Tread softly...

This past couple of weeks has been spent mainly in schools at lots of end of term activities.
Tomorrow sees the P7s leavers' assemblies.
It's always fun and challenging sending young folk on to the next stage of their journey through life with encouragement and hope.
I like these words of WB Yeats:
I have spread my dreams under your feet
Tread softly
For you tread on my dreams.
Yeats wrote these words for the love of his life but it seems to me that they are words that can be spoken, in love, for all our young people, exhorting them to never give up on their dreams.

The river is wide

What is it about water that is so alluring? I can't imagine living anywhere that I can't be close to water in minutes, be it a river, a stream, or an ocean. It's like cleansing by osmosis. Just its nearness is inspiring, inducing calm, stillness and reflection. Or, in less peaceful times, absorbing agitation and turbulence. Healing streams and life giving oceans - life lines for me.

My boy!

My boy is currently on tour with this band
:
I'd never heard of ska before he got involved with The Hostiles:)

Who would have thought when this cute photo was taken that he'd be involved in a World Cup Tour?

Longest day

This was my view driving home at 10:30pm tonight. Sun took ages to set. The longest day always awakens some primal instinct in me. I've always wanted to find a hill and put together some worship set against the backdrop of the setting sun. Probably if I ever got around to it, it would be a real dreich Scottish night!
One year, in Mull with a friend, on the longest day, we celebrated in a Druid stone circle. Awesome. Our ancestors knew what they were about when they chose their special sites. I'm glad we haven't fathomed their rhyme and reason - mystery is good.

Phew!

This week, I've experienced one of the most exhausting yet fulfilling weeks I have ever known, involved in church work away from home. I've met some amazing people and worked with some special colleagues. There are always folk who begrudge ministers time working outwith their parish. But I have to say that most of the work that I am involved in for the wider church helps to expand my vision and  nurtures something in me that, in turn, allows me to return and better serve the ministry to which I have been called. It's good to gain perspective and insight, gifts that enthuse and inform and I give thanks for all the opportunities with which I've been presented this week.

Wake up call

After a busy weekend, I was languidly anticipating easing gently into the coming week. At 8am I checked my diary, intending to spend some time on the beach praying for events later on in the week. That was when I discovered I was due to take an assembly at one of the secondary schools at 8:55am. I like to put together something visual for the young folks to encourage their imagination and reflection. So I hurriedly got together some of the pictures we'd looked at over the past session. With such limited time, I wasn't able to come up with more contemporary music that they might recognise but decided to take them back in time and played the pics accompanied by The Kinks - Days. Perhaps not my best effort but, sometimes spur of the moment things have a bigger impact than the things we spend hours on. Hoping this at least got their week off to a reasonable start.

Meetings

I love long summer nights but this week, they've been filled up with meetings. One compensation, however, has been the spectacular views and sunsets seen on my way home of an evening. Last night, Hunterston B was glowing in the sun, eclipsing the surrounding scenery.

By the time I got to Ardrossan, the sun was a fiery ball just ready to set fire to the hills as it sank quickly out of view. It took away that dreary "not another meeting" feeling.

Disturbing the peace

I've been taking the opportunity this morning to play catch up. To deal with all those letters and emails and phone calls that required a response. Thankfully, the gentle drizzle has provided a calm, quiet morning. I can just hear the birds singing but at a distance. Yesterday, the birds were flocking onto the lawn and kicking up such a racket. Not sure what the attraction was. Some of them didn't even bother flying off when I went out to take a picture.
Though I love the sun, there is something about the summer rain that brings healing and peace. Giving thanks for that today.

Celebrations on the beach

It's not often you get to celebrate your wedding day in Scotland with a paddle on the beach. But this evening was so beautiful that when the photographer called for a beach shot, some of the guests simply couldn't resist indulging in the remarkably warm water.

Congratulations to Carol and Ewan.

Washed up

Tighnabruaich Pier

Stones - washed up on the beach

worn down by years of agitation

buffed and shaped and chiseled

now objects of intrigue

carriers of mystery

Where have they been?

What have they encountered?

How many storms?

How many days languishing in the sun?

What hands have picked them over and then discarded

tossed back for someone else to enjoy.

And what of them now?

Is this the end of their journey.

Or will the next tide sweep them away

to more adventures

Is their formation complete?

Or is there more to be accomplished.

Stones seem so solid, so unyielding

yet are shaped by the pounding of the seas

and the gentle lapping of the waves

Force isn't always needed

gentleness works too

The frail, elderly, confused folk I've spent time with this week

raise in me similar questions

With no one to tell their stories,

they are like the stones,

mysterious, intriguing,

washed up, but oh so fragile

To be kept and polished and treasured

For they have seen much and travelled far

and their journey is not yet ended

The tide has brought them this far,

deposited them in our care

and with gentleness

we can cherish them

until we lovingly see them

onto the next leg of their journey.

Liz Crumlish June 2010