240 years of wisdom

Today is Friday of week one of the sabbatical. It has been a quieter week, with a lot of people on holiday, but not quiet enough for me to have a holiday. My post-Easter break will definitely have to be a post-Sabbatical break.  Today has presented a nice variety, starting with Morning Prayer, then some office work on the notice-sheet, home communion, wedding interview, queries about monumental masons, preparation for tomorrow's prayer breakfast and Sunday's service, half a dozen emails, a couple of phone calls and another couple of 'inconsequential' conversations. That doesn't seem enough to fill a day, but it is 8pm and we are about to eat dinner.

Today's reflection has been on the speed at which our lives seem to pass by, and how important it is to make time to be with those we love while we can.  That was courtesy of three people with a combined age of around 240. I appreciate their wisdom.

I was also told a story today about a vagrant who spent some weeks in a back garden. He was well-behaved, and made sure his rubbish went into the correct recycling containers (such is modern life), however one day, finding himself short of food and the back door of the house unlocked, left an icon in place of food he took from the house. A gift for a gift.

The Rosie Swale-Pope book that I read recently reminded me how, in some parts of Eastern Europe, survival depends on the kindness of strangers. It tied in quite nicely with a reminder from the older 'friends' that we get back from life what we put in, and we find people are exactly as we expect them to be. It was a timely reminder to put love first.