Thursday 23 December 2010

A Christmas Tale


The media is calling this, Christmas Week - and for some I guess it is. But for me this is the fourth week of Advent - Christmas Week is next week beginning with Christmas Morning.
Pedantics I know!
This week I have watched with interest as the NATIVITY is played out on BBC1 every evening - the notion that this story could be 're-worked' by a writer of soap operas filled me with not a little dread - however! It has been a revelation, running threads of individual stories- not just Mary and Joseph; but a lone shepherd struggling with life; the three Magi, filled with hope, curiosity, and awe; and King Herod, paranoid, untrusting and quite vile!
But more than any it is the story of the relationship between Mary and Jospeh that has had me most enthralled. I have spent many years pondering exactly the issues that have been playing out - how she would cope; her fears and his feelings of betrayal and grief. I am very much looking forward to the final episode tonight - when all will be revealed and all of the players will come together...

In addition to all of this, as I have shared my own reflections with various folks this week - from elderly dementia sufferers to a huge crowd of carollers - I have felt a bubbling up of joy and excitement. I love Christmas! I love the sense of joy and hope that the season brings, and I have been blessed this year with the anticipation of all that the New Year will bring - preaching for a new charge; relocating and planning for a wedding - not someone else's this time, but my own!!
All of this and a first Christmas with my lovely fiance - life is truly blessed!!

My soul glorifies the Lord!
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!!

Saturday 4 December 2010

knuckling down...


Sometimes we just need to have a good ole moan!
Here in Scotland we seem to be a little more stoical than our neighbours - maybe we are just better prepared? Or actually we simply expect Winter will mean some delays and postponements.
But - oh-my-goodness!!!! The press seem to have gone moan mad - the weather it seems is everyone's fault - government, councils, emergency services.... let's face it - we are at the mercy of the weather; it's the attitue that makes all the difference.
The cold snap has lingered.
Pipes are freezing; shops are empty; roads are icy.
This is winter!
And maybe, we are going to have to get used to it - three winters in a row now we have had heavy snow, and each year it has come earlier than the last. It is not unprecedented - just not very common - yet!

I have enjoyed the weather - wrapped up properly, venturing out into the streets has been fun - meeting other folks and hearing their news has been a pleasure. Offering lifts and running errands - all part of life's rich tapestry.
I took a friend who is also a parishioner to hospital for her 20 week scan as her poor husband was stranded off-shore. What an honour! And how lovely to share in that precious moment looking at the wee one - who got very wriggly while s/he was being scanned!! I felt very privileged.

Life goes on - for it must.
We have to eat; we need to heat our homes; and work must go on - so we accept that this is winter - in all its glory. And we get our heads down and get on with it!!

There is a time for everything
and a season for every activity under heaven

Whatever is has already been
and what will be has been before