More than Writers

Today (31 st May 2020) is the birthday of the Church. We may be unable to celebrate Pentecost or Whit Sunday as we have done in the past, but it remains one of the major festivals. (Eastern Orthodox churches will be celebrating a week later due to the difference in the calendars.) I remember some Whit Sundays of former years. As a child I spent at least two visiting grandparents in Lancashire . We only visited them for a week once a year as the journey from Surrey was arduous. It featured several modes of transport including a journey from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly on a train with corridors and a steam locomotive before the Intercity trains arrived, cutting the journey time considerably. School half-term holidays always coincided with Whit week at that time. At junior school we had a full week’s holiday. Later we began visiting in the summer holidays as we only had a few days for half term. What I remember about these two visits was taking part in the Whit w...

Just say... We were at the birthday party for my husband’s granny. All her sweet, elderly friends were there, cooing over our children who did look cute and gorgeous. All was peaceful, and they congratulated us on our happy instant family. Until Granny’s cake was brought in, and a room full of old people started up ‘Happy Birthday’ in quavering voices. My son was instantly transformed into a raving monster, his loud shrieks, howls and raging sounds easily outdoing the old folk’s singing. As soon as the singing ended, his shrieks did too, replaced by a sobbed, “Cake?” A few ladies did question us quietly, later. Were we sure about it? After all, three children in one go? And he had seemed so very angry... Seeing bags packed for holidays has a similar effect on his older sister. Not the mad but short-lived rages, simply the falling apart quietly. Someone suggested to me, “But can’t you just explain that it's just for a holiday and you’ll be back at the end?” Of...

With the exception of one blog post for Chandler’s Ford Today and briefly here, I’m not planning to write about coronavirus. I am one of those writers and readers who, when trouble strikes, looks for comfort or light relief (or  both) so I turn to Terry Pratchett and P.G. Wodehouse to make me laugh. And when I just want to smile because it is irony I’m after I return to a certain Miss Austen. Wherever your stories are set, readers should be able to understand what drives your characters. Pixabay There is a place of course for writing about what is going on around us but I know it isn’t for me. If I have any mission with my writing, it is to try to entertain others. We all need somewhere to escape when life gets too much and for me that has always been in three worlds:  stories (reading and writing them), music (especially classical), and chocolate. What all characters should have. Pixabay image. I believe I have to be true to myself when I write. I won’t force ...

Do we know how life changing an encouraging word can be? Once when I was away on a retreat, I was on my own and was feeling quite vulnerable.  It was a silent retreat so on the first morning when I went very early into the dining room for my breakfast and saw a lady from a different retreat at another table, it never occurred to me to chat. So I was most surprised when she tapped me on the shoulder, placed a note in front of me then smiled and left.  When I read the note I was stunned.  It said that she'd been given my book, Encountering God and loved it and because I'd mentioned this particular retreat centre, she'd decided to go on retreat there herself and take my book as her reading material!  I was amazed on several levels: a) because it was so unexpected and so encouraging; b) because only God knew that I'd long had a rather naughty dream: to be travelling or staying somewhere and suddenly meet someone who is reading my book! And c) her final words in this ...

I’ve enjoyed a number of walks at a local nature reserve in recent weeks. They’ve given me headspace, opportunities to process my thoughts and time for God to speak to me. There are a number of well-worn paths through the grass, and on days when there aren’t many people around I tend to stick to those. However, on busy days, I find myself walking through the longer grass, creating new pathways in order to maintain a suitable distance from other people. Establishing new pathways can make us nervous. Long grass and plant clumps can make the ground uneven to walk on. There may be hidden rabbit holes or lumps of earth that could cause us to stumble. Perhaps there are little creatures hiding in the longer grass, ready and waiting to nibble at our ankles. Stinging nettles or thorns can leave us with rashes or grazes, causing discomfort and itching. It’s so much easier to stick to the trodden-in pathways. Other people have gone before us and have made a way for us, and we si...

Ironic, isn't it?  Placed into lockdown on 23 March with still no end in sight to social distancing – and the local ACW group invites us to write about new avenues for sharing faith.  A few years ago someone suggested that Maslow's well-tried hierarchy of needs should have WiFi as the foundation layer. This did the rounds of social media as a joke, but maybe there's a point. First my trip to Cyprus was cancelled – which meant I could, after all, be confirmed into the Catholic Church at Easter along with the rest of the Journey in Faith group. Then that was off too.  Do churches ever close I asked myself?  Did they even close for the 14th century  Black Death pandemic?  Should they close?  I'm not sure. But they did and there have been positives. The first has been the weekly Bible study by zoom (including priest and laity, age range 15-75) set up and led by a lad in his mid teens. The second is the WhatsApp group in lieu of weekly meetings. T...

‘What kind of a war have you had?’ people used to ask each other at the end of the Second World War, and indeed, at the end of the First. When you think about it, the idea that war, which is horrendous for everyone, might be better for one person than for another seems somehow a bit dodgy. But it’s understandable that they thought like that. We’ve had a ‘good’ lockdown so far. It sounds complacent to enumerate the reasons, but I shall. We have no elderly close relatives in danger. We have no small children to homeschool. We were both working from home already. We have a nice garden to sit in. Speaking for myself, I dislike shopping and other errands outside the home, so to be forbidden to do them was a massive benefit. Our main outside activity in the past has been country walks, but these were already curtailed for other reasons. It’s true that we can’t be with our children and grandchildren, but such meetings tend to be infrequent, whereas we have had a good many Facetime and Zo...

Community  by Rebecca Seaton                                                                                Community Events: Last year's Steam and Cider Fair We all need community - recent times have demonstrated this powerfully.  God makes it clear in His word that community is important. For a start, He is Himself three unique parts which unite together. Who He is: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, demonstrates the importance of different roles operating in unity. He expects no less from us. When His word speaks of bringing His kingdom, it is as a community of believers acting together. What does this actually mean though? We know it doesn’t mean everyone being the same – there are many different types of Christian and even within one church, wildly differ...

Recently, I have been to the beach. I have been to the fairground. I have been in an aeroplane. I have been to the jungle. I have been to the desert. I have been to fairy-land. No, I haven’t broken lockdown rules, I have Zoomed with my nieces and nephews. I have been blamed for encouraging their imaginations quite ridiculously, and I’m delighted to be deemed worthy of such an accolade. Earlier this week was beach day. Before we ‘left’ for the beach, it was essential – as anyone who has ever spent a day at the beach surely knows – to pack things to take. Things we’d need when we got there. First on the list was buckets and spades. My six-year-old nephew quickly volunteered to go and get them, and so disappeared off screen. His four-year-old sister rolled her eyes, “I’d better go and help. My husband can’t find them.” I thought that was hilarious, and put it on Facebook, where others agreed with me. One friend commented, ‘little pitchers and all that’. My niece had been repeati...

“I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with my eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before.  Psalm 32:8 (The Passion Translation)    This blog started out fifty-six days ago with the idea to write a daily on-going story to give people opportunity to forget lockdown and dwell on something different.   I had no idea of the story beyond the first few episodes and have enjoyed stretching my imagination in attempting to feed others, and I too, have been fed.   I didn’t plan for forty episodes, or it becoming ‘Series 1: The Journey” as it covered six days in the character’s life.  It is  time consuming to keep the story line to 300 words, and a friend lelps to find a relevant scripture and question.   In seeing the story was far from the end, we took a seven day ...