credit freedigitalphotos.net
All of which of course, is a lead-in to a profound 'thunk' - to which the pic provides a cryptic clue. Some might say 'tenuous;' the cucumber's only there because I wasn't able to provide a photo of John Bell's keynote red shoes. Though, in true 'Blue Peter' tradition, Here's One I Found Earlier . (Thank you, Mr Gnome!). All will be made clear...
It's been a funny old week, beginning with major gasworks chez Greenpatch, and ending with two men and an excavator digging up whole swathes of our front garden. There's gardening for you! (Don't worry it was planned). Mr Greenpatch - aka Mr M/The lycra'ed horror has been busy climbing ever'y mountain in La Marmotte 2009 . Or from all accounts falling off them. I've still to see the extent of his injuries when he gets home tomorrow!
More seriously, a member of the extended family is gravely ill. I'm awaiting the news - although I know what said news will be.
Alongside that are the latest in my own wanderings - call it gardening for the soul. I've applied for a course. Not in an area I've not considered before; in fact it's been right there in the background for quite a while. It's simply that the decision to apply was a snap one. Whatever happened to Franciscan balance? Come to think of it's hardly a term to apply to Francis himself. Whatever his good qualities, balanced he was not! It is, if I'm honest with myself, a long shot; I'm trying hard to regard the whole affair as a learning experience, regardless of outcome. Which so far, I've managed, in fits and starts.
What's helped, (and here's where the cucumber comes in ) has been simply taking time to reflect, read and pray. It's strange what sometimes happens when you do. The profound 'thunk' started whilst I was listening to John Bell's talk from last year's Greenbelt - on Faith in a Failing Church. He mentioned the accounts of the Israelite wanderings from the book of Numbers; of the grumblers, the 'Back to Egypt' waverers, who although they're at the border of the promised land, are so terrified at the reports brought them by the spies who've gone ahead, that they'd rather turn back to the miseries of slavery. They refuse to move on, Moses begs God not to let them return to Egypt as a result of which they're condemned to wander in wilderness until the last of the misery-guts have died off! Now I know I'm taking things out of context; the passages are dealing with those who are reluctant to embrace change. However, for me the message that came through to me was this: I have travelled a long way these last few years; gained tremendous ground; grown in ways I'd not thought possible. Whether the answer to the present situation may be - yes, no, wait, go on to something completely different - I can't 'go back.' When I've done that in the past, not been true to myself, something inside me has died. And I'm very much in the way of living!
