Over the Rainbow

East Beach Cafe

There was a rainbow on Thursday afternoon.   In the morning I joined my siblings at the Kingdom Hall and we were all assigned some territory, meeting up later for coffee back at the Hall.  The light was wonderful.  Rain after lunch - hence the rainbow, in all its tender glory.   Captain B confined indoors - think Bear-with-sore-head.   He is a very busy bear too, painting the kitchen, which has now had a thorough spring clean and he emptied and cleaned the shelves.

That inspired me to do some polishing and dusting when I go back and hope to do some more today.  Jean and I plan to be out on the door to door work today - I must place the rest of my invitations! - as she would like to do some return visits tomorrow morning.

Haysbridge, and the C.O.Visit

What a comfort and a refuge the Christian congregation is. This cold/flu thingummy has left me feeling so tired and down, but suddenly we have the one day assembly at Haysbridge, the Circuit Overseer visit, and the Memorial all turn up.

 It was the perfect theme at Haysbridge:

DON'T GIVE UP IN FULFILLING THE LAW OF THE CHRIST.

Because everyone is tired and stressed, and we all have our problems. But "the law of the Christ" is based on love, and it is refreshing.  So exactly what we need.

The keynote Scripture was Galatians 6:2:  "Go on carrying the burdens of one another, and in this way you will fulfill the law of the Christ."

This is a love expressed in action.

The last talk, given by a South African brother from London Bethel, was:  "Love one another, just as Jesus loved you."

We had the meeting on Tuesday and the talk given was:  "WE MUST RUN WITH ENDURANCE".  Some of our brothers have a great deal to endure in the way of direct persecution at the moment. And we are all under some sort of stress, or stresses. 

https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/mexico/jehovahs-witnesses-forced-from-homes/


This morning it was the Dentist - 6 monthly check up and clean - aarrgghh - but I did manage to leave an invite with them, and made a couple of calls. Still no sign of the retired lawyer - I think he may be away - but I did find another lady at home and had a brief and friendly chat. She hadn't had an invitation to The Memorial and seemed happy with it. It would be lovely if she came.  I have been trying to find her at home again for some time.

A quiet night in with the telly and Captain B I hope, as I plan to go out on the Field Service tomorrow morning

Violence

Thursday morning I had to stay in until the meds arrived - they have to be signed for and refrigerated.  But I did go out for an hour afterwards and re-activated an old call. Still can't find the lawyer I have been calling on at home, but must keep trying.  I want to invite him to the Memorial, and thought I might talk about the way the Hebrew Scriptures describe Jesus as "Shiloh" - he to whom it belongs - so you could say: the one who has the legal right.

There was a tragedy on The Green on Wednesday - loads of police cars and an air ambulance right outside our windows.  There had been some kind of fight and a man was badly hurt.

The "increasing of lawlessness" coming right to our doorstep.   I felt depressed anyway, my cold, my visit to Maggie, who is now down to about 4 words... and everything. But I know its mainly the aftermath of the cold as I am usually a happy person. The older I get the happier I get, so far. Though that is down to having begun to search for my Creator more than 30 years ago. If I hadn't...    And of course to Captain Butterfly.

We managed nearly 2 hours on the doors on Saturday catching up on our calls.   Quite a good morning though I was exhausted. Fell asleep after lunch.

Jacks came for supper - but I had kept it simple.  Two Thai dishes - beef and chicken - from Cooks - with rice and spring rolls.  Followed by cheesecake.

The clocks sprang forward, which made our Haysbridge 7.30 start even more early.  But Col gallantly chauffered me there and back, and spent the day metal detecting at a local farm.

The poor man who was taken away by air ambulance has died.   I don't know the circumstances, but there was a big police presence on the road, and two people are out on bail on manslaughter charges.

How much we - the damaged children of disobedient Adam - need the rescue - which, thank God, is so close now.

The Memorial

Tuesday I finally got back out on the work with the valiant Jean. We are both very far behind with all our calls and return visits, so we did a little tour - 4 calls for me, 7 for Jean - delivering both the current magazines and the Memorial invitations.  It was very cold but we both felt better for having got out there.  I won't be out today though, apart from visiting Maggie.  I haven't been for 3 weeks I don't think as I did not want to take this awful cold into the Care Home - and in any case I didn't even feel able t drive for most of the time.

I posted a letter and invite to Aunt Jo.    And have been talking to Bea of the North via email - she also has The Cold.  Much tougher for her as she no longer has her partner. 

The Captain and I just about managed to keep each other going. He went down with it about a week after I did and we both slumped on the sofa wrapped in blankets for a couple of days not eating much when he suddenly said he could manage an omelette.   Which was great as he hadn't eaten at all really, not even the tea and toast I had been managing.  But making that omelette felt a bit like climbing Everest - without Sherpa support.   However, I was able to make it, and he ate it. 

I managed a short visit to Maggie today, via a trip to pick up my next medication. And I can't go out tomorrow morning as I have to wait in until my arthritis med has arrived. It has to be signed for, and refrigerated.

