

* * *

The Book of Enoch: Chapter 7

1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms 2 and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they 3 became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed 4 all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against 5 them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and 6 fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

* * *

I bought myself a copy of ‘The Promised Key’ recently and have been reading it. I will bring it in with me when the group starts again so you can have a look at it, but for now I have found an online copy on the website ‘sacred-texts.com‘. Here it is, along with a copy of the title page and the introduction. I thought, like the Book of Enoch and the Kebra Negast (although this is much shorter), I would put in a chapter a week.

This is a proto-Rastafarian tract by Leonard Howell, a Jamaican preacher. Published around 1935, this is obviously an edited, much shorter, version ofThe Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy, without the stream-of-consciousness language, long opaque abbreviations, and repetition. Most significantly, the identities of ‘King Alpha and Queen Omega’ were transposed from Fitz Balintine Pettersburg and his wife as in the Royal Parchment Scroll, to Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Astaw. This was one of the key innovations of the Howellites, and is today an article of faith of Rastafari.

In 1933, Howell started to preach that the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (Ras Tafari) was the Messiah, that Black people were the chosen people, and would soon be repatriated to Ethiopia. He soon attracted the attention of the colonial authorities, and was arrested in December 1934 for sedition. In March of 1934 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment, during which he apparently wrote The Promised Key. After he was released in 1936, he published a newspaper called “The People’s Voice”. In 1954 his commune was raided and much literature, including copies of this book, were burned. Howell was found dead under suspicious circumstances in February 1981.

Chapter 1…….

The Mystery Country

I wish to state to you my dear Readers, that Ethiopia is a Country of great contrasts largely unexplored and is populated by Black People whose attitude towards this so called Western civilization has not changed within the last six thousand years.

The people are Christians while retaining Primitive customs. The result is that the Black People of Ethiopia are extraordinarily blended into a refined fashion that cannot be met with in any other part of the world.

In 1930 the Duke of Gloucester undertook one of the most interesting duties he had been called upon to execute up to this date. The occasion was the Coronation of His Majesty Ras Tafari the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the conquering Lion of Judah, the Elect of God and the Light of the world.

The Duke was to represent his father The Anglo-Saxon King. The Duke handed to His Majesty Rastafari the King of Kings and Lord of lords a Scepter of solid gold twenty seven inches long, which had been taken from the hands of Ethiopia some thousand years ago.

The Duke fell down on bending knees before His Majesty Ras Tafari the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and spoke in a loud voice and said, “Master, Master my father has sent me to represent him sir. He is unable to come and he said that he will serve you to the end Master.” See Psalm 72: 9 to 11 verses, also see Gen. 49 chap. 10 verse.

On one side of the Scepter was inscribed Ethiopia shall make her hands reach unto God, and on the other side the King of Kings of Ethiopia,  the top of the shaft was finished with a seal and above was a clen cross in which a single carbuncle was set.

The Scepter was a magnificent piece of workmanship and had been designed from an historic piece in which the special ceremonies of His Royal Highness of Ethiopia, Earth’s Rightful Ruler.

The Duke also handed to Queen Omega the Empress of Ethiopia a Scepter of gold and ivory. The shaft is in the form of a spray of lilies and at the top a spray of lilies in bloom.

It was a brilliant ceremony, the church began to be filled. The Ethiopians were brilliant in special robes having discarded their precious white robes, and wore Jewels of great value.

The men’s swords were being heavily ornamented with gems. On their heads they wore gold braided hats, in which the covered lion’s manes were to be seen. In contraction then were the solar note struck by the women who were heavily veiled, and wore heavy cloaks.

His and Her Majesty King Alpha and Queen Omega the King of Kings drove to the Cathedral in a Coach drawn by six white Arab horses.

Queen Omega in a Robe of Silver and the escort on mules wearing lion’s skin over their shoulders, forming into procession outside the Cathedral.

King Ras Tafari and Queen Omega the Royal pair, the escort and a line of Bishops and Priests entered the guest rank obeisance.

King Alpha sitting on his Throne homage was done to him by the Bishops and Priests fulfilling the 21st. Psalm. The ceremony took 10 days from the second day to the eleventh day of November 1930.

King Alpha was presented with the orb spurs, and spears and many other mighty emblems of His High Office, Dignitaries of the world power presented King Alpha with the wealth of oceans.

