Worry Not

 

Evening all. I hope you are well. We are all fine - thanks for asking. Sadly, we lost my aunt this week - Aged Parent's sister. She had been ill for some time and, I think, had probably had enough. It's a bigger deal for her daughter and family than for me and looking after her had been a long and sad time in their lives. Her death means the loss of the last of that generation so my cousin and I move into the lane where we are the oldest generation in our family. Weird isn't it? Thank goodness I still look so young and luscious. Otherwise, I could get quite depressed.

Like Aged Parent, my Aunt was from a strong Northern line of women. They said what they wanted to and you had to get over it. My grandfather would have liked his intelligent, feisty daughters to have worked in offices because that was the top thing for a woman to do. Aged Parent was a good typist and excellent at shorthand so it was a no-brainer for her. Her sister decided she would rather stay with her friends so she secretly went off and got a job as a sewing machinist, which she excelled at. Anyone who went against my grandfather - who was familiar with the term Strong Male Patriarch -  was definitely to be admired. Although my money would always be on her, to be frank. 

We are about halfway through January now as I am sure you will have noticed or - as someone said this morning - the 348th week of January. I am on leave this week - just using up time that has accumulated so I expect it to pour down all week. HOH and I are trying to plan a few things to do so that I don't suddenly wake up and I have wasted the week and haven't even got around to doing my work ironing. We were thinking of a couple of trips to the pictures but I'm not sure now. I looked up The Brutalist and it's a Certificate 18 with excessive drugs and sex. What is wrong with people? I'm glad I checked though because I thought it was about architecture. We'll probably just do the Bob Dylan one. HOH has strictly insisted that I am not to moan - I'm not that keen on Bob Dylan, to be honest. My theory is that you had to be there and possibly be full of drugs to appreciate him properly. 

It's a big news week apparently - America-wise. I'm thinking of a news blackout - I saw a little girl at the cinema once wearing noise-cancelling headphones and I'm thinking of asking if I can borrow them for a week. Things seem to be happening in the world that we could never have imagined. For those prone to a bit of catastrophic thinking like my good self, these are not great times. Two helpful things for me anyway.

1. Not all thoughts are true and not all have to be succumbed to. There are lots of good techniques on the Internet about insisting that your brain goes down a more optimistic path - using pictures of choosing paths in the forest or footholds in a mountainside. The idea is that you repeatedly correct your brain into a different way of thinking - imagining good outcomes instead of bad and that eventually your brain will automatically settle into a good-before-bad mindset. This seems very useful. Although I would say that the Bible thought of it first - 

fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

Just saying.

2. I read an article about a Podcast (ah the Internet) by the historian Tom Holland. (Not Spiderman). He was saying (and I think the Cof E is especially guilty here) that, over the years, the church had removed any reference to what he called "the weird stuff" - the supernatural, the otherworldly, prayer to a bigger God in favour of us all "gaining fellowship by sharrrring" or praying as a sort of intellectual exercise to cleanse the brain. This seems to be done so as not to offend anyone or indeed to stop people thinking that we are weird. The problem is that leaves us as a sort of social club where we are the go-to for excellent social action or having nice people rub the back of your hand and say "There, there". These things are useful but not a fraction of what it is meant to be. Christianity has a supernatural God at the head of it who says - pray, pray for change, pray for answers, pray for miracles. As Sister Miriam used to strike up in chorus time every Sunday - whether we wanted to sing it or not - 

"Expect a miracle when you pray - Expect a miracle every day" (Blimey, I'm old). 

I think if I spent as much time praying for things as I do reading those stupid clickbaits on Instagram and YouTube that say "Five Micro things to change your life forever!" I would be seeing a lot more things happen to give me peace of mind. You are probably better at this than I am. I could do one of those Instagram reels about prayer called "Things I know will make a difference to my life which I rarely do". 

It is all there for us. It's just the doing of it. Have a great week.