Having Becky and Hannah back home now is very special. I might have mentioned how next year will be different with Becky gettting married and so this will be the last Christmas with just the four of us. I’m fine with that, it is a joy to see our daughters grow up and take steps into their own lives. Here’s a little more of what has been going on…..
Yesterday, Sunday 23rd December, we decided to have a kind of Christmas meal for ourselves, as on Christmas Day we will be joined by Rachel’s Mum as well as my mum. We had all the trimmings including crackers, silly hats and even more sillier jokes. With Christmas pudding afterwards we were absolutely stuffed but we did manage a little waddle along the Downs in the afternoon. It was cold, very gloomy and a tad damp but very special.
On Christmas Day we will be joined by our elderly mothers, perhaps this may prove to be a poignant time. Just after Christmas we will be joined by David’s family, all six of them. Our house will be so full of people once again, I do love this and I’m looking forward to seeing them enormously.
Yesterday also saw the carols by candlelight service at our church. Always a lovely atmosphere and lots of expectation. Whoever believes churches in the UK are dying out, well let me tell you, you’re wrong. It was standing room only.
Happily for me the carols included Silent Night, which I think must be my favourite. I cannot help think of the stories of WW1 troops in the trenches singing this, playing football on Christmas Day and having their German counterparts join them, putting their guns and bombs aside for a few hours. Now I don’t know if there’s any truth in that but it is a nice thought.
It is a shame that such humanity does not extend to some of the landowners in Nairobi right now. We have heard from someone we know who has just had his house flattened by a bulldozer, something about a long running dispute over the ownership of 20 acres of land.
Closer to home in the UK we have poverty lurking in our society, in every city, town and village. The above photo of an almost empty fridge belongs to someone I know. It does make me sad to think how in spite of the numerous safety nets, we still have such poverty. For some it has been brought about by foolishness, others through circumstances beyond their control. For some it is through family breakdown or simply an inability to cope and take sensible decisions. Whatever the reason and whether in the developing world or closer to home, you simply have to question why this happens in this day and age. Often there is a backdrop of a complicated range of needs, underlying problems and gaps of care and love left by our society.
We try to play our part but it sometimes seems so ineffective. That’s where faith comes in and where anything is possible; I do need to be reminded of this often.
I always enjoy this time of year for so many different reasons. Amongst the many pleasures are the moments when I can spend a little time on my own, reflecting on things and dreaming about the year ahead. While this year, 2018, has had a number of unexpected surprises, I wonder what the year ahead will hold. Now I am (unexpectedly) retired, a number of possibilities lie ahead and I’m keen to grasp these. Grasping everything with my usual gusto will have to be tempered through my physical health now exposing another problem. I can see I will have to think in a slightly different way in order to move in the direction I’d like to. Forgive me for being a little cryptic here.
I love life, people, the good in humanity, creativity, the breathtaking world we have and how there is so much to learn, explore and marvel at. So many opportunities to play my part in this. I dread being elderly and having regrets on the lines of “I wish I had done X while I had the opportunity, before it became too late”. So many of the rewarding things I have done have been when I have taken the more difficult road, stepped out of my comfort zone or taken a risk. Sure I have some regrets. Life is so compelling and in spite of health issues, I firmly believe the best is yet to come.
