Monday 28 June 2010

Prayer

I have been thinking about prayer a lot over the past few days.   The way we pray when we are in trouble or in need is so different from the way we pray at any other time.  We pray so much more frequently and more intensely when we are in need, when things are going well it is easier to push God to the sidelines of our lives. For the past 40 years I have been hung up on the idea of "a quiet time" spent alone with God and have been heaping guilt upon myself for the fact that I can't sit still and focus on one single thing at a time, but I suddenly realised that that is such an unrealistic expectation which we put on ourselves.  In the other important relationships in my life I speak to the people concerned everyday and about everything.  There would be something desperately wrong with my marriage if I only spoke to my husband at a set time each day and in a formal setting and it is the same with my relationship with God.  I have always talked to him as I go through my day, about  small things as well as the major things in life and I have realised that that is a healthy way to be in communion with God.  Obviously at times of trouble I spend more time praying and talking with God, just like I would sit and talk to my husband about things which concern me, but in the meantime I will continue to talk to God as part of my daily life just as I do with the rest of my family, after all that is the most important relationship in my life, and the one that all the others hinge on.

Heat confusion

Yesterday was supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far.  It was certainly hot enough to make me feel faint, but today seems to be even hotter, so what on earth possessed me to decide to make jam this afternoon?  And why did I decided to plant out the seedlings which have been waiting for weeks for me to get to it?  Would they curl up and die if I waited until the sun has gone down this evening?  Probably.
Despite having made jam I have told my offspring that I am not cooking this evening, whatever we eat will be cold, I flat refuse to put the oven on.

Days like this are only fit for catching up on all the cards I am way behind on and prepping my next session for my SEAL group.  (SEAL = Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning)   I did make a card this morning which has to arrive for Wednesday morning, so I wasn't cutting it fine or anything

not really.


I enjoyed making it once I got the initial idea in my head.  I prepared a paper basket to fill with pressed flowers, cut out a small label and added the recipient's name to the handle of the basket.   That got me thinking and I went out into the garden to cut some more flowers for my flower press, once out there one thing led to another, and that is how I ended up filling tubs with compost, to transplant seedlings, in the midday sun.

Sunday 27 June 2010

Sunday

I haven't been blogging for a while we have all been so stunned by the death of my nephew's son in a terrible, tragic and freak accident.   In addition to that my husband was admitted to hospital last weekend and only got the all clear to attend the funeral a couple of hours before it started.  He still has to have a further investigation but hopefully we will be able to get back to normal again soon.  June has not been a great month for us so far.

My family were not happy this afternoon, they insisted on torturing themselves by watching England play Germany in the World Cup.  I said it would end in tears!

Monday 14 June 2010

Apologies

Sorry not to have been here and posted anything but it has just not seemed appropriate in the circumstances.  I will get back here soon, but I just have to be able to find the right words.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Where are the Risk Assessments?

What makes authorities think that a warning sign of danger is an adequate precaution?  Do they think that children will stop and read them before running off to explore somewhere new and exciting?   Do they think that a child will look for all the safety notices before climbing on rocks or in our case heading for a river?  Do they not realise that placing stepping stones (specially made for the purpose) in a river is an invitation to people to use them?  Why place stepping stones across the river at the side of a bridge if they are not there to be used?  If, close to those stepping stones there is an area where the riverbed shelves downwards and the water is considerably deeper, why is the riverbank not fenced off?  Why all of these things in a place where the water does get deeper and the calm slowness of the river is deceptive, hiding a vicious undercurrent which can drag an unsuspecting child (or adult) down?   All of these things make a beauty spot a place of unexpected and unbelievable horror, and this weekend a family suffered the heartbreak of losing a child within moments of arriving at this maintained beauty spot.  A family is now in so much pain - my family.  My poor nephew and his wife and their surviving children are grieving the loss of their lovely boy on a trip which was taken to celebrate his 8th birthday - a day which should have been filled with such joy and happiness but it ended in tragedy.

The ruins of Bolton Abbey with the river in the foreground are so picturesque, and are enhanced by the stepping stones and the bridge across the river.  It makes for a beautiful picture but what happened there this weekend was just so ugly.  A child slipped and fell into the river and was dragged under and swept away before anyone could grasp him.  A family is left devastated and the other people in the vicinity, many of whom jumped into the river to try to save him, are traumatised.  However beautiful the picture is it worth a life?

Where is the sense of it all?


In Remembrance of Aaron Page 
5 June 2002 - 5 June 2010

Friday 4 June 2010

Friday evening at the end of a very mixed week.  Half term holiday so no having to get up at silly o'clock to get everyone off to school/college etc.  The sun finally appeared this week although it waited until I had got the washing done and draped over airers etc because it was too wet to hang it out.  (I seem to have been doing endless ironing this week).
Exams start next week and we have been taken over by revision this week in differing ways.  My daughter has got herself "into the zone" and is head down working all day, just taking short breaks.  Only son on the other hand was very difficult to get motivated; he just doesn't seem to understand the need.  On one day he spent more time resisting my efforts to get him to revise for his first exam on Tuesday than it would have taken to do the revision, consequently he is having to do more now although he is at least doing it now.