Three Sisters

My sister's visit ended yesterday. The young ones left on Friday.  So this seems a good moment to put Janet's poem into the blog.

Three Sisters  (by Janet Dean Knight)

 Three sisters in a seaside flat 

One in a shawl, one in a hat

One in a flowery dirndl skirt

With a pink and white seersucker shirt

Telling tales to one another,

Remembering an absent brother.

Their husbands scattered far and wide

Elusive as the evening tide

Are missed, but not so desperately

As spoils their appetite for tea,

Or blunts their sharp imaginations.

For literary deliberations

Result in stories quite fantastic 

Producing pages of romantic

Fiction, chapters of horrendous crime

And layers of seductive rhyme.

We talked to the absent brother in Zoom. As for our scattered husbands - one, Ken is no longer with us - he now, I hope, sleeps safe in "the everlasting arms", safe in Jehovah's memory, every hair of his head numbered, and has such a wonderful awakening ahead of him. He will be so surprised. George was in Yorkshire, keeping the home fires burning (and the chickens fed), and Captain Moth-Butterfly was very present, entertaining the little girls, tackling the washing up, and valiantly doing seaside and playground things.

We had a Thai takeaway from the Lemon Grass on Thursday night, with me having a time out for the meeting and my part in the School. Friday was a writing and shopping day, Saturday writing.

And today is our next session of the PURSUE PEACE Convention - we start - at 9.30 with a shortened Watchtower. I am so looking forward to it - and it will tide me over the strange feeling I always get when family guests leave.

Jehovah truly is the God of all comfort.

 

 

The Magpie Moth

The family visit continues, all going well so far, though we had to contend with some noise as they extended the scaffolding in front of lounge and dining room windows.  No netting as yet though.  It is amazing. This work has been going on for two years, but it reaches us during the actual week - the one week this year - the family is down!

The lovely Magpie Moth above appeared on our balcony on Tuesday morning, and was still there Tuesday afternoon.  The magpie had not eaten it.   It's quite large though, so could it have eaten the magpie?

On Tuesday, I also found that I had a part in the Ministry School this week... which was a bit of a shock. Anyway, I got something down asap and practised it on Pen, who made a very good householder.  My script will probably appear in my next blog.  We are working through our new interactive Bible study aid  Enjoy Life Forever - and I am referencing one of its short - very short - videos in my script. The point I am making is the effort "the world" has made to stop people finding out what the Bible actually says, and how miraculous it is that it has not only survived but is the most widely translated and distributed book in the world.

We - eight of us - went out for a meal to the Arun View last night.  It was as nice as ever, staff so friendly, food good. And, importantly, the menu was suitable for two little girls, who really only want burgers and ice-cream.  Pen and I had two dishes from their veggie menu - an excellent nut roast, and a veggie burger with goats cheese and sweet potato chips.  Delicious.

Ruining the Earth

This from the online Guardian of Friday 22nd July. 

We’re living in an age of permanent crisis – let’s stop planning for a ‘return to normal’
James Meadway

"Temperatures in Britain hit 40C. Runways melt at major airports. The London fire brigade reports its busiest single day since the second world war as fires rage around the city. The Met Office warns of temperatures so high they “could lead to serious illness or loss of life”.

Meanwhile, inflation grinds inexorably upwards. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is part of it, but other pressures were already apparent. Staples such as coffee saw price rises as a result of extreme weather disrupting harvests. Even silicon chips have been affected, with droughts in Taiwan putting the hugely water-intensive production of semiconductors at risk.

The environmental crisis isn’t going away..."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/22/economic-models-environmental-crises-fantasy-stable-growth-global-heating

The writer ends with various suggestions - but, even if they could or would be carried out, would they solve all the problems we have?

Surely the truth of the Biblical warning, at Jeremiah 10:23, that "it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step" should be evident by now?

We are not designed to rule ourselves. We are designed to be under the loving rule of our Creator, Jehovah.  So when our first parents made that terrible decision to cut themselves (and us, their unborn children) off from their Creator, their Source of life, and go it alone, they set in train the tragedy we are still living in.

But a rescue is under way - well under way.  Jehovah has promised us, in the Book of Revelation, that he will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth".

And under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God we will have something we have never yet known - "the glorious freedom of the children of God".

