hooray... 'tis over for another semester!!

Well yesterday was the end of a really busy semester and I was so pleased to have come out of it the other end still in one piece that I went to get my hair done this morning and to catch up with someone I hadn't seen for a year or so.

It was great to catch up with Jo, and to see how well she was looking and how things have changed so much in a year, for both of us.

The hair is looking good... as always - thanks Chris!!

However back to work.... finished the marking and the assessment board went ok, the revalidation documents are all in and I have almost finished the papers for selection conference. It is so hard filling out forms about yourself, as everything is subjective.... how can you be objective about something that means so much and how can you be objectve about yourslf anyway.

I have tried, and we will just have to see what happens, I can't be anyone other than me and I wouldn't want to be... I quite like who I have become and I know that God loves me, so what more can I want...

oh dear...

This morning I actually managed to listen to Thought for the day on Radio 4. It was Giles Fraser and he was talking about his Gran who has now died, but who in her last years suffered from dementia. He was suggesting that perhaps she became the person she mght have been had she been allowed to be the real her. It made me wonder as I often do, what might have happened if ..... If I'd made more of an effort at school, if my dad hadn't left us when I was a young child, if I had made more of an effort with trying to get to grips with music theory (any theory really!!) I'm glad I'm doing what I'm doing - don't get me wrong, I love teaching youth work, BUT I do soemtimes feel as if there is more to life than this..... I got the same feeling after catering for quite a few years, and went to college to get a degree and post grad and now look at me....

I don't think it is the case of the grass is greener, just a feeling there is more for me to do, and I always get like this after going to Ireland, and this feeling has been there since I went over a few weeks ago. I didn't get it after being in Canada, I don't get it after going to Iona, but only when I go to the emerald isle. Maybe it's because I get to think and reflect more when I'm there... who knows?

One thing I think - is that I want to be where God wants me to be, (most of the time) but its discerning that place and time isn't it....

Snow....

well what a surprise this morning - snow!! it would have to be today wouldn't it.... it is Nikki's first driving lesson!!

it looked so beautiful and then I went out to try and clear the car, I got cold, wet, and so did the inside of the car!! there was so much of the stuff and it was going everywhere!!

A bit like other stuff we consider 'beautiful' - it makes us happy for a little bit, while we are enjoying it but as soon as 'reality hits us it makes us miserable...

On sunday evening in the evening praise service we were looking at 4 characters in the Bible - Martha, the paralysed man who was let down through the roof, the rich young ruler and the woman at the well... all of whom had thier lives changed by Jesus in one way or another.... I asked the congregation who they would like to have met and why, most of them said the paralysed man, but one said the rich young ruler and one said Martha, another said afterwards they would like to have met Mary to find out how she resisted all that was going on around her... me too!! The rich young ruler though - was someone who was told to do something that was hard for him to do, he liked the look of Jesus and everything that wa going on around him, but... I wonder how his story panned out... did he do it in the end or was the cost too great? did he become a lonely man or did he find the friendship of Jesus too hard to resist?

spirituality

Spirituality is not an easy thing to define.... one of our former students sent us an email once (hi Su)asking what spirituality was, for somehing she was doing. Today Robert and I were looking at a new module we will be teaching in the coming year and saying spirituality needed to be in there.

2 books were written in the last 2 years about spirituality, one by Phil Rankin and the other by writers from CYM in Cambridge. The thing about asking young people about spirituality is that it can all depend on the person asking, the type of day the young person has had etc. It is also having an awareness of what spirituality is for the young person, - can they articulate what it is.... For me it is many things, but mainly about seeing God in the day to day. Can and do we see God in creation? Something I was challenging the young people about in the confirmation class the other day. What about the everyday mundane work tasks, washing up, music, art etc. It is being aware I am a spiritual person, that is made in the image of God, of which part is the Holy Spirit, who enables me to see God in all things.... or at least try to see God in all things....

I went to Canada in the summer and the sights were spectacular, the Giants causeway and Staffa are awesome.... Beaches on Iona are amazing becasue on one beach it is white shingle and clear water, another beach is white sand with some stones/pebbles, another is pebbles/stones... Creator God made all this and it is awesome.... I also love trees in autumn when they are changing colours.... tiny baby hands and feet, every single one of us is unique.... Making the everyday spiritual... do we?