Notice The World Around You

Anyone who works long shifts indoors knows that feeling when you finish work, open the door and feel the air on your face. Before last June the ward I work on had hardly any windows, those we had were covered up and as a unit where patients are nursed to protective isolation (to prevent and reduce infection) we've never had opening windows.
The effect on patients- some of whom are with us for many months- was huge. The distress it causes people not to be able to see the outside world and have natural light is extensive, which is why is some cultures it's used as torture.
My new premises have lovely huge windows and in some places we can see trees, it's a much better environment for patients but they still get distressed with the lack of contact with the world outside.
Knowing how good it feels to walk into the open air (even if it's into wind, rain and darkness like yesterday evening) after just 12 hours I can only imagine how it feels to a patient who's been nursed in protective isolation for 6 weeks.
God made us creatures who crave to be in his creation and experience his world but we don't always notice or appreciate it until being able to experience it is taken away from us. For me that's at the end of each shift.

Psalm 92:4
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
   at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

Be More Grateful

My only aim today was that my colleagues felt appreciated. I wanted them to know that I was grateful for each one of them; who they are, what they do and their place on our unit. I did this with crisps, cake and fruit.

Luke 17:15-16
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

Be More Curious

I wonder how much easier I would have found school life, especially A-levels, if I'd had a smartphone? The ease with which I can find out information, research a topic or name a song  (I half remember a few words of) is fantastic. When I'm lay in bed at night and all of a sudden I get the vague memory of a film I saw in 1986, I can just put a few words into Google and within a few minutes of searching I have the name of the film and could probably either stream or download it.
Answers are so readily available that we don't often need to wonder or let our curiosity lead us. Yet there are some areas where the answers are not a click away- the deep longing within us for there to be more to this life and the need for a spiritual dimension to our lives.
One of the best things about my family's annual visit to Anglesey is the lack of phone signal. We are forced to move away from having answers a click away and to give our curiosity time to breathe.

Psalm 8:3-4
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   mortals that you care for them?

Be More Loving

Today's task seems so simple but I nearly missed the opportunity. Working back to back 12 hour shifts I miss my kids and wanted to Skype them from work to tell them I loved them in case they were asleep when I got home. My daughter wasn't answering so I tried the phone. No answer. I tried again walking to my car and got hold of my her - she was really happy to hear from me, as were my son and husband. My hubby allowed the children to stay up until I got home so we had hugs and exchanged more "I love yous".
It's easy to tell my kids I love them, so what about the other people I encounter every day? I spend so much time at work but don't spend enough time telling the people I share my working life with that they're loved and appreciated. They might not think I'm very loving when I'm tired and frustrated and unable to help them, but I aim each day to see people as God sees them, and love them as God loves them. Although I'm not always very good at this!!

Ruth 1.16
But Ruth said,
‘Do not press me to leave you
   or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
   where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
   and your God my God.

Care For The World

As is usually the case for today's task I was working, making it very difficult to fulfill it. This task always makes me reflect upon how effective our personal energy saving measures are when I'm working in a hospital which, necessarily, guzzles energy and where so many things are (again necessarily) disposable.
How do I feel ethically about the balance between the energy consumed (and waste produced) in treating the individuals in our care and our roles as stewards of creation? I will always put patient care first.
Maybe I feel the need to counter the effects upon the earth from what I must do professionally in my life outside of work- I got rid of my dryer and can be very stingy with the heating!

Matthew 10:29
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father.

Be More Creative

This is possibly the LLLL day I look forward to most- permission to be creative! I love making stuff and with such a hectic life there's not much space for it.
One of my favourite things to do (to help me relax) is colouring in. Seriously. And I'd recommend it! It doesn't require skill or concentration but it can be a form of meditation. I'm a big fan Mary Fleeson and the Lindisfarne Scriptorium and it was my intention to colour one of her meditations, but I let my daughter choose what we coloured and for me she chose a fantastic picture with grape vines and deer which form a wonderful metaphor for creation.
Colouring in, because it doesn't require much concentration, allows you to create something but your mind can be focused elsewhere; maybe reflecting, contemplating or praying. Try it...you might like it!