The Emperor attended to most of his preparations for the reception of his thousands of guests himself, and day after day could be seen rushing about in his scarlet car seeing how the white laborers were getting on with the new road he had ordered that the lawns he had laid down be attended to and that the extension of the electric lights throughout the city were being hurried on.

* * *

Psalm 8

¹ Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a strongholdagainst your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?^[c]

⁵ You have made them^[d] a little lower than the angels^[e]
and crowned them^[f] with glory and honor.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their^[g] feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

* * *

Prayer

Blessed Be God (“yetbarak”)

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
Who created great things and wonders,
marvellous, the only holy One;
and blessed and sanctified be the name of His glory,
holy and blessed forever.
And the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth,
May it be, may it be, one is His name.
Holy holy holy Lord of hosts
Your glory fills the whole world. Amen. Amen. Amen.

(From Earth, Culture, Roots website)

* * *

Someone is in bad books in my house…..

My room is almost finished finally (only taken forty thousand months!)…it has an antique fireplace put in, its painted so dark navy that its almost black, new curtains. I’m really pleased with it. I bought a really posh duvet cover to finish the room off.

A member of my household then managed to stand a tin of dark blue paint with the lid only 1/2 on, on my bed which had my brand new, only using it for the 2nd time, never-had-as-posh-in-my-life-before, only-bought-it-cos-it-was-in-a-very-good-sale white duvet cover on it. Guess what happened next?

I will give you a clue…I’m looking into whether this counts as grounds for divorce! 😊

I have now washed the duvet at least a million times, I have many different chemicalled it and it still has a big blue stain. It’s a good thing I’m fairly calm about life and sort of, after a whole nights sleep (under a not stained, but not anywhere near as posh duvet cover) find it almost funny.

The heap of blankets and sleeping bags in the wash….on Wednesday it was one of the ‘spare teenager’s’ 16th birthday and he, my son and another friend decided it would be fun to stay in our hay barn for the night. Wednesday….the day when the gales, cold weather and rainstorms were due to hit. I bought lots of party food to keep them company. They found ALL the blankets, dog blankets, carrimats and sleeping bags in the house (a lot!) and trooped across to the barn with their bedding and feast and set up camp. You probably heard the gales that night, they were quite intense. We lost glass from the other barn windows, lots of things were in a different place to where they should be by the morning and the boys were a bit chilly, but they didn’t give in, they stayed out for all of it!

We’ve got a puppy with a headache here. Anya (Boiing) managed to run absolutely full pelt into a metal five bar gate and send herself flying. She is daft. She’s been exercised in that field pretty much every day of her life and she knows that gate is there. She has a cut under her eye and a huge bump on her head. She’s been feeling very sorry for herself and has been very quiet. Usually we reckon she’s 1/2 dog, 1/2 kangaroo but she was a quiet, mostly well-behaved puppy that kept all 4 paws on the floor last night. Here’s a picture of her (without her bumpy head)…

Blesssings,

Elizabeth

Hi,

I hope you are all hanging on in there! The infection rate is coming down, the vaccination numbers are going up….hopefully the world will begin again soon!

In the meantime spring is really starting here. The air is full of bird song, there are green shoots sprouting up and the foxes are beginning to bark at night, down in the woods.

In this lovely weather, I have been desperate to get out into the garden to get started buuuuut….I now have my next essay to write for my college course. 3000 words! I need it to rain for the next month so I don’t feel like I’m missing out. I did manage to do some cutting back and pruning and sorting a couple of nights ago but there is so much more to do!

*

I think I’ve told you before, we have a saying in our house…

What can I do today to change tomorrow

It fits quite nicely, I think, with that morning blessing. I’ve been thinking about this a lot this week. It’s really easy, for me, to feel like with this virus we have just lost an entire year, that its been no use whatsoever. When I talk to people about last year they say things like it’s like last year just didn’t happen, last year just seemed to disappear. I don’t know what it feels like for you…I do worry about you all!…I am concerned that for you it will feel like its going on forever but that nothing is really happening. This quote, the one in the picture, reminds us that we can do things to change our lives and to help other people every day. The way we talk and treat people, face to face and on the phone, and the way we think about our own lives can make a huge difference. It fits I think with the last letter and the idea of living a wise life and ‘becoming’ a gift to JAH. Spring is a changing sort of time….I’m watching my garden change every day (loads and loads of stuff to do!!!) so I thought that it would be a good time to think about what you can do to change your tomorrow right now….okay, that’s my nagging done! 😊

