From the Rectory

I was given a terrific weather station for Christmas which gives me all sorts of information about what is happening and what might happen. It’s been great for the rain and gales, and at the moment I am just missing snow. I think we all remember what the snow was like just before Christmas last year. Nearly everything stopped. It caused huge disruption to almost everything including our services in the church. It was one of those times when we see the glass as half empty or half full. I couldn’t get the car out and some of our older friends, concerned about a fall, couldn’t get out at all. But for about a week, there was a constant stream of children and whole families along Church Lane some with their sledges, some with plastic sheets, and some even with big tin trays. School was closed, and mum and dad couldn’t get to work, what a great opportunity to take advantage of the snow to spend time together and have some fun.. Life is a bit like that and often, what is good for one person isn’t necessarily good for the next. I have discovered that the trick is to try to accept whatever comes along, and try to make the most of it. When my father was too old and frail to live on his own in Australia, I went and fetched him, and brought him to live with us in Seale. We had our ups and downs for about 18months until he died. It was very difficult for him and for us. He had lived in Australia for 30 years, so we hardly knew him, and May discovered where I get my obstinacy and awkwardness. But it gave us all the opportunity to get to know each other, and allowed me to feel that at last I had been able to do something for him. Something which had started off as a duty, almost a penance, turned into something I would not have missed for the world.

I wonder what we all miss by not wanting to disrupt the lives we lead by being inward looking, and not being positive, by seeing the dark side and not opportunities.

I sometimes wonder what ‘the boss’ thinks when he looks down and sees what we are up to. I know we have free will, but that free will is supposed to help us to enjoy the life we have been given, to be grateful for waking up to each new day which can begin as today began with a beautiful sunrise. Maybe part of what we are, what helps us to be ‘half full’, is helping those around us to see the beautiful colours of the clouds and the beauty of what we have around us, and not the fact that those same clouds probably mean it’s going to snow or rain.

Nigel McGregor

PS. Thank you all so much for all the cards and best wishes you sent to us at Christmas. And a special thank you to the kind person who anonymously sent us a beautiful basket of begonias.

N.