Bea and Co

As we are now.  Captain Butterfly in the foreground wielding the camera, me lurking behind him, saying "Make me look like Kate Moss, only lovelier." Him saying: "But the age of miracles is passed, my dear".

Our first family visitors of the year came in the shape of Bea, Simon, and cousin Elizabeth.  They joined us for lunch on Saturday, Bea and Simon being on their way back up North, having done a brief family and friends tour.  We haven't really entertained since the family was over last year.  Our social life has been pretty much nil since Lockdown. We are not recluses, both being busy with our own things, but we live in a different way from the old days when we had people round most evenings (in our expat life), then at least at the weekends. I guess we both need and like a quiet night in these days.

I know I do.

We were only providing a sandwich lunch - to fit in with their arrival times, dependent on the traffic, which on a sunny Saturday on the South Coast can be bad!  As indeed it was. They all made it and we had a long and leisurely lunch: cheese and chutney (home-made chutney, made with Captain B's own fair hands), ham and mustard, and tuna pate and lettuce sandwiches, plus some lovely sweet tomatoes from Waitrose, followed by lemon drizzle cake and mini millionaires' shortbreads.

And Col took Bea for a short walk to the sea. She has an art project on that requires a photo of our beach stones. She is the artist whose illustration provides the cover of The Umbrellas of Hamelin.

I hope we all enjoyed ourselves. I know the Captain and I did. 

On Sunday, Himself was doing SUSSAR training in the morning, then detectorising in a field, somewhere, and I had a morning in Zoom, joining the Chi congregation for the special broadcast from the Governing Body.  Our congregation watched the live version on Saturday morning, so obviously I could not join them at the Hall.

We had some lovely video updates of our brothers and sisters round the world, including the small congregation on the Falkland Islands, and then two talks from visiting members of the Governing Body.

The first talk was very appropriate being titled: DO NOT TIRE OUT  and the second was about the need to keep awake spiritually: KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

What an antidote it was to the bad news we woke up to on Sunday, hearing that Iran had chosen to retaliate to the attack on their Embassy by droning Israel, and now America and the UK is getting involved, on Israel's side.

None of them are listening to our Creator, the God of Abraham, or none of this would be happening.

And the age of miracles has not passed. We are surrounded by miracles, as we always were. Every flower is a miracle of artistry and engineering. Tiffany jewellers at their finest could not create one of them. And the progress of tiny egg, to caterpillar, to pupa, to butterfly is a miracle in plain sight.

And please look up into the night sky on a clear night.  This sparkling immensity did not come from nowhere.  Think of having forever to see all this and learn about it and above all to enjoy it.

That is what our Creator is promising us - is holding out to us. Isn't that what we want  - to enjoy life forever?