Kebra Negast

52. How ZADOK the Priest Departed And ZADOK the priest went and gave DAVID the covering of ZION, and he delivered unto him all the commands which SOLOMON had spoken. And DAVID, the son of SOLOMON, rejoiced because of this, and he marvelled and held himself to be blessed exceedingly, and said, when the covering of the Tabernacle of the Law of God was committed to his charge, “This shall be to me my Lady.” And AZÂRYÂS answered and said before his father, “Thou rejoicest over the covering, but how very much more wilt thou rejoice over the Lady of the covering!” And his father said unto him, “Verily he rejoiceth over the Lady of the covering, and he might subjugate all of us if he were not going to his own country.” And he said unto the king, “Make now a covenant with me that thou wilt give to this my son this possession for his Lady and his sponsor and his protection, that he may guard it all the days of his life, for himself and for his seed after him; and that thou wilt give him tithe, and that thou wilt give him a city of refuge in thy kingdom, and also the tenth of the cities in all thy kingdom; and that he shall be unto thee priest, and seer, and prophet, and teacher to thee and to thy seed after thee, and the anointer with oil of thy kingdom for thy children and thy children’s children.” And he said, “I agree.” And they struck (i.e., made) a covenant, and he received from his father the votive offering, and the covering of ZION, and a chain of gold.

And they loaded the wagons, and the horses, and the mules in order to depart, and they set out on their journey prosperously, and they continued to travel on. And MICHAEL the [Arch] Angel marched in front, and he spread out [his wings] and made them to march through the sea as upon dry land, and upon the dry land he cut a path for them and spreading himself out like a cloud over them he hid them from the fiery heat of the sun. And as for their wagons, no man hauled his wagon, but he himself (i.e., MICHAEL) marched with the wagons, and whether it was men, or horses, or mules, or loaded camels, each was raised above the ground to the height of a cubit; and all those who rode upon beasts were lifted up above their backs to the height of one span of a man, and all the various kinds of baggage which were loaded on the beasts, as well as those who were mounted on them, were raised up to the height of one span of a man, and the beasts were lifted up to the height of one span of a man. And every one travelled in the wagons like a ship on the sea when the wind bloweth, and like a bat through the air when the desire of his belly urgeth him to devour his companions, and like an eagle when his body glideth above the wind. Thus did they travel; there was none in front and none behind, and they were disturbed neither on the right hand nor on the left.

*

Reasoning

Command

2 Chronicles 29 v11, 26
11 My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.
26 And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests
with the trumpets.

Will

Proverbs 1 v7
7 The fear of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, is the beginning of
knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Desire

Isaiah 60 v2
2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Wish

Ezra 3 v11
11 And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks
unto the LORD; Emperor Haile Selassie I, because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, Emperor Haile
Selassie I, because the foundation of the house of the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, was laid.

*

The Book of Enoch, Chapter 6

1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children.’ And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not 4 indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations 5 not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then sware they all together and bound themselves 6 by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn 7 and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, 8 Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaq1el, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. These are their chiefs of tens.

*

Bible Verses

Lamentations 3:22-27

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;^[b]
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.

Psalm 143:8-

⁸ Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
⁹ Rescue me from my enemies, Lord,
for I hide myself in you.
¹⁰ Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.

Psalm 57:7-10

⁷ My heart, O God, is steadfast,
    my heart is steadfast;
    I will sing and make music.
⁸ Awake, my soul!
    Awake, harp and lyre!
    I will awaken the dawn.

⁹ I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.

*

*

The Wise Words of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I

We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.

………..

Many discouraging hours will arise before the rainbow of accomplished goals will appear on the horizon.

*

Okay, so it seems I hadn’t stopped nagging 😊. All the above verses and quotes are linked to the thoughts in the first prayer and the idea of starting afresh every morning. Also, the strength and love from JAH that is given again, continuously, every day. It’s interesting to see that people that we respect for having wisdom, living a wise life, ( like H.I.M. Haile Selassie I) echo the words of that first blessing about seizing the day, taking the opportunity to change our tomorrow and do some good. So maybe I’m right (obviously I’m right, right?! 😊)

*

Rise and Shine by Bunny Wailer

This is the cry of a people
Who were robbed and raped from their homeland
And their loved ones.
A people stripped of their culture,
Their dignity, their liberty and their rigths
And by the cruel and presumptuos
Hands of the colonial and imperialistics slavers
Were cargoed into the west,
Where for over 400 years they have toiled and laboured,
And with their blood, their sweat, them tears and hands
They have built the great city of Babylon,
Only to be paid with the wages of the taskmaster’s
Whip,
Torture and death.

