40 is a Good Number

Monday, June 1st

Jenny and Buzz on Froggatt Edge

So, lockdown is easing from today. I hope it's not too hasty. That said, this is my fortieth blog since a rather uninspiring Daily Devotional drove me to doing this. I hope those of you who have come along with me have found something of interest. I am going to use a Biblical reference to justify calling the daily blog to a close, but I will probably do a midweek musing from now on.

Jesus spent forty days isolated in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry. There have been times when some of you may have felt this lockdown has been a wilderness. Others may have seized the opportunity to pick up unfinished projects or learned new skills. Some of you may have been busy being key workers in the caring or essential services.

Whatever your circumstances, I guess it has been a time to reflect and contemplate your future activity in a new normal. I don't know what will change for me in terms of week by week activities, but I do know I will need to be sensitive to the needs of those I meet. It cannot be assumed that any of us will be quite in the same place we were before Covid-19, mentally, physically, spiritually. I am sure I will value real social and physical contact even more than I have done before.

In a sense, this time has been just the first leg in a journey whose length is still unknown to any of us. What this stage has done is brought many of us closer together in a virtual kind of way. It has also meant that we have renewed some older acquaintances as well as forming some new links across the internet. Personally, I hope I shall meet some of the new contacts I have made before too long. Some new ways of supporting our community at Shiregreen are already churning in our minds. Jenny has been in conversation with colleagues in Britain, Ireland and France discussing ways to apply their therapies in new ways in post-lockdown.

Facetime, WhatsApp, Skype and Zoom have given us all clues to new ways of working and communicating. Not that they can ever replace the kind of physical interaction we all need. But digital technology has suggested ways of working that can improve some aspects of life-style.

I have enjoyed my journey through my photo albums as well as imposing a discipline on my thinking time. I hope it has been of interest to you. If it hasn't, you won't be reading this anyway!

Keep journeying together. Life is a pilgrimage and it's best undertaken in good company. Keep close and keep safe. I will post new blogs on our church website at www.shiregreenurc.org

In the company of St. James on his pilgrimage to Compostella

Mother me, my Father,

That I may step unbowed

From safe within your haven

To face a hostile crowd.

Mother me, my Father,

And help to ease the pain

Of taunts and tears and teasing

And make me love again.

Mother me, my Father,

With hands so deeply scarred,

That I may touch some other

Whose suffering is hard.

Mother me, my Father,

That all my life be styled

On loving like a mother

And trusting like a child

Helen McKinnon

Moel Hebog viewed from the Miner's Track, Snowdon