Still feel very tired, down and bleak about everything.   It will take time to come back up I think.

Maggie has so few words left now. 

It is the Memorial of Jesus' death on the 31st March.   I hope you will all be getting an invite. And attending.

The Special Talk

The Beast from the East returned. Its very cold and there is quite a lot of snow lying.  Though I did get to the meeting yesterday morning for our annual Special Talk - which was great - it was only because Captain B kindly chauffered us, door to door.

We are both a lot better, but still not right.  And I feel so bleak and depressed and hopeless. I know its the "melancholy long withdrawing roar" left by The Cold.   But its no fun.  

Anyway, a lovely talk about who Jesus really is.   It is, literally, a vital truth. And I wish everyone in the world had heard it.  It is being given worldwide this month, so many will.

I am considering a trip out with Himself to Marks and Sparks this morning - the big one. Its a chance to do some shopping...  but its also very very cold out there.   But I have now changed my mind. It is so cold this morning, and I do not feel wonderful.   Plus if I am not with him it will free him to go to the Lagoon and do some birdwatching.

His sandwiches are made.

By Coffee Machine to the Stars

We are both feeling slightly better - if exhausted.   Poor Captain B still has a sore throat, but is actually flying the coffee machine this morning.    For the first time in a week.  I feel exhausted and depressed but am coughing less.

All I want to do is to keep warm and sleep.   I listened in to the meeting last night and do plan to make it to the meeting on Sunday for the Special Talk.

My poor battered suppressed immune system - I have been feeling its struggles trying to rally and fight this cold.

The News is deeply depressing too, Someone has poisoned two Russians - father and daughter - with a nerve gas - in Salisbury City centre.  The policeman who went to help them nearly died, and I cannot imagine that his health will be anything but permanently affected.  Whether father and daughter will live is in the balance. What has hold of us, the children of Adam, that we develop, create and then use such things?

The Inspired Scriptures explain.

And they promise us a rescue. Thank God.

A Blighted Butterfly

Now poor Captain Butterfly is down with the Cold.  He had a full day metal detecting yesterday and came back looking and feeling dreadful - but with some hammered coins he is very pleased with.

We both spent the day coughing and coughing.  But he suddenly asked for an omelette at lunch which i managed to make - and I also made the usual pan of veggie soup, which he had for his tea. So he has eaten.

We now plan to spend an evening coughing in front of the telly, both of us huddled up in blankets.

The weather has been in sympathy with us - grey and rainy.  Jacks has been ringing and checking on us and we will ask her to do a bit of shopping for us tomorrow if I can't get out. Captain B certainly won't be able to.

The Talk What I Wrote...

...and should have delivered on Thursday night, is the subject of this blog.  I was working on using illustrations of practical value from everyday situations.  This was how I typed it out for myself:

I will start by asking my student to read to read paras 3 and 4 (from Chapter 4 of "Keep Yourselves in God's Love", published by The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society), and I will read the question:   How did sin and imperfection begin, and why does our sinful nature make it a challenge for us to respect authority?

My student will then read:

3 Let us briefly consider two reasons why it can be such a challenge for us to show respect for those in authority. First, imperfection afflicts us; second, it afflicts those humans in authority over us. Human sin and imperfection got their start a long time ago, back in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s authority. So sin began with rebellion. To this day, we have an inborn tendency to rebel.​—Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12.

4 Because of our sinful nature, pride and haughtiness arise easily in most of us, whereas humility is a rare quality that we need to work hard to cultivate and maintain. Even after years of faithful service to God, we may give in to stubbornness and pride. For example, consider Korah, who faithfully stuck with Jehovah’s people through many hardships. Still, he craved more authority and brazenly led a rebellion against Moses, the meekest man alive at that time. (Numbers 12:3; 16:1-3) Think, too, of King Uzziah, whose pride led him to enter Jehovah’s temple and carry out a sacred duty reserved for the priests. (2 Chronicles 26:16-21) Such men paid dearly for their rebellion. Yet, their negative examples are useful reminders for all of us. We need to combat the pride that makes it difficult for us to respect authority.

I repeat the question:  How did sin and imperfection begin and will read some parts of Genesis 3:1-7..   My student then answers the first part of the question briefly by saying that sin and imperfection began when Satan incited our first parents to rebel against their Creator, Jehovah.   But when I ask  the second question,  my student will understand the problem about pride, but is worried what if we are ordered to do the wrong thing? Surely rebellion is necessary sometimes?    I say that is an important question and note that the para acknowledges the imperfections of human rulership - and the obedience we owe to Jehovah, which must always come first.  But  I ask have you noticed how Satan's world promotes disobedience, makes it seem glamorous..And yet respect for authority IS a Godly quality. I am now going to produce MY ILLUSTRATION.    For example, when we were driving here tonight, weren't we talking about how busy the roads are now? 