Oh yea yea! This is my history!
Oh yea yea yes! Oh!

We’ve been down in the valley much too long.
We’ve been down in captivity oh so long.
We’ve been down in humillity much too long.
We’ve been down in slavery oh so long.

But we’re gonna rise and shine!
And win our liberation,
For now is the time
When all nations must be free.
So rise and shine!
Restore your strength and power,
Waste no more time,
Remember your history.

We’ve been down in a sufferation much too long.
We’ve been down in a condemnation oh so long.
We’ve been down in a segregation much too long.
We’ve been down in humilliation oh so long.

But we’re gonna rise!
As the morning sun that surrounds you,
It’s international morality time,
Where mankind must be born anew.
So rise and shine!
For the sake of the younger generations,
Putting hearts and minds,
To brotherhood and unity.

Oh yea yea yea yea yes!
Remember the slavemaster’s ship!
Remember the taskmaster’s whip!
Oh yea!

We’ve been down in the valley much too long.
We’ve been down in captivity oh so long.
We’ve been down in slavery much too long.
We’ve been down in humillity oh so long.

But we’re gonna rise and shine!
And win our liberation,
For now is the time
When all nations must be free.
Rise and shine!
Restore your strength and power,
Waste no more time,
Remember your history.

Yes we’re gonna rise and shine!

*

Prayer

*

I’m really hoping that in the next 2 weeks I will be able to come in and check you are all okay. I haven’t checked with chaplaincy on the prison’s rules, so this might be all hoping and no substance, but I am now covered by my vaccination so it might be possible.

My son has had an exciting week….Ever since he was tiny he has wanted to buy himself a tractor. He’s been saving for it feels like all his life. All his friends are from farming families and have tractors and he has been driving their tractors, quads and all sorts for years. His friends are all older than him, have passed their tractor licenses, own tractors, do contracting work and my son is 14 and doesn’t, much to his disappointment.

This week he heard of a tractor that he could (almost, with a tiny bit of a loan) afford, that was running and all in one piece (most of the tractors he can afford have to be pulled out of the hedge, with lots of pieces missing and no wheels). He went to see it and fell in love!! (He has not talked about anything else for the whole week….I know more about tractor mechanics than I ever needed to know!) So, he’s bought it! It’s a 1950’s vintage Ferguson. They were known as ‘the little grey tractor’ and my son thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen (other than a brand new John Deere….but that’s a bit like us looking at a brand new Lamborghini). So here it is (you might need to sit down, so you don’t swoon at the gorgeousness of it)…….

Isn’t it a thing of beauty! 😊

He’s got plans to pull the harrows with it and to buy himself a ‘haybob’, which is for turning over the cut hay to dry it out and to put it into rows for baling. He wants to get a hay spike for moving the bales, a trailer for the back to bring in logs. I swear there is even an adapter to go on the back to give him a proper farmer’s haircut.

It’s been a sad week for me though (why this letter is late, I’m sorry)…. my very loved Archie-cat (the grey one that slept in my arms) died. He had been licking his lips and coughing a bit and was really sleepy. I took him to be checked at the vets. They sedated him, found a large cancerous tumour and he didn’t ever wake back up. He was only 13, which isn’t old, as I told you, he was only late middle aged. I am missing him like crazy and was a bit of a mess for the 1st couple of days afterwards. He was a superhero of a cat. He could predict my eldest daughter’s seizures. He used to settle each of my children to sleep when they were little and when my son was about 2 years old I used to put him down for his afternoon nap in a big cat basket in front of the fire, Archie used to curl up with him and they would both have a sleep…the health visitor was horrified!! He was involved in the games my children played and always comforted people if they were upset. This is my best picture of him and my old siamese Norman….

Don’t ask!…I don’t know why they were both sitting in a paper bag either.

Oh, before I go, I found this for you…a celebration of Bunny Wailer’s life and career. I know its the NME, not a reggae magazine, but it was the best description of his career that I found….

Bunny Wailer, 1947-2021: Reggae Pioneer With A Crucial Political Voice

The founding member of The Wailers has died in Jamaica at 73. “Reggae is a people’s concept,” he once told NME. “It’s like sharing a weight.”

