Lent26

  A large print of this painting by Salvador Dali hung in the assembly hall of the middle school I attended many many decades ago.  I wasnt brought up in a Christian family and we never went to church but I did get sent to brownies and later girl guides.  Both of these had a definite Christian ethos and I now know were run by good and godly women.  The only other christian input into my life came through school.  This picture made a great impression on me.  Every day we had school dinners in the hall where this painting hung.  Every assembly we all sat on the floor cross legged underneath it.   I remember staring at it and feeling moved by its beauty and its symbolism.   We sang hymns at school.  We prayed the Lords Prayer.  All under the watchful eye of Jesus on the cross.   I didnt know anything about the painting then except that I liked it alot.  It was only many years later that I discovered that it had...

 I cant think of anything to say today so here are a couple of my poems which i hope you will enjoy.  Ive picked some on the topic we started off with this Lent - getting older Ageing  This weathered wall where mosses grow and lichen, imperceptibly slowly creeps like greying hair across an ageing face does not mind the passage of time. The russet bricks have seen many a storm crumbling in places, so well worn with mortar cracking in the joints arthritic ,yet still surviving with a will. How many youthful hands have trailed their fingers here? How many snails ascending from the earth below have added to the slow decay I witness here today? But in neglect a wistful grace elevates this oft-passed place for eyes that deign to see. May my ageing be so engaging Divine Chiropractor  I am older now the daily grind, the wear and tear have unaligned my bones I'm out of kilter, strained and stressed limping through my day Sore, I come to You You size me up, then lie me down and...

Yesterday someone I dont know particularly well asked me for some advice.  I said I'd do my best and settled down to listen to her story.   It turns out that just about every twist and turn in her journey was a road Id already travelled down.   From being the kid of divorced parents to having married a man I met on the internet and everything in between.  We both kept stopping to smile at all the weirdly specific ' me too!' moments.  Im pretty sure we all have times when we wonder what on earth is going on.  Why do we have to go through that experience?  How could God possibly ever bring anything good out of that mistake?  Why have I ended up in this place with these people at this time?   And then there's a moment like I had yesterday where we see God piecing together all the seemingly random incidences of our lives to bring connection and understanding and advice for someone else.   Its soooooo good.   Goo...