Earth is crammed with heaven

It's the first day of Lent today. That will be why I cooked 37 pancakes last night. Yes just for the 5 of us, Ryan & Nathan were having a competition. I had the obligatory thoughts about what, if anything, I should give up... Chocolate, cakes, biscuits, the usual suspects. But after a chat with someone this morning I've decided to arrive at Easter by a different route this year. Instead of giving up something I enjoy ie. chocolate, Why don't I give up thinking that I have to put myself through it? Why don't I give up using words such as ought, and should, and their opposites? Why don't I give up feeling guilty about things I don't need to? Why don't I give up viewing chocolate as something that should be forbidden because I'm overweight? Why don't I start making time to read what I really want to read? To be quiet when I have nothing to say? To pray when I want to speak to the one who loves me best of all? To rest when I need ...

Today I took the Five Minute Friday challenge  from Lisa-Jo Baker: Got five minutes? Let’s write. Let’s write in shades of real and brave and unscripted. Let’s just write and not worry if it’s just right or not. 1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. 2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 3. Go buck wild with encouragement for the five minuter who linked up before you. Won’t you give me your best five minutes for the prompt: Bare Bare 'The king is in the altogether, the altogether, the altogether He's altogether as naked as the day that he was born' It's one of those songs I've always remembered. It's from the film, 'The Emperor's new clothes' (Hans Christian Anderson) The morals are clear: Deception. Thinking yourself better than you are. Being so big for your boots that you can be made a fool of. But that's naked. Bare is something different. Bare is about everything being strip...

I love a new notebook. Especially when it's pink and has butterflies. I also love the fact that I get to write in it with my pink fountain pen which I thought I'd lost. It feels special because it's ink and not biro. It gives the writing some gravitas somehow. I remembered today that Mum and Dad bought me this pen when I graduated in 2009. I'd forgotten the significance of it. It brought a moment of grief when I remembered. But Dad liked a nice pen too; especially a fountain pen.  Dad had recently had a stroke. He was happy inside but couldn't show it in his face!   I love the written word. I love to write To read To hold a pen To turn the pages of a book. Technology is great, but sometimes it's good to get back to basics. In our faith too.... As I start this note book I'm filled with Hope Joy Anticipation And somehow a sense of well being. A bit OTT I know, but it's a bit like the start of a new term; When you...

If you haven't read Monday's blog Have a quick look here http://karensandford.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/on-dr-foster-went-to-gloucester.html This is a postscript to that. I parked the car at the view point on Reigate Hill this morning. I'd had a tricky hour or two, and they do good coffee there. So I sat with my 'flat white', Snuggled under the blanket off the back seat, And I surveyed the scenery. A song was going through my head. An old song that I hadn't heard for over 20 years (I was 10 at the time....) 'In the testing moments of my life, when the way is hard to see, Then my Saviour stands and gently speaks Eternal words of grace to me.' As I sat in God's presence I thought about that phrase Eternal words of grace. I thought. And I prayed. And I looked. And I remembered a little-used app on my phone. It not only has lots of versions of the Bible on it, But some of them are spoken aloud. I wanted to hear... Not just read...

Dr Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain. He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there again. I had a Dr Foster moment today. We were walking with friends. The men were in front.... We were bringing up the rear. We were talking... Except when we went up hill then we gasped the odd word  And waited until the ground levelled off. "Watch this bit it's muddy," the men called back as they climbed and balanced on a steep bank to pass the muddy bit. But we women, seeing clearly, decided to go on the other side. It was less steep. And wider. What I hadn't noticed was the branches sticking out. We had to shuffle sideways. Heads down. Shoulders hunched. I spied a place to stand before jumping to the other side. Only it wasn't a place to stand. It was like quicksand, sucking me down to its depths. Well, down to my knee anyway. I screamed. They laughed. I retrieved my leg, with my boot still intact surprisingly, then...

I had a 'moment' earlier on. It was just towards the end of my allocated work time. The tears took me a bit by surprise. At first I thought OK. I'll stop. Time for a warm drink, a snuggle on the sofa and maybe a biscuit or two. And then I thought. I know. I'll go for a walk in the snow. End up at Tesco and get something nice for my lunch. See how food often features? And then I remembered the boys laughing at me yesterday. Four of them in total. They'd made a tortoise in the snow. Well that's what they'd called it, but it didn't look much like one to me. More like a mound of snow. I asked them why they hadn't made something simple like a cat. They seem quite popular this year for snow sculpting. So they laughed. So my third and final option was to show them. Off I went, into the garden, and transformed their tortoise into a cat.  Sidney, my snow cat.  As I picked up and sculpted the snow, (It wasn't that d...

I went to the hairdressers today. I've been going there for a long time so they know me. I feel comfortable. My stylist has cut and highlighted my hair since she first started training. So she knows without me telling her that Sometimes I leave it curly. Sometimes I like it straight, but not straightened. She knows my fringe is sacred. Never too short. I have a calf-lick at the front of my hair, so it has to be tamed. I don't like to show much forehead. She has a list of the colours I have in my highlights. She knows I drink coffee. She always puts me at the middle sink if she can, As that's the one with the massage chair. She knows I'm happy to chat and catch up for a while, But not for too long, as I like to read and browse the magazines. She knows that I don't talk during the final rinse, I like to enjoy the head massage with my eyes closed. I sound demanding. I'm not. She just knows. But still checks that I want things the way the...