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CREATING COMMUNITIES OF WHOLENESS WITH CHRIST AT THE CENTRE
Blog Archives: April 2008 - March 2008 - February 2008 - January 2008 - December 2007 - November 2007 - October 2007 - September 2007 - August 2007 - July 2007 - June 2007 - May 2007 - April 2007 - March 2007 - February 2007 - January 2007 - December 2006 - November 2006 - October 2006 - September 2006
30th September, 9.10pm
Well now they are four and they are all baptised. It was wonderful to see so many people at Kathryn's baptism from so many different parts of our lives, Bristol, Minehead, Newcastle, Swindon, Purton, friends and family. It kind of brings it all together. And the baptism was great, would have been good if I hadn't dropped Kathryn, but hey, at least it wasn't in the font.
28th September, 8.05pm
Two nights in a row! But just a few thoughts from today.
I keep on hearing talking heads saying that the public doesn't want an election. I beg to differ! I'd love a general election. Because I'm one of those saddest of political geeks for whom the Westminster Village is my soap opera and there's no better highlight than an election. And besides I give great election night parties! The last time I colour coded the starter, with yellow, blue, and red food - yes I acknowledge that that really is sad and geeky.
Anna knows more about planets than I do, and its all in her homework book! Jane was out earlier this evening and I got all four children fed and into bed without chaos or, as Jane said, 'without killing any of them'. My response was that I believe in resurrection, how do you know that I didn't kill them!
After agreeing with enthusiasm to do thought for the day on BBC Radio Swindon through the week of 8-12 Oct I'm now [one week out and having to plan etc.] feeling increasingly terrified. Please pray for me and feel very free to stay asleep and not tune in. The time that I have to be in the studio also means an even earlier start for running.
Almost everyone I meet is asking me [and Jane] whether everything is ready for the Baptism. My answer is a loud and clear 'NO'. I have no idea quite how its going to pan out, although I did actually do shopping today and baked two cakes this evening. More tomorrow.
27th September, 9.55pm
Hey, I can only apologise. Perhaps I've aged ten years in the last month, or perhaps I'm just getting my act together and getting sensible. Most nights this month I've been logging off at about 10pm and since I usually blog at past midnight its one thing that's got left out. And my memory seems to be going as well, or perhaps there's only so much I can hold in my head, but here are a few thoughts from the past month.
Jane Williams speaking [brilliantly] at the Swindon Mission Network and reminding us that 'the special thing about Christians is not that we're perfect but that we're forgiven.'
It was at the same Mission Network meeting when once again we had soup that the chilli stuff was remembered - I never imagined that it would have such an afterlife! See 11 October post here.
Running at dawn this morning [I told you I had a short memory] with a full moon hanging low in the west and the vaguest hint of sunrise in the east [predictably]. It was fiercely cold and stunningly beautiful.
I've been grumpy, very grumpy with the children over the last few days and Anna has been wonderful, she keeps on coming up to me and saying 'You're the best Daddy in the world, even when you're grumpy.' And when Jane was away on a conference last week, Anna came down and I realised that she had got Kathryn up and changed her nappy and got her dressed.
A memory from a meeting on managing time and the rest of life. We get everything to balance out on a perfectly positioned line and then say to family, work, play and the rest, 'freeze, don't move' or the whole thing will collapse.' We need to keep the line balanced but the fulcrum doesn't always need to be in the same place, sometimes we need to give more weight and focus to one part of our lives, sometimes another. The fulcrum has to move.
And alongside time for the children and Jane [hopefully when I'm not grumpy] I need to make some time during the day to sit down at my desk and then use that time well. However much I love being with the folks of North Swindon if I'm going to be stopping work at a decent time, I'm going to need time during the day to do admin [and blog]!
6th September, 10.35pm
Two final thoughts from Greenbelt - it has this kind of afterlife, and in many ways informs my entire year.
One was Billy Bragg, when he put down his guitar, saying that the ideals of social democracy were as spent as the ideals of Christian faith, and that we needed something new on which to build national identity, if that is we are to avoid militant nationalism. His 'something new' was a bill of rights. I question his premise, and certainly his solution, not that I'm opposed to the idea of a bill of rights, but any decent bill of rights would be founded entirely on the Judeo-Christian Ethic, which formed and informed social democracy - the very things that Billy Bragg says are dead! There are times when I'm very glad that this blog doesn't give you the right to reply, because what I've just written could start a very long discussion.
[If anyone wants to set this Blog up for discussion let me know!]
And then, as a final Greenbelt thought - for now, I was astounded that no one really questioned the fact that festival that has for deccdes prided itself on being on the edge, radical and at times subversive, was c0-sponsored by a Government Department [DFID].
On a different kind of note. Alice had her first day at school today. I took her in to meet her teacher yesterday, 'to say hello'. Alice's response was 'I've already said hello to Mrs Grundy!' And then we took her into her class-room this morning and she sat down with friends and started to draw and barely said good bye. The whole subtext is 'I've been waiting to go to school for two years, stop worrying and let me get on with it!'
She still enjoys Shaun the Sheep though, and there are new episodes on on CBBC!
BLOGGERS NOTE
You'll notice in this blog that I use clauses and sub clauses and square brackets and lots of other grammatical aberrations! Also that I can't spell. Jane sometimes compares my sentence structure to St Paul, going on and on and on... I'm afraid that you're going to have to live with it. I try to edit it all out when I'm writing for print, but I'm going to indulge myself here.