Skip to main content

Rainy Days and Retirement

 

It is so lovely to curl up with a good book on cold rainy days. I remember the feeling of having to ‘bundle up’ and brave the elements to travel to my work. Then of course, trying to find a parking space near my place of work which was often almost impossible. Taking a brolly wasn’t always helpful—especially if there was a strong wind blowing. Many of my umbrellas turned inside out leaving me drenched and with a useless brolly.

So once retired, the impulse is to just stay home. Of course it is different if you have commitments. Today I thought hard about whether I wanted to go out or stay home in the warm and read some more of my current book. But I have a weekly commitment to meet a good friend for lunch. I could have cancelled and she would have been understanding. I could have persuaded myself that she would also be pleased to stay home except I knew she was already out volunteering at our local church. Besides, I would miss that extra-large flat white!

So I added a vest and a jacket to my usual winter attire and made a run for the car. I walked in to the church and she said, “Oh I just sent a text to say I could pick you up today.”

Bother.

However, it was worth the effort. We had a lovely three hours over large coffees and hot roast vegetable salads at our usual café where they encourage you to stay as long as you like and enjoy. We did!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to relax

  Another update on the ongoing saga of the renovations. The new kitchen has now been pushed out until September with no date given. The flooring has now been pushed out until the 19 September and wallpapering sometime after that. We have to wait for the wallpapering before we install the new heat pump and the range-hood. The new lounge suite will take three to four months to be ready in the colour we want. Family are coming for our 140 th church celebrations the second week in October. I’m praying that the heat pump is up! There will literally be no chairs for them to sit on. Hopefully the new kitchen will at least be installed so I can unpack all the boxes that are currently stored in the spare bedrooms otherwise I have no place for them to sleep. I am laughing at the thought of sleeping bags in the lounge around the piano which is currently right in the middle where we moved it to allow painters to get around it. But today, I had a lovely relaxing morning. My friend is stil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Planting Seeds

  Carrying on from last week, I was wondering how I am sowing seeds. I realised that we can all sow seeds everywhere we go. I don’t go out that often actually, I don’t belong to any secular groups but I can still be responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Under his leading I made a determined effort to get to know the names of all the staff at my two favourite cafés that I visit at least weekly. I ask about their families; I support where I can. My friends and I find opportunities to give them all a little gift of chocolate and a card with a verse of scripture written on it. They all know we are Christians. I guess that might be called planting seeds. I converse with the supermarket checkout operators just to have a chance to bring a blessing to them. Some of them now know I am a Christian. I can easily bring God into conversations with unsaved family members, neighbours and strangers I stop and talk to in the park—with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I do not adopt a heavy...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Importance of Unity

  What do you do when you think the Pastor or Senior Leadership Team have got it wrong! A friend was recently talking about a decision made by our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) including the Pastor. We are a small church community, so decisions affect every member there. However, unless directly involved in a programme or initiative the SLT do not know how a decision they make might impact on the on-the-ground day-to-day running of that programme or initiative. It is important to talk to those involved to get their perspective and even in a small church this might not necessarily happen. Having said that, our SLT are generally very good at consulting. So, what do you do if you think it’s an unwise decision? This will of course depend on size of the church, whether the Pastor is a good listener and is prepared to talk about it and I’m sure, many other factors. My perspective is that I do not want to be talking about the Pastor behind his back. I do not want to gossip about him ...
Post a Comment
Read more