The books begin to arrive

What have I been doing - to feel so exhausted?  I think the answer is "not sleeping well".

We had a brother down from Bethel who gave us a special talk on Saturday night, followed by sandwiches, tea and cakes.   Col chauffered me there and back, but wouldn't come.   The talk "Friends and Followers" was angled to make us think about what we read in the Bible - about how extraordinary Jesus' life was. We read through the Inspired Scriptures constantly, so it is easy to become so familiar with them that we forget that.

I didn't make it to the meeting on Sunday, but I did listen in on the telephone lines.  I have just emailed a brother in the Philippines, hoping to find out he and his family are OK, after the recent disaster. The worst tropical storm in recorded history apparently!  JW.org tells me that the brothers are already there, helping.

Linda came over Sunday afternoon for tea, cakes, and a chat.   I wasn't able to get to the morning meeting, but listened in on the phone.  The little bit of walking about - on crutches - that I did at the Hall on Saturday night seemed to cripple me.  I woke up hardly able to move.

The books for my next operation and convalescence have begun to arrive and are being stored, tantalisingly, at the bottom of my wardrobe.  A couple of Gerda Charles - a marvelous writer, long out of print.   And three climbing books, with, hopefully, more to come. I can't now remember what I ordered.  I want to go and read them all now now now. But I mustn't. If I remember it rightly, the first two weeks I am back, I can't do anything, beyond get myself in and out of bed, and to the loo, so I need them then.

I will need to be whisked up to the top of Annapurna, or back in time with Gerda Charles, who evokes her life in Jewish lower-middle class, provincial England, in the first half of the last century in magical words. There is so much bad writing about nowadays, that the good shines like a beacon.  And good writing can take you away from the pain too.

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