NaBloPoMo #5

Over at RevGals today's prompt questions what have we done that's not in the job description?
Which gave me reason to smile, as I'm not sure I ever saw a job description for Church of Scotland minister...

However...
Today I've been thinking about time, years and their passing.
Yesterday I turned 56 (I KNOW! AMAZING! RIGHT!?)

Today would have been my grandma's birthday... She was born in 1904 so she's been gone awhile, but I still think of her, and our shared days.  We did stuff together. She lived close by us after my grandpa died, so from the age of around 7 until her death in 1986 when I was 27 she was a constant part of my life.

She was as Irish as she could be, and was wise and kind, but with an honest, sharp wit!
She was also a devout Roman Catholic her rosary was never far from reach and her simple faith was expressed in all sorts of "grandma-isms" PG, GW, TBTG, sweet Mary pray for us....

She lived life
She loved life and she did whatever she could for us, for as long as she was able

She showed what real ministry is. Faithful prayer, compassion and kindness, holding your hair back when you were sick, a cool cloth when you were hot, a full bodied laugh when you were taking yourself too seriously, and sympathetic tears when life did not go as you had hoped and prayed.

I often wonder what she'd have thought about how my life turned out.
Would she be proud? Happy? Shocked?
I know one thing for sure - she wouldn't have been worried about telling me!

Happy birthday Grandma, I hope you're having cake and tea!

This is me, my mum, my grandma and the first two of my three boys, summer 1986

Mothering Sunday 4th in Lent

It is a grey damp morning

Not one for remembering sunshine and laughter...

And yet that I'll do.

As I muse on this Mothering Sunday I reflect on the phone conversation I anticipate with my mother today... I am a grown woman now, with grown up sons of my own, but still this day I remember I am a daughter too.

Her first born

And God's precious child too

As is she

I reflect on all that she gave me, as she raised me:

A strong sense of the presence of God in our lives.

A strong sense of the importance of family

Not just Mum and Dad and my siblings, but the wider family too: aunts and uncles and cousins, my grandparents. And the place they all played in our family as I grew up.

As the years go by, and the years mount

Things change, physically, emotionally, some things are easier to bear than others

But this I know, as much today, as I did back then

She gave me life

She taught me well

She shared her faith

And she helped me to be who I was meant to be

Thank you. Mum

I love you! 

Mum, in her garden on their Golden Anniversary Weekend, 2009