Breathe

St Abbs Harbour

This is my church today. The waves breathe in and out over the rocks and breathe into the harbour.  The wind breathes over the scene, lifting seabirds higher and then bringing them down gently.

As for me, I am breathing in the clean, salty air and breathing out the cares of the last half term.  Breathing in the quiet and calm and breathing out the busyness of the new routine, the essay deadline, the reading, the meetings and rehearsals, the busy life that my whole family lead.

I am taking the time that I have today - this precious, rare moment of not having to be anywhere or do anything - to breathe in all that has been good about this term so far: the new friends made, the things I have learnt, the kindness and hospitality of my new church. I am taking time to breathe in the sense of being God’s beloved daughter.

I know that it’s always there but it does me good to consciously look for it and feel it, listening to him, knowing he delights in us. I am breathing in the blessings that he showers on us every day and particularly this half term week when M and I get to be together for a week of uninterrupted time with our beautiful boys.  

I didn’t know it at the time but I think I have held my breath for a half a term whilst I’ve got used to all the newness. Today, I am breathing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End of the Beginning (or Time to Say Goodbye?)

Image
Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee There are some songs that follow you as you wend your way through different parts of life. Songs that are significant at key moments and keep popping up, as if they are there as a reminder to take notice of what you are experiencing.  There is one song that I first met years ago and which I have gone on to sing hundreds of times in different versions  and which has often marked an important moment in life. No matter  how many times I sing it, never loses its signficance.  This song is  Time to Say Goodbye , by  Francesco Sartori and Lucio Quarantotto. I first heard it in 1997 when I was staying with a close friend who was living in Germany at the time. It was a huge hit there, sung by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, and was played everywhere. I remember heading back to my home in France and making a beeline for the shops (because we didn't do streaming or downloads or, frankly, even internet then!) and buying the...
Read more

A Woman of Many Talents

Image
My Grandma died on 30th April 2021. That is the bald, undecorated fact in one sentence. She was very frail and elderly, and couldn’t keep fighting illness and dementia forever. What those sentences can’t express, however, is how much those of us she has left behind will miss her or what we have lost in losing her.  I can’t speak for my whole family and all of Grandma’s friends – we all have our own memories. But I can speak about who she was to me and begin to pick out just some of the things about her that made such an impact on me. A pioneer Grandma was born in 1926, in a farmhouse without running water or electricity in the North West of England. This wasn’t that unusual at the time but it was much more unusual that she went to university in the mid-1940s to train as a doctor. Her mum had broken a few glass ceilings herself by going to agricultural college, but to train as a doctor was on another level again. Grandma didn’t finish her medical studies for various r...
Read more

Good Enough?

Image
I did some curacy training recently at which we were asked to ponder some big questions. One of those big questions was, "Do you feel good enough?" This is an issue I have long pondered over many years. I kind of know what the answer should be but God seems to take me on a different journey each time I ask myself the question.  This time, the journey took me along all kinds of paths, meandering around personal and ministry stuff, all bathed in the shadow of the news and the coverage of how women are treated and what, if anything, we can do about it.  And, as I meandered alongside this big question, a phrase met me:  "Stop trying to be a good girl and be God's girl."  This sounds obvious but to someone like me who has always tried to be "good", it's actually something of a revelation.  There is a difference.  So I wrote another poem to try and articulate this.....  Good Enough Be a good girl. Don’t make a fuss.   Be a good girl. Stay sma...
Read more