Friday, February 06, 2009

Time out


This has been a blissful week. After all the manic preparations for Candlemas and the Bishop (which sounds as if it might make quite a good book) I'd hoped for a gentler few days, but hadn't been expecting quite how generously those hopes would be satisfied.
Snow fell on Monday, - just enough to make things look pretty, but not to disrupt seriously, so that I was able to make it to Frampton-on-Severn where a new colleague was being licensed...From then on,things became progressively more exciting though as the BBC grew ever more hysterical about conditions elsewhere, we began to wonder if we were being sidelined completely.
The Dufflepud kept on going in to school - and kept on being sent home, as staff failed to cope with the drive from outlying areas...I took the unexpected step of cancelling the Eucharist on Wednesday morning, once I realised that the pavements were completely lethal and the likeliest result of going ahead would have been a crop of broken hips among the mostly elderly midweek congregation. I'm still pondering how I feel about this - and about my obedience to the rule that tells me that I cannot preside if I'm the only one present.
As Fr Simon pointed out, I'm always in the company of angels, archangels and all the heavenly host...I need to do some more thinking here, clearly.
Meanwhile, meetings were being cancelled in all directions and yesterday at last we woke up to enough snow to confirm that school was closed.
I achieved various bits of administrivia, had an exciting time planning the PCC day with our diocesan missioner (goodness, that man can pray - what a gift to be with him as he does so!) but generally it has been a time to rejoice in the company of my son and my animals, in evenings by the fireside and the beauty of a world turned white. A bit of enforced hibernation was exactly what I needed. Can you hear me purr?

3 comments:

Disillusioned said...

Unexpected time out has been a blessing for me too, this week. A time to treasure and regroup. Glad you have enjoyed yours.

Fiona Marcella said...

Lucky you - I'm stuck at work with nothing to do, as no one wants to ring unnecessarily at this time. It would be fine except that my AOL isnt working and facebook is barred. Mind you I CAN now log on to blogs so all is not lost. I cannot post on my own for some reason though. Hope you have a lovely restful evening and that the snow is sufficiently melted by Tuesday to allow me to get to Stroud.

Michelle said...

I'm glad that there was some slowness to cherish. My next door neighbor during the 30-days was from London, when we broke the silence her sister called to tell her of all the snow! There was plenty for us to contemplate with on this side of the Atlantic, too!