Wednesday 25 February 2009

Busy day

I hardly stopped yesterday.

I took Nathan to the bus for his day at College and soon after that was helping my friend Colin to get his printer working properly. He lives in Bentham and it was on my way to the Looking Well. I didn't succeed but left him with opportunity of emailing the makers for help. Sounds a bit like prayer.

Then I was off to the Writers Group and read out my Book Review. It was a direct result of attending those meetings that I wrote it.

Straight after lunch I was off with Audrey to Lancaster to buy a suit for an IMC wedding which is coming up in April. We got a really good deal in BHS which included not only the suit, but also shirt, tie and shoes. Very pleasing.

As soon I got back I had to rush off to Kirkby Lonsdale to pick Nathan up and called into Audrey's dad to pick up some freezer food which was left with him while she defrosted our freezer.

After tea I was out to lead the House Group. We were looking at the Ark of the Covenant. I finished early because I was tired.

Lastly we watched an Horizon programme on BBC2 about our body clocks. By 9.30 p.m. my body clock was telling me it was time for bed. A good busy day.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Apprenticeship

Jesus is a model for all of us to copy, not just those in obvious ministry roles. Learning to follow him is a lifetime’s apprenticeship.

Jane Cornish (adapted from Daily Bread JM09)


I just read this quote in Wordlive. It reminded me to tell you that yesterday my youngest son, Nathan aged 20, started an Apprenticeship. He is working for a care company in Kendal. He will be working at a care home there for four days a week and going to Kendal College on the other day. What a day it was for him. And for us. He will learn to be a carer. We will have two sons working. Wonderful.

The trouble is that the word Apprentice conjures up the image of some big shot pointing at some little person and saying "Your fired!" and only once shouting "You're hired!".
So the media has given apprenticeship a negative connotation. I see they've got the big shot, Alan Sugar, advertising the government's Apprenticeship Scheme on the other channels which don't show him pointing the finger. Which are the viewers going to remember -
the finger of rejection or the hand of help?

O, and yesterday I got the magazine A Single Step which includes my review of the book "Coming Back to Me" by Marcus Trescothick. So it was a great day for me too!




Friday 20 February 2009

Dead end week

This has been a week of thinking about the end of life. On Tuesday I attended the funeral of a Grand Old Man of Ingleton. Gordon Barker was nearly 98 when he died. He had lived in Ingleton for most of his life and could remember the New Village being built.

When I tell you that these houses were built during the First World War to house miners from the colliery which then existed, you will realise what a treasure trove of memory was stored in his mind. I managed to capture some of that towards the end of last year when I went to interview him.

On Wednesday it was time to say farewell to Teddy Dawson. He was only 79 years old but he was a believer and the funeral showed that. Burglars could have had a field day at all the Methodist houses in the area, because just about everybody was there. And those who weren't there were at work. Three hundred people packed into St James Church Clapham and the singing was magnificent.

Yesterday I went to visit my Auntie Mary in her residential home in Liverpool. She will be 90 in June and says she has lived too long and wants God to take her. When her wish is granted, it would be good to have everything organised beforehand. So I took with me a form to order and pay for a funeral ahead of time. While I was with her in walked the vicar of her church. This was very helpful and I am certain the Lord arranged it. Just as he will help us to arrange her send-off.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Filming the Waterfalls


Yesterday I was part of a film unit.

The Looking Well at Bentham is involved in a project centred around the Folly in Settle. Archives Alive launches in April and it features old documents from Ingleton about the Waterfalls Walk.

As part of the exhibition they are putting on, a short film of the Waterfalls Walk is going to be projected and half a dozen of us trapsed over the Thornton Force to film it.

I really enjoyed it. Clambering about with a camera and tripod, walking in and out of shot to the director's cue and generally hanging about was really good fun. It was creative too.

Next step for me of course is to go and peruse the documents in order to increase my knowledge of Ingleton in Victorian times.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Every day success

One of the reasons I have got into this difficult state is that I major on the negative. I could have a day at work when everything went well except one little thing and I would only remember the little thing. Eventually the little things became one big THING.

But for the last month I have been keeping a record of every day and each one has seen at least one success. At the end of every day I write down my successes, even though I might have had some failures. I then read these over and find that I am not such a failure as I thought.

To someone who has thought as long and hard about failure as I have, this is a tremendous step forward. I am seeing success every day. I probably was before but I never noticed it.

Wow, what a difference.


Monday 16 February 2009

Another week is gone

I can't believe that I've let another week slip by without blogging.

I put a space on my calendar to write between 8 and 9 in the morning but I haven't managed to do it once. Why not?


Well, a couple of times I slept in, in spite of what I put in my last post. At other times I got so engrossed in reading, replying and writing emails that the time was gone. Also, I tend to do a lot of surveys online and they take up time.

But all these are excuses really. If I am going to write I am going to have to make time for it. Other things are going have to be pushed out of the way.

Write I must and write I will.

Monday 9 February 2009

A new day dawns

I enjoy getting up in the morning more than I used to. This is either because I am enjoying life more or because I don't wake up in the night as often.

