Advent2021

 The older I get the more I realise that there's a serious design flaw in human beings.  We age.  😀  By which I mean we are all moving forward through time and therefore none of us can know what the generation in front of us is experiencing.   I don't know what its like to be 80.  My kids don't know what its like to be 30 or 40 or 50.   And that is problematic because it means that there's a disconnect between every age and stage of life.  While we can all look backwards and know what it is to be younger than we are now, none of us can know what is coming to us.  At 55 I suddenly feel that I've moved from one generation to the next and Im now ' the older generation' - I find that thought somewhat disconcerting.   This rather philosophical thought has been tumbling round my otherwise empty brain today as Ive seen several TV adverts for the Facebook Portal.  All of them are selling the fact that Grandparents don't get to se...

 Yesterday's good thing was taking the kids I usually childmind out for the day. Their parents are still working from home and schools closed early so there were three days this week which they hadn't planned on being holiday time.  So I offered to have them for the best part of the day and take them on an adventure. the best fun of the day was had with two sticks and some water.  They spent ages just dabbling :) In the car I listened to their chat. It reminded me of listening to my boys chatting at the same age. Some of it was hilarious but some of it was annoying. Specifically the parts where elder brother (8) insisted on correcting everything younger sister (5) said.  I remember a couple of years when Sam insisted on 'bettering' his brothers at every opportunity. It drove me mad. Listening to Lewis do the same to his sister today made me wonder if it's an eldest child thing. In which case I undoubtably did it to my brother too!! There's something in our human...

  Someone posted this song yesterday and I thought it was moving and powerful and I hadn't heard it before.   Its called Oh Come all You Unfaithful.  Take a couple of minutes to enjoy   https://youtu.be/C-QHbpYjuIg My one good thing yesterday was deciding to actually clean the kitchen and sitting room rather than spend the rest of the week feeling increasingly cross and resentful at the mess. It took me at least three hours but I rewarded myself with a Christmas movie afterwards 😊

 Yesterday I went to two church services and they were about as different as it is possible to imagine.  The first was in a community center.  There were loads of families with small children running about and about half the congregation were dressed up as shepherds, wise men and women, animals ( mostly the kids) angels and a rather impressive King Herod        (the pastor).    The service was an interactive nativity with a (perfectly behaved) real toddler Jesus and a smattering of utter chaos.  There was a dodgy microphone, a small child who almost pulled the projector off its stand, and only one guy in the worship band because the rest of the band were off with covid or other things.   It was the least  religious thing you could imagine.  But it was so much fun, so relaxed, so friendly and God met me there.  He met me in the welcome we received as we walked in  ( its a church we used to go to and haven't v...

 Im sitting here looking at a blank page with absolutely nothing to say.  Yesterday I didnt get up till late, then I spent some time up in the roof trying to sort more stuff out so that the project to better insulate can keep going.  Then I had a shower, went to do a Jo Jingles Christmas party and came home to watch the Strictly Finals.   I did try to have some God thoughts but nothing seemed to speak to me. I didn;t do one good thing.  Unless you count cleaning the stairs 😊  Epic Advent Blog fail.   So in the absence of anything meaningful to say perhaps I shall post a poem.  You can watch me reading it. Or read it yourself.  Or both. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDRGgaqJytg When I was three and I grazed my knee Or some scary alien jumped out from my TV My mum would cuddle, speak calm words And soothe the fears so I could be Assured, comforted, her imperfect love Enough to make the monsters flee When,later, terrors came by nigh...

This week someone posted this photograph of the Queen sitting alone at her husbands funeral with the comment that this is what duty looks like.    It was in response to the news of the Downing Street Christmas party and I thought it made a serious point really well.   For over 70 years the Queen has led by example.  She never oversteps the mark, bends the rules, cheats the system.  She changes the protocol of centuries in order to serve the people she rules ( paying taxes, lowering the flag over the palace on Dianas death, paying for the restoration of Windsor by opening the Palace to the public) And she obeys the laws of the land. Unflinchingly and without fail.   In many ways she is amazing.  But in many ways she is just like us.  Most of us live good, moral, law abiding lives.  Most of us try hard to be truthful, honest and live with integrity.  But then most of us ( the middle aged generation) were brought up with hymns and...