Isaiah 44.24
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
   who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord, who made all things,
   who alone stretched out the heavens,
   who by myself spread out the earth;

Enjoy Our World

I won't call today a task failure but rather a postponement. It's been a busy old day and in all the activity seeds have not been planted- but they will be on Monday.
I'm worried I might have a week of postponements as I'm working 5 of the next 7 days - that's 5 12hr shifts - and I just don't know how I'll make that work. I think part of Monday might be spent planning how not to feel like I'm failing this week.
I feel like I do lots of 'putting things off' at the moment, or brushing things aside- to make room for study or to try and process my work situation - and it's often spending quality time with God that gets pushed aside. I'm so busy studying religion I don't have the time to do it!

Care For Those in Need

Today's task is one I really enjoy because I think it's really helpful to take things that are in the news and discuss them with my kids. They have amazing insights and I think it's important for them not to live in a bubble - to have knowledge of a world outside of Flixton.
We chatted about the schoolgirls who left the country, possibly heading for Syria but in the end they wanted to pray for Quinto the 5-legged sheep who's given birth to two healthy lambs.

Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?

Be More Giving

Confession time- I have a large jar half-filled with loose change that I started to fill during Love Life Live Advent that is still sat in my hallway...so now I maybe get the chance to fill it to the top during Lent! The children want the money to go to the hospital where I work.
I think, on the whole, we can be quite a generous nation. We only need to look at the money Comic Relief, Sport Relief and Children in Need raise to confirm this. We don't all have money to give, yet LLLL throughout Lent gives us so many suggestions of other things we can give- time, kindness, a smile, hospitality. There are so many ways in which, with a little thought, we can be generous to each other.
A world where generosity of spirit was prized over all else would look like a rather spectacular thing.

john 2:9-10
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have now become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until .’

Say Sorry

I was listening to something the other day - can't remember what as my memory is soup these days - but it pointed out that often when someone makes a public apology it's along the lines of "I'm sorry if my actions offended you/upset you/hurt you." It's not very often we hear someone admit they made a mistake or did something wrong, they're upset at the consequences of their action but not the action itself.
Christians are called to continually examine and assess their actions to decide if they could have acted in a way that was hurtful or harmful, and if so to make amends, not repeat the behaviour, and to say sorry; to admit we did something wrong.
The amazing thing about God is that, no matter how many times we mess up and have to say we're sorry, he'll still forgive us. Every time; so long as we are truly sorry, even if it's something we messed up before and swore we wouldn't do again. We never run out of second chances, even if we can't forgive each other or ourselves.

I think the word "repent" carries a lot of baggage, but what it means is to turn around, do a 180 degree turn to turn our backs on what we've done that's harmful and turn towards what isn't.
When I asked my kids if there was anything they were sorry they'd done the replies I got were taking other people's chocolate - an ongoing saga in our house - and shouting at each other. In return for their honesty I told them I was sorry for when I was snappy with them or didn't listen properly. I really am sorry and I don't want to ever do it again- but being honest I know I probably will...and I'm pretty sure the chocolate thief will return!! Being a Christian doesn't stop me doing things wrong, but it does help me to reflect upon my actions and try and sort stuff out when I do mess up.

Matthew 3:2
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

Celebrate!

Well golly, blimey and all that sort of thing- how can it be Shrove Tuesday already?! Well, it is, and for me that means Love Life Live Lent begins again with a pancake party.
The last two years of following LLLL I've been working on Shrove Tuesday and taken the pancake party there. It's half term this week so I had the extra special treat of being at home to make pancakes for my children, and my husband had a day off work. I can't remember the last Shrove Tuesday we were all together!
It's been a pretty pancake-centric day, because as well as enjoying some homemade traditional pancakes this evening we had lunch in our local pancake parlour, with the added loveliness of the company of one of my goddaughters.
It really has been a day of celebration!!
Yet the solemnity of tomorrow - and of the coming weeks - is on my mind. Having that time to bring myself closer to God, to refocus and recommit, is what I'm dwelling upon. It's also a countdown, not to Easter but to the beginning of our interregnum as our much loved Revd. Vicky makes her move to Ely. I have less than six weeks to be mentally ready for that.

"Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost." Luke 15.6