The family visitors are here now - the little girls had fun at the playground, and we had a Thai takeaway in the evening.  On Saturday morning Col did a money raiser for SUSSAR (Sussex Search and Rescue Volunteers) by marshalling a Fun Run (or some such).  And I Zoomed off to the Saturday morning Session of the PURSUE PEACE Convention.

You are so welcome to join me.  Just go to JW.org and type PURSUE PEACE into Search - you can choose a session or two, or watch the whole thing.  There are lots of interesting video clips, interviews and experiences.

I especially recommend the video presentation from the Saturday morning session: How Our Brothers are Enjoying Peace Despite: Opposition, Illness, Economic Problems, Economic Disasters.

Ghost Moth

 

This is a lady Ghost Moth who turned up on our balcony the other morning. The gentleman of the species has the same furry ruff but a ghostly white body - which I assume is where it gets its name from.

It is very unfashionable at the moment to acknowledge any differences between male and female. But perhaps the moth world cares nothing for the passing fads and fashions of "the world"?  They are sensible creatures if so.

And this seems a good moment to remember that the Bible assures us that the dead "are conscious of nothing at all".  We need neither fear them, nor fear for them.  So there are no such things as ghosts.  But there are ghost moths.

Wednesday was a bit cooler, although more uncomfortable in the morning as the breeze had dropped.  We had a rare trip to Tesco this morning and on the way back it actually rained a little!

My week continues to be pinned by the Zoom meeting schedule of field service and family get togethers. But some of the family will be down here at the weekend for a week by the sea.  And my right leg continues swollen and painful and the strange skin condition is plaguing me.

The Memorial for Jean was held on Thursday morning - in Zoom for most of us, including her family, none of whole live locally and most of whom do not even live in this country now.  It was very simple - some lovely white flowers - and a talk that really captured Jean and the love she had for her family and the truth.

And of course the Speaker spoke of the hope for the dead and of Jean's future awakening from the dreamless sleep of death.  But that awakening will not come until the whole earth is at peace under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God.

Red Alert Heat day (and A FLARE UP)

Sunday evening there was a SUSSAR call out for Captain Moth-Butterfly and the Search and Rescue Team.

https://www.sussar.org.uk/

He went off in a whirl of activity mid-evening (think Superman hurtling out of his phone box) and reappeared somewhere in the early hours.  They did not find the Misper (missing person, to you and me), but he arrived back to his home alive and well about the same time Col got back here. So all is well that ends well.

My left shoulder and right ankle have been so painful for the last 3 days that i have had to stop my gentle exercise regimen.  Its not - yet - and thank God - the violent flare up that stops me in my tracks leaving me not knowing what to do for the pain. But it has slowed me down a lot and made me very tired.  Old age is a painful business.

I had my 5th anti-Covid vax on Sunday morning and held up all the queue as they decided whether or not I could safely give myself my injection of the immune suppressant on the same day or not.  The decision was to change the vax they were about to give me to the one I had before, with no problems, and hold off the other injection until Monday morning.

Monday was, apparently, our first Red Alert Heat Day in the UK, with temperatures forecast to rise above the Sahara.  However we had a sea breeze all day, which kept things nicely unSahara-like.  My sister in Sheffield, our Northern hometown, seems to have had a much hotter day.

Once again, I think about Jesus when he was on the earth, calming the storm.  And his disciples asking each other: “What sort of person is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him.”

Watching the undignified - but politically necessary - scramble to replace Boris Johnson as PM makes me sad because the perfect ruler is in front of us, inviting all of us to come to him.  Jesus is the King of Jehovah's Kingdom. And he will rule the earth so perfectly that it will become the paradise of peace his Father has always intended it should be.  

As he is the annointed one of Jehovah, even the winds and the sea will obey him.  Jesus will control the climate perfectly.

Today, Tuesday, is supposed to be even hotter.  And on the lunchtime News we were told that today is officially the hottest day recorded in the UK.  We still have our sea breeze, for which we are very grateful.

The Balcony and The Shark

The photo above top is our balcony, soon to disappear behind scaffolding as the next section of Maintenance gets under way.  When it will re-emerge, who knows?

Captain Moth-Butterfly rang me from The Field on Thursday morning to say that the ground was rock hard (not surprisingly as the heat wave continues), and that he would likely be home earlier than usual. We are having some splendid sunsets - see his photo of same.