I think it's the former which is a good sign. Most nights I wake at three or four o'clock and don't get back to sleep for a long time. That's a classic sign of depression.

Having work to do, even if it is voluntary work, gives you a reason to get up in the morning and also having a timetable to follow helps you to get things done. I still don't want to overdo it. The secret is having a balance.

Saturday 7 February 2009

All we like sheep have gone astray

I have just returned from a walk. I set off with Audrey down Dumb Toms Lane, turned right across the fields to Fourdales and then we went separate ways.

She went off down Tatterthorn to get a paper and I set off back over the fields to Langber. (You can look all this up on Google Map). One of the fields took me past sheep. They must have been hungry because the sight of a human being got them racing across to see if I had any fodder.

Not only that, but in the next field the sheep had got wind of me too. There was a whole flock of them bleating at the top of their voices and heading for the hedge to see if I would feed them. They looked rather sad when they saw I had nothing to offer.

It made me think how easily we run after someone whom we think has something to offer us. And when they don't we give up on them pretty quick. That's human, and sheep, nature I suppose.

Friday 6 February 2009

A full day

I did it. I filled yesterday with lots of good things.
Some of them were cerebral - writing, thinking and musing.
Others were active - cleaning the kitchen, going for a walk, having a shower, making the tea.
One was a great success - getting my laptop back online after several weeks without the Internet connection working. Now I can talk to you on that as well.
Yes, even though it started with a blank page, yesterday was a full day.

Thursday 5 February 2009

A blank page


Today I looked at my diary and saw a blank page. Not so unusual, you might think. But to me this could be a horrendous problem.
One of the difficulties I had in my last job was time management. Somehow my masters expected me to know how to fill my time and often I didn't. So now I have taken to writing out a timetable for every day and sticking to it as much as possible.
I ask for the Lord's help with each part of it, turning to him as each one is done. I thank Him for helping me to do it and ask for His help to do the next one.
Today I don't have anything planned at all . So I have had to take a blank page and fill it with my own plans and activities. This has not been something I have been good at, but I am going to give it a try.
I will let you know how I have got on when I post a blog tomorrow.

Wednesday 4 February 2009

Rush, rush, rush


I am writing this at the Looking Well in Bentham where I work as a volunteer. My role is to help anyone who wants to go onto a computer but isn't sure what to do.

I have dashed here from Hornby because I was called out on my other volunteering job to drive a lady to an appointment.

This happened because one of the other volunteers phoned in sick at the last moment. So I rang here to say I would be late in and went haring off to Hornby.

Interestingly enough this dashing about has had two affects.

1 I really felt a buzz in having to meet timetables and deadlines

2 I got a headache and starting worrying about whether I would be in the right place at the right time.

If I can overcome No. 2 and put everything into No. 1 then things would be better. But I still see this volunteering as helping me get back to work eventually.

What does this afternoon hold? Well, I'll be with the Looking Well group singing at Reid House in Ingleton at 4.00 p.m. till 6.00 p.m. Then there's an Open Doors prayer meeting at 7.00 p.m., before which I have to go home and eat my tea.

I haven't had a day like this for ages. I suppose it is normal life for lots of people.

But for me it's like going to London - nice to visit but I wouldn't like to live there.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

I'm no xenophobe...

Have you noticed that whenever people want to say something about people of another colour they start by saying "I'm not a racist, but.."?
Well, I'm not a xenophobe, but I have never been so insulted as when applying for jobs in the recent hiatus when I had to be a job seeker.
On every application form I filled in I had to prove that I was legally able to work in the United Kingdom. It did feel like an insult.
Only once have I not lived in this country. That was when I was a foreign exchange student at Waverly High School, Nebraska, USA in the 1970/71 school year. That was also when I became aware of the wonderful diversity of cultures that this world offers and I have celebrated and enjoyed it ever since.
But to be asked to prove that I have the right to work in my own country, whose air I have breathed for most of my 55 years and whose taxes I have paid for decades really was an insult.
That's why I can understand the frustration of those who are upset at foreign labour being brought into this country when we have such high unemployment.
And I never thought I would see the day when I would shout at Lord Mandelson when he appeared on TV to justify this "Why should we believe anything you say anyway?!" But I have and I did.
Gosh, this is turning into a ranting blog!

Monday 2 February 2009

Writing, writing, writing

Since a week ago today, when I was deemed unfit for work, it has come to me that the only thing I can do is write. So I keyed into my PC diary as from this morning WRITING - At the PC, on the laptop, at the seaside ANYWHERE! Blog Write anything, anything at all JUST WRITE!

So here I go.
It snowed here during the night and we have a white wonderland again. No sooner has a flake of the white stuff fallen, as it does as I write, than the media starts shouting "Chaos!" What an overused word that is.
On Friday I was chatting on Facebook with a woman who runs a cafe in Montana and she said they get 400 inches of snow a year. What have we got to worry about?!
But what amazed me and made me write it on my Facebook profile status was that she had a webcam set up and I could see her at work and even see the PC she was chatting to me on, between customers. It was weird but wonderful. Whatever next?!