Sharing some thoughts

From Helen I used to work with Church schools and every summer Bishop John and I would visit the schools. The children were used to seeing me a r ound but they were very excited about seeing the Bishop – imagine what they would be like now seeing an  Archbishop ? Anyway in one school we were having lunch and a little girl  who was  sat by me asked who the important man was. I explained. She was about 6 and she kept looking at the Bishop. I aske d  if she wanted to meet him, she said no. She kept looking so I asked again and I assured her that he was very nice. She waited and asked if she was allowed to touch him. Again I said yes, and has was very nice would she like to meet him. No she said but  this time added, ‘ if he would like to meet me I am in the classroom around the corner and I will say  hello ! ’ I thought of that rather fun incident when I was looking at the gospel reading for this morning (Mark 5:21-43). In this reading we heard of pe...

from Helen I have to admit that I can be a bit of a scaredy cat. If there is any possibility I may get hurt in a situation I avoid it. Once when Ian and I were at the cricket we were  walking around the boundary at what was then Sophia gardens in Cardiff. We were watching Glamorgan. All was very peaceful and calm until a cricket ball came hurtling towards me at speed. Being the brave and competent woman I am I hid behind Ian and he caught the ball with the arm that he didn’t use to catch when he was playing cricket. Ian confidently throw the ball back to a player who was very impressed. Now you could think what a hero Ian is and how good at sports. Until I add in the fact that Ian had his arm in plaster ! And I still hid behind him !! I had been feeling very relaxed and peaceful ! I am sure we have all had situations when our peace is shattered. It might be by someone coming and bothering us when we are in the middle of doing something which involves concentration. It may b...

I love the sea – in fact of all the beautiful places for me that I’ve ever been I think most would involve some water somewhere. I also enjoy going out on boats – of whatever size – the cross-channel ferry to the small speed boat – I should perhaps add that I’m not so keen on rowing boats to be honest, because they’re a bit too wobbly when you try to get in and a bit too much hard work when you eventually do.  Going out to sea on a beautiful still day is a wonderful experience  - the peace I think surpasses anything we can find on dry land. Of course there can also be the rather bad days where the water is not quite so calm. I remember one particular trip where I had gone to Dublin to watch Wales play one year.  Wales had won the game and there was a good degree of celebration – for some bizarre reason which I don’t recall now, we had booked the 9am ferry back to Holyhead the following morning, and it was raining and it was very windy. When we got there we found many o...

from Helen I have recently discovered a real like of football. Now to be honest a real like might seem strange as I have admitted to having a team that I support. I have said that I don’t really like watching football but then I find that due to my family I know a lot about football. I recently went to a live international match of Wales women against Bosnia women this has grown into a group of us from work following the wales women to the extent that we have already planned a trip to the final world cup qualifying game. It turns out I really like football. The problem is I  have probably always  had a soft spot for football but now I have admitted it I can remember all the matches that I have watched and enjoyed.  One match was  watching Liverpool at  Anfield   when  a  member of the opposing team did something wrong. This something wrong caused me to jump and shout, “He can’t do that, he can’t do that.” This was a fair judgment I thought b...

At some point in our lives all of us have to think about priorities. When I was young(er!) at this time of year my priority would be to work out how many cricket matches I could play in... if any of them meant missing time in school that was even better. Now, thinking about playing cricket isn’t such a priority. But we all have priorites, and sometimes those priorities will be juggled around appropriately. It’s often quite funny when our priorities get a little confused. There’s a story told of a couple going on holiday, standing in line waiting to check in their bags, when the husband said to the wife, "I wish we had brought the piano." The wife said, "Why? We've got too many bags already!" The husband said, "Yes, I know-- but the tickets are on the piano!" But back to priorities – and our readings today challenge us to think about our priorities in life. In the reading from Genesis (3:8-15) we heard the account of Adam and Eve hiding in the gar...