I have just been to the supermarket and had one of those experiences where I kept having to bite my tongue. For most of my trip through. the aisles I was in step with a couple with two small children, the mother with about a 9 month old in the stroller, the father with the a 2 1/2 to 3 yr old in the trolley. As could be expected around 4.30 on a Saturday afternoon the toddler was restless and bothersome. Both his parents kept up a bit...
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Yes there has been a gap – I have written stuff in my head which has never quite got to the digital state. But today – as I left work something kind of magical happened. It was pretty late so I took an alternative route that meant I ran into one of our cloud architects who was on parental leave last week. As we had chatted a fair bit over the last month over his wife’s increasing frustration with late stage pregnancy...
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Today was my birthday. Last year it was on my birthday the grief broke through the numbness of getting things done for Dad’s funeral when I opened my birthday card from Mum and for the first time in 52 years it was only signed by her. Despite already having that “first” this year it still tr iggered that moment of wanting my Dad, intensified slightly by the first post I saw on my Facebook feed was that a friend in...
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Today one of the developers asked me what I thought the first day of the week was. I paused for a moment and then said Sunday. Apparently SQL databases need you to tell them whether you are going to count Sunday as day 1 of 7 or Monday as day 1 of 7. It made me think of some heated discussions almost thirty years ago when I was a member of a fairly fundamentalist Christian group where the trend for calendars to show Monday as the...
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This morning in Christchurch I am confronted once more by the emptiness awaiting rebuild. The discussion I had this morning re-invigorates my dream of returning. As she said good-bye the recruitment consultant I met with said “I like helping people come home”
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Today was a hard day as it was the anniversary of Dad’s death. We were all a bit anxious about how we’d cope – especially Mum who was leading two workshops. There was the odd moment but it actually worked out well as it stopped the “this time last year” litany that was kept threatening at the edge of consciousness. The three of us went to Mass at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Dunedin in the evening,...
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On the drive down to Dunedin today we stopped for a late lunch in Oamaru. Last year we passed through fairly late after everything was closed. It was a lovely interlude with Mum, who hadn’t been there recently. It really deserves a full day at least of browsing rather than a quick peak into some shops and an excellent lunch. It feels so much like a step back in time enhanced by the substance of the stone walls. One of the more...
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When I was very little – I fell in love with a statue of Mary my grandmother had. I remember looking up at the statue and being entranced by her long graceful lines and the lack of colour. In my emotional memory she was at least 50 – 60 cms tall. Of course that was when I only came up to my grandma’s waist. I have the statue now and she is only 30 cms tall if that, for me concrete evidence of how a child’s view...
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Last night a friend asked on Facebook “what do you think about when you are not doing anything” When your mind is just wandering through those random pathways of memories and wonderings. Which kind of ties into my birthday coming up – where was I at 30 years ago? Packing up the house for our year in the UK. 21 years ago I was just starting work at Vic University Catholic Chaplaincy – what a watershed that year...
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The heart grows hard when it does not love. Lord, give us a heart that knows how to love. Pope Francis What then does the Lord require of you – to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God Micah 6:8
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