My student will  agree and say she had never seen so much traffic

So I ask can you imagine what it would be like if there were no traffic laws, or more to the point, if we simply decided not to obey them?   Suppose for example we all decided we were no longer going to stop for red traffic lights!  Can you imagine the chaos?   We need law and we need to respect authority.  They are good and positive things, but our own imperfect nature and Satan's world can hide that from us.   Yet above all it is important we obey our Creator - and, as the para points out, we have a powerful warning in the example of Korah, quoted in the para that I will ask my student to read before we move on to the next.   (We will end there, without actually reading it)

  I am still in the throes of this cold - still coughing - feel steamrollered. Its been a dismal day so far. Everything in our flat is reaching its sell-by date - not unlike me I worry.  The latest appliance to go is the Fridge Freezer.  The guy was here all morning but was not able to fix it. So we have to have a new one.  He did replace all the hinges on the kitchen cupboards and reseal the worktops.

The Cold!

I have gone down with THE COLD - the one that has been decimating the UK.  I have got through all the Winter without it, people coughing and sneezing all round me, and now... just as Spring is coming.

Oh dear.  At least its not flu, as I don't have a temperature.

It started yesterday morning.  Chris and Star were dropping in for breakfast and I had a load of croissants in.  However, that all went pear-shaped as Chris (no Star this time) got stranded in the rush hour traffics so he and Captain B met up in Arundel for a walk and a picnic lunch.

Then he came back for supper.  I am not used to providing impromptu meals any more. On PlanetExpat it was different. i was used to a phone call from Captain B saying he and a party of hungry divers would be back in an hour and could I provide lunch.  Back then I could. I had my big American fridge well provisioned and I was younger.

However, I had a panful of our staple, veggie soup, in, some croissants, and a selection of yoghurts. And we all had a hearty enough supper off that.  I couldn't eat much anyway.

Jean and I did manage to get out on Sunday - and took the flowers and card round to the lady who has lost her husband. Sadly the Lawyer was not at home, and I don't suppose I will be getting out this week.   Apart from feeling awful and coughing all the time, you can't really turn up on peoples' doorsteps and cough and sneeze all over them.

The Big Clearout Before the Big Sleep

Or I could have called this blog:  "What Will Poor Robin do then Poor Thing", as the March wind doth blow - on Thursday there was a scattering of snow down here - freezing cold - and it was bad up North.  Captain B took Jacks and me to Waitrose in the morning and we stocked up.  No panic buying in evidence, thank goodness.

Captain B chauffered me door to door to the meeting on Thursday night and the brothers decided to finish it early so that we could all get home safely. The Hall was only about a third full.  Probably all those who live inland were snowed in.

Friday - some snow on the ground - cold - and as I am writing this now in the afternoon it is snowing again. Not heavily, but definitely snowing.  We are invited to Jack's for supper.

There are Athletics on for the Captain thank goodness.    He can be like a bear with a sore head when confined indoors - and today we are both pottering about at home.  I have started the big clear out.  I am now in the Death Zone (under the Threescore Years and Ten rule) and I am worried about leaving a terrible mess behind if and when I do go.  Though I am hoping not to die at all, and that is not quite the impossibility it might seem to be if you consider where we are in the stream of time, Biblically speaking.

However, none of us knows exactly when the end of the current system of things on the earth will come (or how long we will last). So, so far, I have donated  3 large dustbin bags of clothes to the Charity Shop, and about 6 large bags of books to the Second Hand Bookshop.  I already have another bag of books to go.

And today I went through all my diaries, most of which are going to the Shredders, along with the old Butterfly paperwork.

It gave me a strange feeling to read some of them.  One of them I kept during my first trip abroad - with the school - to Switzerland - Les Diablerets, Vaud.  It was a wonderful trip.  For one thing, the Swiss army exercised and drilled their young conscripts in the yard beneath the attic bedrooms into which us schoolgirls were crammed.    We all quickly fell in love and began to throw notes down to our favourites.  And after a couple of days, the sergeants had to move their young drillees somewhere else, away from the distractions of schoolgirls.

The one I fell in love with was Nicholas.   He gave me my first kiss.  He was a real gentleman too. It was all very innocent and romantic.

It makes me wonder about what it must be like to be a young girl now. It wasn't ever easy, but now, I don't know.   This is a perfect romantic memory.  Just a kiss.  But I loved him for months afterwards.

And I note that Captain B proposed to me on Monday the 13th of January 1969.  I shall keep that and the Nicholas diary, and 2 others.

Anyway, my diaries must go. apart from one or two.  We have no children and, even if we did, there is nothing to say that they would be interested in knowing what I had for my lunch in 1975 for example.   And I have blogged our retirement - a very happy time so far - which will presumably stay online as long as there is an online. 

Saturday morning - Jean and I decided we would go out after the meeting tomorrow instead of this morning.    We can also go to Waitrose, as Jean doesn't often get a chance to shop there now, and we can get the flowers for the householder whose husband has died.