Thursday I had a part as householder in the School - a 5 minute part, without script. I had to rely on the sister who was my partner to guide me through it and give me all my prompts.

It seemed to go very smoothly - and I think I can take a lesson from the way she organised it. The Scripture we were using was the beautiful guarantee that Jehovah gives us in Isaiah 55:11:

"So my word that goes out of my mouth will be.
 It will not return to me without results,
 But it will certainly accomplish whatever is my delight,
 And it will have sure success in what I send it to do."

Jehovah assures us that all he purposes will be fulfilled.  Isn't that the very meaning of His name?

Penny joined us for the talk, and it was lovely to see her - or her picture - on Zoom.

The competition in my current Spectator is particularly good this week, so I hope no-one there will mind if I reproduce two of the brilliant, and winning, entries.

The brief was: To summarise a film in limerick form.  And here are two of the winners:

The Austrian scenes are aesthetic,

Von Trap kids are cute but emetic,

   There's oodles and oodles

   Of schnitzels and strudels -

Don't watch it if you're diabetic.

(David Silverman/The Sound of Music)

The Mayor is a miserable toad;

The Cop has an honourable code,

   The Expert gets beaten.

   The Captain gets eaten,

The Shark? Well, it gets to explode.

(Paul Freeman/Jaws)

Yes, in both cases.  Jaws was a tragedy for the poor old shark.  And I was remembering seeing The Sound of Music with the girl I currently shared a flat with in the olden days (when I was at Uni).  Back then, if you were a girl, as we were - nowadays are any such distinctions allowed? - you had to say at the end which part made you cry.  Which we dutifully both did.   

I quite enjoyed it.  But in all honesty I don't think any of it made me cry.  I don't remember her actually crying either.  Which was not something you could admit at the time and stay within the realms of girlhood.

Anyway, under the loving reign of the Kingdom of God, there will be no more cause for tears - apart from tears of joy. And sharks will be safe from us, and we will be safe from them. We will share the planet in perfect harmony, as our Creator intended.

Crumbling

For some days Bea has been trying to send us through a picture of the fuchsia in her splendid garden.  It finally came last night.  I am going to see if I can do a Download then an Upload and get it to appear at the this blogpost.  Here goes.

YES!  Perhaps I am not as crumbly as I thought.

And that neatly brings me on to What I Did Yesterday, because I made a rhubarb crumble in the afternoon.  The morning was filled with the Field service meeting in Zoom.  And that was about it.  Oh, and on Monday I had the usual Zoom session with my siblings - same same for the Captain with his brothers - plus a brief Zoom appearance by Aunt Bea. All seems well.  And I also managed to get a card and short letter posted to Jean's family.  I sent them a card Bea had made from one of her beautiful silk paintings, and I also included the link to my blogpost about Jean - which was a couple of days ago - memories of our adventures together on the field service.

The scripture I put in that blog, about Jehovah's promise of the resurrection, combined with the fuchsia above has made me think of my mother.  She loved fuchsia as it reminded her of childhood holidays in Cornwall, pre WW2.  Apparently you did not see fuchsia much in the gardens of Manchester back then, if at all, but it was flowering in Cornwall in her childhood summers.

My granny still had the house at Praa Sands in my early 1950s childhood, and I felt much the same about the Thrift that used to be growing on the cliffside walk down to the beach. We have some Thrift on our balcony here, flowering now. 

Jehovah has promised us that "many of those asleep in the dust of the ground" will wake up.  He will wake them.  So I can hope that my mother has a wonderful awakening ahead of her when the time comes for the resurrection.  Maybe she will next open her eyes in a Cornish cliffside garden, thrift and fuchsia flowering all around her and the sound of the sea in her ears?  

Hold the Presses - New Moth on Balcony

For the last few days our balcony wall has been full of Browntail moths.  The breakfasting Magpie clearly does not like the taste of them.  And we had a new moth - one new to our balcony - turn up yesterday: the Satin Lutestring - see Col's photo above.  And Saturday morning we had a wonderful display of creamy moths: a Swallowtail, loads of Browntails (which are white with a white furry ruff - presumably with brown tails - my eyes aren't really up to it these days), and a Boxtree.  