By Kevin EG Perry, 3rd March 2021

Bunny Wailer, the last of The Wailers, has died in Jamaica at the age of 73. Affectionately known on the island as Jah B, he was a devout Rastafarian, the creator of peerless solo records such as ‘Blackheart Man’ and, along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, a crucial voice in the group that did more than any other to introduce reggae to the world.

Wailer was born Neville O’Riley Livingston in Kingston, Jamaica on 10 April 1947. While he was still a child, his family moved to the village of Nine Mile in St. Ann Parish in the north of the island. His father, Thaddeus ‘Toddy’ Livingston, preached at the Revivalist church, and young Bunny got his first taste of performance by banging the drum during services.

In St. Ann Wailer attended the Stepney All Age School, where he first met Bob Marley. “I knew Bob from a very early age – maybe from nine or 10 when I went to live in the country,” he told NME’s Paul Bradshaw in 1984. “He was at the same school as I. When I left the country and came back to town, we later came to live in the same neighbourhood. So, it’s a long relationship. You couldn’t forget Bob.”

In 1963, aged 16, Wailer formed a group with Marley and Peter Tosh, variously called The Teenagers, The Wailing Rudeboys and The Wailing Wailers, before they eventually settled on just The Wailers. They had their first Number One hit in Jamaica with ‘Simmer Down’ the following year, and in 1965 released ‘The Wailing Wailers’, a collection of their best early recordings. On the cover, all three wear shiny suits and have short cropped hair, and are described simply as “Jamaica’s Top-rated Singing Sensations”.

Their sound evolved rapidly, in spite of setbacks – like the 14 months Wailer served in prison for cannabis possession from June 1967. The gorgeous harmonies the trio produced became part of the signature sound that developed under the guidance of producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry on 1970’s ‘Soul Rebels’ and 1971’s ‘Soul Revolution’. In 1973, after signing with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, they released not one but two classic records: ‘Catch a Fire’ and ‘Burnin’’.

Their music spoke to a young audience not just in Jamaica, but around the world. On tour in England that year, Wailer told NME’s Sebastian Clarke: “Right now youth consciousness is causing turbulences all over the earth. As soon as the youth starts realising the truth he starts to tell it, and as soon as the old folks hear it, they start making trouble for them.”

While the group were at a creative peak, Wailer was unhappy that international touring put him at odds with his Rastafarian faith and felt his artistic contributions were being minimised as the group was rebranded as Marley’s backing band. Wailer quit and went to live in a ramshackle cabin by the beach, where he survived by catching fish and writing songs.

Some of those songs would be included on 1976’s ‘Blackheart Man’, Wailer’s debut solo album and one of the essential roots reggae records. Both Marley and Tosh sang backing vocals for their old friend on tracks like ‘Fighting Against Conviction’, a song about Wailer’s time in prison. The album’s title is a reference to a fable from his childhood in Nine Mile.

“We all grew up hearing about this Blackheart Man,” Wailer told MOJO in 2009, “and we were told that you had to be careful of strangers who might walk up to you and invite you into a situation, or you might be found in the lonely countryside, or in the gullies, or anywhere that this individual might have shown up – and then he would take your heart out. So it brought fear on all the youths of that time when they heard the name ‘Blackheart Man’. So I did the album based on my experiences.”

Wailer’s musical output – mostly released on his own Solomonic label – was prolific and varied. In 1980 he released ‘Bunny Wailer Sings The Wailers’, which saw him reinterpret many of his old group’s classic songs in a roots reggae style with the backing of legendary rhythm section Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare, while in 1982 he experimented with disco on his album ‘Hook Line & Sinker’. He won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album three times: for 1991’s ‘Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley’; 1995’s ‘Crucial! Roots Classics’; and 1997’s ‘Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary.’

The awards were well-deserved, but to Wailer reggae was about more than entertainment. The seven-inch singles he released in Jamaica during the ’70s, with titles such as ‘Power Struggle’ and ‘Innocent Blood’, showed that music could be as potent as any political broadcast.

“It’s a people’s concept,” he told NME in 1984. “If you’re not doing it for the people, it doesn’t make sense – it wouldn’t be music. Reggae, apart from most music, is a little bit more relevant to the everyday life and activities of the people. Not only I, but most of the artists try to deal with their experience and the experience of others to try and soothe the stress and the tension by letting them know that their feelings are shared. It’s like sharing a weight; that’s what reggae does.”

*

Right, I better get this sent off otherwise another week will go by!

Blessings,

Elizabeth