A Cold Snowstorm?

POSTSCRIPT

In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightening of flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully-grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you'll park or capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open

Seamus Heaney
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/postscript-8/


Autumn always catches at my heart. The photo is of a September sunset as seen from our balcony on Sunday. And if Col and I are here a million years from now, as I hope we will be, and we have seen a million sunsets, we will never have seen another one exactly like that one. Such is the amazing variety of Jehovah's creation.

I was so pleased to learn that the earliest calendars begin in the Fall, which suggests that Adam first opened his eyes in an Autumn Garden, the Garden of Eden.   And I love this Heaney poem which describes those glimpses we get all the time of the paradise that the whole earth should have been - and will be when it is under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government for whose coming Jesus taught us to pray.

This month we are making a special effort to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God.  It is what we, Jehovah's Witnesses, are always trying to tell you about, in harmony with Jesus' own words, at Matthew 24:14:

 "And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

But we hope to be making an extra special effort this month. It is so urgent.

It is not, of course, the beautiful earth that will come to an end, but the present wicked system of things on it will be gone, for good.  So this is very good news we are bringing to your doors.

As I was having my morning coffee while watching a Youtube video about hikers on the ACT Trail (USA), I heard the expression "a cold snowstorm was predicted". Which made me wonder .. as opposed to a "hot snowstorm"?  I had always taken the coldness of a snowstorm for granted.

We are having a very hot and sunny start to September, so I think the snowstorms - hot or cold - will be holding off for a while.

I had an appointment booked for two blood tests on Thursday morning and no sooner had I had them done than my GP contacted Col by text in his field (out there in the Hampshire Badlands) to say that she needed me to come in for a blood test to check how I was doing with the increased dosage on the new medication...   If only I had known a bit earlier. I now have an immense black bruise on my arm from the morning tests and just didn't want to face any more for a while.

So I rang up wondering if the gallons they had extracted in the morning couldn't be used to provide the answer - but no, they couldn't.  "Well" I said glumly, accepting another blood test appointment "I suppose I may have a few drops left in me."

The Receptionist seemed to find that very funny - so maybe I brightened up her day at least.  And the test got us out very early Friday morning and both blood test and fruit and veg shopping were done by 9 o'clock.  I wish I could say that I then went on to have a very productive day...  but I didn't.  I did some witnessing letters, made lunch - veggie soup - and supper - baked potatoes with salad (baked sweet potato for me).  And I watched Tipping Point.  I have developed quite a passion for it.

I much prefer the daytime TV programmes these days.  Anything new they put on the evening, any new drama or series, tends to be ruined by the (apparently) compulsory addition of what they call "adult" content.

In this context the word "adult" means the sort of stuff very dirty-minded schoolchildren would snigger about round the back of the bikeshed - or worse!

George Orwell noted the frightening way language was being twisted in his famous "1984" - "War is peace", for example.  And I am trying to remember the word he coined - "Doublethink/Doublespeak" - which is now frighteningly insisted on by "the world".