I begin in Washington DC, then return to the London area for a couple of days, but not long enough to come home to Scotland. After that I leave for Italy, where I will be for ten days at a music and literature festival. I came back again to the London area, and several other places in the South of England, and then finally a couple of days in Spain, for another festival. Lastly, at the end of the month, I shall get home again – no doubt to piles of mail of all sorts.
It will be fun, rewarding and part of my job. I will meet some marvellous people, I always do, but right now I am in the middle of the packing (relays of cases to last the whole month) and panicking stage. Do I have everything? Is it all co-ordinated? Will I be at the right places, at the right times, and wearing the right clothes for the occasion? Will I have the right currency, and all the documents I need? Will anyone be there to meet me? And the one I always worry about – will I be well, and able to say and do all the things people wish of me, and that I have promised to do?
And in the cases of Italy and Spain – will I understand what is going on?
I don't know how anyone does this sort of thing if they do not know and believe that prayer is heard – Priesthood blessings may be sought to give comfort and guidance, most especially when you are far from home, alone, and a lot of the time in a country where you have only a little of the language.
And yet if you allow fear to paralyse you so that you say 'no', instead of 'yes please' to invitations and to experiences, and above all to opportunities, who knows what you may be denying yourself? There may be something good you could have done, someone you could have helped or encouraged, but fear prevented you. There are often great chances to do things which are not specifically asked for by name – please will you speak to this person, or listen to that one, comfort or uplift, or simply be there for someone. Far more often it is an opportunity offered, a chance put in your path because you were in the right place, and willing to try. And of course there are gifts to receive for yourself that you might never have guessed at.
Often in prayer we ask the Lord to guide us into the places where He would have us be, but He does not often say to us in so many words – Please go to this place because someone there needs you, or I have something for you which you can receive only there.
Often in prayer before Simon drives me somewhere, he will ask for the usual safety for us, and for those we leave behind, especially our respective families, but also he adds a thanks for the opportunities the journey will give us. We will meet people, and what we say or do, the way we conduct ourselves will be seen.
Last month we ate at a very nice restaurant, and as always silently blessed the food before starting. As they were leaving their own table, an older couple stopped by and said “You were blessing the food, weren't you?”
We said 'yes, we were'.
The man smiled and said how happy he was to see that. Too few people did it any more, in his opinion. We did not ask what denomination they were, nor did they ask us. It was sufficient for us that we knew all gifts come from God, and it is in our hearts to thank Him.
It was a happy experience, and a reminder that we never know who sees us and is lifted up or brought down by how we behave.
'People watching' can be interesting. Lots of those who are travelling, waiting, meeting someone, will do it. We should not forget that we also are watched. We affect other people's lives more than we realize.
How glorious this spring has been in England and Scotland. I have been driven from one end of it to the other. We have put over twenty thousand miles on the car just this year so far. The weather has been wonderful since Good Friday, often cloudless skies. Actually we really need a bit of rain!
But the countryside is in bloom everywhere. The hedges are like snow with blackthorn blossom. Soon it will be even thicker with hawthorn, and the air will be dizzy with the perfume of it.
On the gorse bushes the gold blossom is so heavy one cannot see the leaves or the spines, and of course the bees go crazy with it. Every spare piece of land by the sides of the road is dazzling with dandelions. There are so many of them one would think it had been sown as a crop.
There are sheets and sheets of daffodils, originally sown but now gone wild and spreading. One of my favourites are the truly wild primroses. The banks are cushioned in them, all pale yellow and gleaming in the sun.
People's gardens are bright with tulips, narcissi, pansies, polyanthus, and wallflowers, and of course the perfume of the wallflowers would almost knock you over. Mine are mostly dark rusty red colour, with a few plum coloured or gold. There are hellebore out in the usual interesting shades of wine and green, and giant allium, and masses of blue grape hyacinths.
Back to the wild – we passed hundreds of acres of woodland all in new leaf, brilliant green in the shafts of sunlight through the canopy. Several of them were carpeted in the incomparable sapphire of bluebells, a haze so rich it is as if a summer sky had become caught in the trees and momentarily pinned to earth. They are so thickly spread there would be nowhere to put your feet between them.
No wonder God looked at the world and said it was good! Good barely begins to describe it. One could see a sunset every night of his one's life, and still find it magical.
We visited Hartlepool, a shipbuilding town in Victorian days, in Durham, on the north east coast of England. I had never thought of it as particularly interesting, but it was once extremely prosperous, and some of the architecture is very handsome indeed. They actually had a three-masted tall ship, fully restored, HMS Trincomalee, at the historic dock. What a marvellous sight! It was a cloudless day – again – and the air was so mild, with not a breath of wind, that the water in the marina was like glass.
Travelling so much is very tiring, but what gifts of sight and sound one receives, what interest, what kindness, and what unforgettable beauty of nature. What an endless joy to see the earth break forth in flowers, all clean and new. Surely that is a taste of what resurrection will be – everything recreated after its kind, perfect again, the temporary sleep of winter only used as time in which to mend and to heal?
And it was a pleasure to be back at Church again. There were good lessons, and for me, especially good talks. Adversity was addressed, its necessity, and what we so often forget, that it is 'but a brief time'. I wish I didn't need reminding so often of the true nature of the timespan we deal with. I can only see this bit, and too often I don't place it in the middle of 'forever', but treat it as if it were all.
It is good to be in the company of fellow believers, whatever part of the journey they are on. But we cannot rest in the comfortable patches too long, and still do the jobs we came here for.
Let us strengthen one another, comfort and encourage, be brave but not rash, gentle but not weak, honest but not unkind. Let us have faith, hope, and above all, charity, so at the last day, whenever that is, 'it may be well with us'.
