Summer Arrives (and along with it a Cold)

Summer seems to have arrived - see the blue sky above - and I have a bad cold.  It is the one the Captain has had for the last 10 days or so. I am hoping that I won't get the cough that goes along with it  - not sure how my poor battered lungs will cope.  Col has been coughing for days, poor guy.  We sat out on the balcony on Saturday night with a glass of wine watching the sea, and talking things over.  Its odd to be so old now.  Just yesterday we were a young married couple.

One thing we have to talk over is whether we should move back up North or not, to be near family.  When we bought this flat  many years ago, we had a lot of family down here.  Now there is almost no-one.  Having said that, we have the wonderful congregation family who rallied round in our hour of need.  But I also wonder how much longer we will be able to continue travelling to visit family 'oop North.  It's hard to tear ourselves away from this lovely location though - we will not get a view like this again. I am going to continue to pray to Jehovah, asking him that he will help us make the right decision.

Because I do not know what it is.  At the moment Col's decision is definitely to stay here, and of course I will go along with that. We are happy here, and I trust his judgement.

For some reason I have been reading about Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, even though I am not a fan of their novels.  How sad peoples lives are really - all our lives, even though we can have happinesses in them.  I want to say something about this in my blog, in time, but I am still reading Martin Stepek's amazing book about his father's journey from Stalin's gulags to Glasgow.  And I am very much admiring the way he is telling his story, so also want to say some more about that.

As I am now full of a cold I had to attend the Circuit Assembly on Sunday by video.  it was strangely tiring, but well worth it.

The Convention was titled "Eagerly Wait for Jehovah", and the theme scripture was Psalm 130:6, which says:

I eagerly wait for Jehovah,
More than watchmen wait for the morning,
Yes, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

It's a powerful image, as I guess we can imagine how eagerly the night watchman waits for the sun to rise after a long and maybe tense and worrying night. And he knows that the sun will rise, the dawn will come.

We need to be just as sure that Jehovah's purpose towards the earth, that it will become a paradise, will be fulfilled. And that it will come exactly at the right time too.

There was a lot of wonderful teaching and advice and I will need to try to decipher my notes.  But one thing I will note now is that we had a reminder that Jehovah loves the peacemakers, not those who cause trouble and strife.  Which brings me back to Martin's book, as he is so careful not to tell his father's story in a way that incites further hatred, further division.  And yet he certainly could have done, had he chosen to.  

I hope Jehovah - who teaches us that love "does not keep account of the injury" - will bless him for it.