All of them are so exquisite, so perfect.   Ecclesiastes 3:11 says: He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has even put eternity in their heart; yet mankind will never find out the work that the true God has made from start to finish.

The creation is awe-inspiring.  We will never find out all that Jehovah has done, all the wonder of it - we will always be learning.    And in harmony with that thought I spent this morning Zooming to the Friday afternoon session of the online convention: PURSUE PEACE.

It will be online until the end of August I think.  It was all exceptional - and so practical.  And I especially recommend the talk "Loyally Support the Prince of Peace".

There are lots of interesting little videos included.

We - Captain Moth-Butterfly and myself - spent the afternoon watching the Men's Final at Wimbledon.  It was a four setter in which Novak Djokovic beat Nick Krygios.  They gave us a very exciting match - so I guess the seeding worked well.  And I was very taken with Novak's lovely wife. She is a beautiful, elegant and fragile lady who wore a wonderful pink princess dress.  

I would love to wear something like that - but would look a complete prannet if I did. It looked so good on her though. I think I heard a commentator say it was their tenth wedding anniversary. 

Congratulations to them both if so.

Jean

This is a goodbye - well not a goodbye I hope, but an Au Revoir - to my comrade in the field service Jean, who died at the end of June. 

We had many adventures together, including getting our car stopped by a stern young policeman on a motorbike.

Had he mistaken us for the notorious Zimmer Twins?!  Notorious for robbing all the local banks - or they would be if they could only remember what it was they had gone to the bank for in the first place.  I was just rolling the window down to confess (to whatever it was I must have done) and got as far as "I'm very sorry Officer", when he gave me a cold look and told me to stay where I was until the Very Large Load approaching in the distance had got safely past.  He was its young Outrider.

On another occasion, a lady coming out of the carpark drove into our car while she was looking the other way. She was so distressed poor lady, but we comforted her and she took a Watchtower magazine.  So it turned out very well - but only thanks to Jehovah.  

And we also got lost on a fairly regular basis.

What with me concentrating on the road (I am a very nervous driver) and Jean (whose eyes were not what they were) map reading, we once found ourselves heading straight for Brighton at what felt like the speed of light - which is to say at over 30 miles an hour.  

We were aiming for Angmering.

Then there was the time we rescued a moth from a spider's web - Jean untangling it, and me holding the spider back with a magazine (aagghh).  Was that kindness to moths, or cruelty to spiders?  I don't know. Surely there will be no such dilemmas when the whole earth has become the paradise of peace it was always meant to be.

And there were our two big epic adventures - which have probably turned up in a couple of my previous blogs:  THE GATE and THE LOST CAT.

The Gate was a security gate at the end of a long gravel path - this was some time ago when Jean and I could both walk.  It was very large and very locked so I pressed a button on the intercom/bell system hoping to announce ourselves, but to our surprise the Gate swung open.  We went through and it creaked slowly and eerily shut behind us.  

We were faced with a long drive, with a turning. Round the turning was a mansion.  We rang the bell of its imposing door, but there was no-one home.  I waved a Watchtower magazine at the Security camera so they could see who had been calling and we trudged off back to the gate - the gate that was shut and locked with Jean and me on the inside.

We stood there looking at it.  How on earth did we get out?  Even in our climbing days (long gone), it would have been an impossibility. And if the owners were wintering in Spain... I was just imagining them coming back after months away to find two skeletal forms lying in their drive, faded copies of The Watchtower clutched in their hands when we spotted a discreet button, pressed it, and the gate creaked open. And we escaped.

The story of the Cat is in this blogpost: 

https://sueknight2000.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-chase-and-waiting-is-over.html?fbclid=IwAR2lTddyva92zv9NpPpRlmnrYRSTo4U-jfrur41ztH400rCr5M8oiFct_UU

And I would want to add that we got that cat back to its owner only because we both prayed to our Creator, Jehovah. It was set on freedom and had eluded the young men chasing it, who had given up, leaving Jean, me,  and its very elderly owner (in his jimjams) trying to keep track of it among all the gardens.   

