Last week I taught my children how to work the sewing machine.
An 8, 12 and almost 15 year old, a sharp needle and an accelerator pedal. What could go wrong?
It’s my pride and joy – we got given it as a wedding present - and when I got it out and dusted it off, I was beaming and excited to get sewing again.
We all made masks for ourselves as a practice for making more. Maybe for others. A life skill shared (sewing) and a passion passed on.
Awe came upon everyone, because of the many wonders and signs being done by the Apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common.
This is two verses from the book of Acts, in the early days of the believers gathering together and forming what we would call churches. It speaks of fellowship and partnership. It speaks of everyone having a part to play, everyone being together – in Spirit if not in person. And it strikes me now as vital to the way we journey forward in difficult and uncertain days ahead.
Halfway through your week and sometimes you wonder what you have actually managed to achieve.
It gets to Wednesday sometimes and you think of all the work you need to finish by the end of the week and wince.
And by Friday you hope to have completed your ‘to-do’ list, now able to sit back and smile at a week well worked.
Today is going to feel a bit like this I think. I wonder whether yours will too.
One of our daughters came down and started the day wrapped in a warm blanket and watched a DVD from when she was very small.
One of our sons came and asked for hug.
And I am sitting eating a toasted teacake for breakfast.
There are a lot of people this morning worried about the words of the Prime Minister yesterday and what it all means.
He used the phrase Stay Alert like we haven’t been all along and the questions that formed as possible conditional solutions were offered became more and more as the time went on. And what we wanted was clarity and what we got was far from it.
You may have heard me quote American Author Brené Brown – ‘Clear is kind; Unclear is unkind.’
It was Monday May the seventh when the news went out.
Hitler had been dead a week and the Russian troops had finished fighting in Berlin.
The news went out that peace papers had been signed and the war in Europe had ended.
The time is long but…
It hasn’t stopped the sun from shining.
It hasn’t stopped the blossom blooming.
And it hasn’t stopped the birds from singing either.
Spring is under way and signs that summer will happen too.
Because the world is waiting and it is waiting out there for you.
A bush, burning as if on fire but not being scorched…like Moses saw. (Exodus 3)
Three figures in the distance calling you to come and meet them…like Abraham saw. (Genesis 18)
A talking donkey…like Balaam saw. (Numbers 22)
Some people go to the garden, others to the kitchen, some to the beach and others to a favourite film or book they know every word and every scene to.
Where do you go when you need to calm yourself, get away from what is stressing you or making you anxious.
Where do you go when you need to reconnect with something bigger and something other than you?
Our whole lives seem to be governed by choices. Left or right, yes or no, the chocolate or the plain.
We choose user names and passwords, we choose what to eat, when to go, what to wear, how much to cut off.
Although the title makes it sound like I am giving in, you may need to be reminded that enough is enough.
We use this phrase sometimes to show our exasperation and to say that we have had all that we can take and that we will take no more.
But I want us to reclaim this phrase to remind us of the real meaning of enough.
‘Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish…’
These words of Nelson Mandel resonate with me this week. As we prepare for the remembrance 75 years on from Victory in Europe Day (May 8th), and as we live through a time where there may not be war within our lands - there is definitely not much peace in which all may flourish.