Which mask today?

I visited with a lovely lady in hospital today and left her bedside feeling a lot lighter than I started out. She's in and out of hospital at regular intervals. Sometimes her stay will last a few weeks. I asked her didn't she get sick of hospital beds and hospital food and just the lack of freedom that her condition imposes. She replied: "Of course I do". "Then why do you always seem so bright and cheery?" I asked. What she told me brought me up short. She said that each day she reaches into her little jar of masks and always chooses the bright ones. "No one wants to hear my complaints, " she said.

That reply had me asking myself: "Would I have wanted to listen to her complain?" Probably not is the answer. I would have of course but I'm much more comfortable with her being sunny and positive.

How often do we ask people how they are not really wanting to hear the truthful response but an edited, sanitised version. How often do we give others the edited response when they ask about us? There's a lot of mask wearing going on. It takes something special to get behind all those masks. And it involves an element of risk on our part to emerge from behind the masks that we don. I wish I could love people into taking that risk.

Whose fault?

One of the more disturbing elements that has been a feature since the earliest reports of the massacre in Virginia is the quest to blame campus officials for not closing down the college early enough. Sure, if deaths could have been prevented, there is a need to ensure that critical incident policies are more robust in the future - as they will inevitably be after such an awful occurence. But, somehow, all that looking for scapegoats deflects the naked horror that a lone student perpetrated such dreadful carnage. That sort of humanity gone wrong is just so hard to comprehend. It tests my belief that we are all created in God's image. But that is largely because I do not even want to think that there could be such a seed of evil in me. Of course that ventures down the road of the "problem of evil", the "problem of pain" and the like. All those huge questions with no answers even for those with the most robust faith. What I do believe, however, is that, even thousands of miles away in Scotland, my faith and my love can make a difference to all those suffering as a consequence of the evil perpetrated in Virginia simply because we are but one humanity and the suffering is universal. So I offer no answers, not even any comfort but I offer my faith and my love in support of brothers and sisters of humankind.

More than meets the eye.

This is Sam the sheep - the wooly one. He is one of last year's lambs. He wasn't expected to make it and was hand reared with love. Now he charges around playing football with the son of the folks who raised him! I don't think he really knows he's a sheep.
For a good few years, Easter always found us on the Isle of Tiree and we often got to feed the lambs who needed that little extra care. One year, there was a lamb, we called her Samantha, who used to come walking with us when we took the dogs out. Isn't there a story about geese who were raised with the chickens and spent their days pecking around the yard instead of soaring in the sky?
The world is truly our oyster. We just need some encouragement and some good examples to follow along with a lot of love. Then we can choose to be anything we want to be. And, even better, the folk around us will go on loving us whatever.

Tenacity

Our American guests all began their journey home today. Everything now seems a bit flat. We've had so much fun, so much putting the world to rights. But there has been something a bit surreal about the past week. The very beautiful Scottish weather, unusual for the time of year added to that surreality. Our routine was way off kilter. We ate too much and drank too much and giggled our way through the days - and nights. Its going to be hard to pick up the pieces and try to get back to some sort of normality. But aren't we so fortunate to have had such a great visit? And we've been creating memories. Memories that will sustain us until we can get together across the pond once more.
Even in the mundane every day, its good to have an awareness of memories being created, of sustenance being laid in store.
These beautiful primroses are blooming in the most unlikely places right now. They can't fail to bring cheer wherever they are found. They'll remind me for some time to come of a leisurely walk to the beach, of the excitement of flying kites. Of memories laid deep in my soul. Of love that transcends physical borders and distance and time. Such is the tenacity of friendship.

Communicating

In Scotland, we still have some of these wonderful old red telephone kiosks in splendidly isolated places. Means of communication change so fast. Its good to have reminders of what used to be and of how valuable these isolated communication posts were for communities. Blogging has opened, for me, a whole new exciting world of fellow sojourners, sharing stories and insights as well as giving me the opportunity to put some of my meanderings "out there". Two folk this week, Cherie and Iain have given me a thinking blogger award for which I am grateful. I now have to nominate 5 posts that get me thinking, so here are my top 5 fellow bloggers:

1. Cherie, a sister I have never met but with whom I share lots of similar wanderings.
2. Iain, whom I have met and who never fails to inspire me with his wisdom and talent.
3. italker, this blog often includes astounding video clips and thoughtful poetry.
4. Purple words on a grey background, a wonderful title. Again someone I don't know but whose musings I enjoy. I too used to be in full time chaplaincy - a "sector ministry".
5. goodin parts, insightful reflections of an anglican priest.

Thanks to all of these for putting their reflections on the web. I hope you enjoy Thinking Blogger "status".

Here are the participation rules:

1. If you get tagged [which means your blog has been named on one of these lists of 5], write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (silver or gold version).

Lets keep on communicating!

All the difference

24 hours can make all the difference. We took a trip to our bolt hole in Tighnabruaich this week. Its only 90 minutes from our home but involves a 30 minute ferry ride. Somehow that ferry crossing divides us from home and work and encourages us to rest and relax. We flew the new kites in beautiful surroundings, unhampered by power lines. We walked along the beach. We admired new lambs and calves. We took time over meals, sat around the dining table and talked. Just a whole winding down. And then came home refreshed and enabled to pick up the responsibilty again., well, the important bits anyway. Because being away also lends perspective to life at home and at work and helps us to regularly shed some of that load that we don't need to carry. A sloughing off of the dead wood and unnecessary weight. It even feels good to be back. All this in 24 hours!

Flying kites

Our American guests arrived safely - in spite of homeland security raising the security status to orange right before they boarded their flight in Chicago. Its good to have friends to belly laugh with. We've done a lot of that already. They also brought with them a couple of stunning kites. Now we're busy planning a trip to the beach for a couple of days to fly the kites. Its wonderful to have time and space and good friends to hang out with. We all need light and laughter - and plenty of colour in our lives. We have that in abundance this week and, hopefully we'll all be resurrected in lots of different ways and recharged by our time together.