Jean was a real people person, a convivial soul - the exact opposite of me, so she was a good partner on the doors.  As my politely-made offer of a magazine was (usually equally politely) refused and I was about to leave, Jean would chime in with an open-sesame: the word "grandchildren" - or in her later years "great grandchildren" - and Hey Presto! we would be invited in for cups of tea, cosy chats, photos and anecdotes - and could leave behind a Bible-based publication, packed with life-saving information.  And we usually got an invitation to come again.

Her regular calls were all very fond of her and she was very fond of them.  And when I can get myself out I shall have to try to make the rounds and tell them why she will not be calling again.  I have the phone number of one kind and hospitable lady we used to call on who has kept in contact all during the pandemic, and I let her know straight away.  She was very sorry to hear it.  She always used to ask us in and make us lovely coffee - so welcome on a cold winter Witnessing day!

Like me, Jean was a great reader.  Although reading is one of the pleasures she lost to old age as her eyes deteriorated so badly.  

And even though she was in her nineties, and therefore had what "the world" would like us to feel was "a good innings", Jean so much wanted to know what was going to happen next.  She did not want to leave, even though she was so frail and in constant pain.

She would have loved to be joining us at the current online Convention.

However, I am so relieved that the long painful struggle of old age is over for her, and above all that she remained faithful to Jehovah, trusting in him to the end.

So I know she has the most wonderful awakening ahead - when the time comes for the resurrection.    

Here is a promise from Jehovah, who cannot and who does not lie, and whose every purpose is fulfilled:

        “Your dead will live.

My corpses will rise up.

Awake and shout joyfully,

You residents in the dust! 

For your dew is as the dew of the morning,

And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life."

Isaiah 26:19

Jean now sleeps safe in "the everlasting arms", safe in God's memory, and when the time comes for the resurrection, Jehovah will wake her from the dreamless sleep of death.

She will wake up feeling so refreshed.  She will probably think that she must have had a really good night's sleep, she will feel so well, so full of energy.  Then she will realise that she has never felt so well in her life!

She will see this lovely earth again, and will have endless life stretching before her.  It will be more joyful, more interesting than we can now imagine.

And if I too can endure faithfully to the end, as Jean did, I will see her again, when the time comes.

The Zimmer Twins will ride again!  Although there will be no need for Zimmers in the restored earthly paradise. 

PURSUE PEACE

Today the Congregation started the first part of the 2022 Convention PURSUE PEACE. We Zoomed to the Friday morning Session together, after a shortened Watchtower study.

This is the link to the Programme: file:///home/chronos/u-3dea48bf2f87aa7505b4c3079ba172c559f4c3a8/MyFiles/Downloads/CO-pgm22_E.pdf

You are welcome to join us, at a time that suits you.  The sessions will be coming on line during July and August .

Isaiah 48:17,18 says:

"This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel:
“I, Jehovah, am your God,

 The One teaching you to benefit yourself,
 The One guiding you in the way you should walk.
 If only you would pay attention to my commandments!
 Then your peace would become just like a river
 And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.""

Those words are as true today as they were back then. And the way to test them out for ourselves is to find out what it is that Jehovah wants from us, how it is that He wants to be worshipped, and then do the best we can to follow his instructions.

That way we find out just how beneficial they are - even now in "difficult times hard to deal with", and with our own imperfections constantly getting in the way.

Some thoughts from today.  We do need to pursue peace - we need to be peacemakers, to make a real effort to act peaceably no matter how others may be behaving.   But once we are perfect, at the end of the Thousand Years (and during that time it will be getting easier and easier every day), we will be at peace with our God, at peace with each other, and at peace with ourselves.

The pursuit will be over.

And a thought from one of the many interesting video clips:  God is impartial, as he wants us to be.  He welcomes and accepts all kinds of people from every sort of background - but he does not welcome and accept all conduct.

Which is why we need to pay attention to what he is telling us.  And this Convention is designed to do that, to help us to put Bible teaching into practise.

Col disappeared quite early to go to a Country Fair - on Metal Detector business - trying to enthuse farmers and landowners about metal detecting and get some more fields for the club to work.    He came back laden with homemade cake and biscuits he had bought at one of the Stalls.  Its quite like old pre-Covid times.

But Covid is on the rise again - hopefully not as devastating as the initial swathe it cut through us, as so many of us are now vaccinated.

I am trying to write a blog about Jean and our many adventures in the Field Service.  It's started. But I have yet to finish it.