a guest house

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

{Rumi}

Sepia Saturday is about 'crowds' & other stuff like that..........And imagine a Conference where a previous guest had stolen the Conference Table... Awkward,non? 

Mickey (in the foreground) convenes a planning meeting in the basement of the Fruit & Wool Exchange in 1941 { photo by Bert Hardy}

Musical entertainment for people sleeping in “Mickey’s Shelter” in the Fruit & Wool Exchange.

"Mickey Davis – affectionately known as “Mickey the Midget” – who became a popular hero when he took the initiative to organise the shelter in the basement of the Exchange where as many ten thousand people took refuge nightly, escaping the London Blitz............Mickey, who at three feet three inches tall was known as ‘”the Midget,” was an East End optician who threw his energies into organising and improving shelter life.......... he had emerged as the unofficial leader who pushed for improvements to health and safety in one of the East End’s biggest air raid shelters at the Spitalfields Fruit & Wool Exchange in Brushfield St. While the local authority, Stepney Borough Council, was concerned by the 2,500 people crammed into the shelter each night, with its lack of sanitation, risking disease and infection, and lack of facilities for food, lighting and heating, it was left to Mickey set up first aid and medical units, and raise money to equip a dispensary. He even persuaded stretcher bearers and others to come in on their off duty times to minister to the sick and injured. As a popular activist and orator, he became indispensable to the people, pushing the authorities into action..........."           {Read More...}

 

Hey! Billy No-Mates ! Create Your Own Crowd! Visit this site [based in Hebden Bridge} for all your future spectacular functions.
In a week where we saw those crowds greet  a new Pope....Haslingdon Sauna ,in East Lancashire ,was discussing  the value of "Faith".