Be Still

It's been a work day, so the usual craziness and business, but right now I'm lying in the dark, calm and still. I can hear the dog grunting (that's her default setting), my husband breathing and my daughter snoring next door. My son will be breathing quietly, unheard over the others.
There are no other sounds.
It's in this stillness at night that I do my thinking and my praying, reviewing my day, praying especially for the people I've cared for and worked with, pondering what I've done well and where I could have done better. I think about what tomorrow holds.
This is how I fall asleep, in the darkness,  with God.

Be More Open

As with yesterday's task it was very difficult on a 12 hour shift to think of an inventive way to interpret today's task. I like to do and experience new things but during a hectic work day I often cling to the familiar and the routine aspects of my job which help punctuate and structure my day. They also serve as navigation points, letting me know I'm on track.
I'll see if I can find time to experience something new over the next few days o on my days off.

Isaiah 42:9
See, the former things have come to pass,
   and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
   I tell you of them.

Be More Thankful

I really was thankful when I ate today, because due to caring for a very sick patient, it was past 4pm when I ate my lunch. I felt myself very hard done by, but as I thanked God I was reminded of all those who can't or won't eat- those without food, those with eating disorders, people effected by famine or people too sick to eat. I'm incredibly lucky and for that I'm truly thankful.

1 chronicles 16.34
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   for his steadfast love endures for ever.

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

Love Life Live Lent

After my initial post the tumbleweeds have been a-tumbling through Cake or Death. With Lent approaching it seemed an appropriate time to get blogging- not sure I can manage 40 days and 40 nights but I'm certainly going to give it my best.

I find that fasting in some way as part of my Lent journey is quite an important thing for me. To be disciplined enough to deny my self something is pretty damn hard, but an incredibly tiny thing compared to what Jesus has done for me.
I'm also a big believer in taking something up for Lent- again it's all about the discipline. This year I'm using Paula Gooder & Peter Babington's Love Life Live Lent (available at St Deny's, Amazon, or direct from Chuch House Publishing).
We start today, on Shrove Tuesday, with our first task of celebrating more, with the suggestion of throwing a pancake party. Not easy on a 10 hour shift. But I'll start as I mean to continue- armed with a pack of ready made pancakes to share with my HTU colleagues.  It's a start.

Luke 15.6
And when he comes home,  he calls together his friends and neighbours,  saying to them,  "rejoice with me,  for I have found my sheep that was lost"

www.livelent.net