New Oven, Old Moon

This is a photo Col took of the full red moon a few evenings ago, from our balcony.  We watched it for ages, while sipping at our glass of home made wine.  What an exquisite way to pull the tides along and light up the night.

Curries, via two sturdy guys, delivered our new oven on Friday morning - quick and efficient - all done before 9 o clock.  It looks very smart, and we now have the oven and the grill in the right places - grill on top, oven below.  So, what with that and our new shower having been fitted on Monday and working well, it was a good week for appliances.

Are there any appliance poems I wonder?   I just looked on Google and, to my amazement, there are - verse rather than poetry though, which makes sense.  But I am not inspired to write one, alas.

We had visitors round for a chile evening, which I thought would put the new oven to the test.  However, the guest who was cooking for us did it all on the stove top. And very good it was too.  Makes me realise how long it is since I cooked my faithful old TexMex chile recipe that was very popular in our expat days - when we entertained a lot.

We tested out the new oven on Saturday night when it cooked pizzas beautifully for us all - seven of us - and so quietly too!  It makes me realise that poor old oven had been grumbling and rattling for some time before it gave up, but I had obviously got used to it.

Last week we started the Lady of the Flowers on Lesson 31 of the book Enjoy Life Forever: What is God's Kingdom?

She had a conventional Protestant upbringing, religious assemblies at school. church attendance, Sunday school, while I had an intensive religious education at my convent school.  Yet neither of us were taught anything about the Kingdom of God.

Interestingly, novelist and historian H. G. Wells called attention to this failure of Christendom’s clergy when he wrote: “Remarkable is the enormous prominence given by Jesus to the teaching of what he called the Kingdom of Heaven, and its comparative insignificance in the procedure and teaching of most of the Christian churches.” 

It is remarkable in one way, but not in another when you consider this warning from the Book of Revelation:  

"So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth..." - Rev.12:9

The "original serpent" the one who lied to our first parents, and set this whole disaster in train, is now misleading the entire inhabited earth.

But if we listen to our Creator and let us ourselves be guided by him, we will not be fooled.  Jehovah will guide us safely through to the restored earthly paradise.

The sadness of Green-winged Orchids

 

We chose one of Col's photos of the Green-winged Orchid for our August calendar.  This shot is one Col took in Corfu I believe, on one of his trips there with the butterfliers, but in the calendar we only used ones he had taken in the UK.

Orchid, with your wings of green, your stunning hue, I hope that one day, all will be as lovely as you. Now we wither on our stem, but...

A flower dying is beautiful - part of the cycle of life.  The skeletal trees of winter are beautiful, living sculptures.  But our death is far from beautiful as we were not made to die.  Which is what I was hoping to convey in a poem but I sort of ran out of steam.  I have minimal steam these days.

We had such sad news of Richard, one of our fellow butterfly conservationists.  Only a couple of years into what ought to be have been a busy and happy retirement he has died.  And by his own hand.  It is tragic and inexplicable - to us.  But who knows what really goes on in minds and hearts.  Only our loving Creator.

And there lies the hope that our butterfly friend will live again, that Jehovah will wake him from the dreamless sleep of death when the time comes, and he will next open his eyes in the restored earthly paradise.

Maybe Jehovah will wake him into a cloud of butterflies?  Who knows?  But I wish he had known that, whatever his sadness was, and in spite of "the sadness that belongs to the world" (Janet Frame), we are not abandoned to this. 

We are more moth than butterfly oriented now - though I remember our days with Butterfly Conservation fondly - and we had 14 Tigers (in moth form) on our balcony on Tuesday morning. What would a collective noun for Jersey Tiger Moths be?  An Island of Jersey Tigers?  A Channel of Jersey Tigers? Apparently the collective noun for tigers as such is an "ambush". But as tigers are not pack animals, it is a term not often used.  It is quite a warning though.

It was the monthly get together with my fellow Fantastic Book authors on Monday night - which always inspires me to want to start writing again.  Though my witnessing letters and blog mean I do keep active, writing-wise.

Wednesday was our morning with the hospitable Lady of the Flowers.  And it was Col's evening meeting with the Detectorists.  He left very early this morning, laden with sandwiches, cake from the freezer, and metal detectors to get back out to The Field.

And Bea and I had a long chat on the phone - remembering the days when we were not housebound, and some of our outings of old.

And, to end on a butterfly note in memory of Richard, Col is seeing quite a few Clouded Yellows in the fields where they detect. Glad to know that this amazing and exquisite butterfly is still with us.  Richard is one of those who played a part in trying to protect and preserve the butterfly world.

Three Tigers on our Balcony

THE TIGER

by Hilaire Belloc

The tiger, on the other hand,

Is kittenish and mild,
And makes a pretty playfellow
For any little child.
And mothers of large families
(Who claim to common sense)
Will find a tiger well repays
The trouble and expense.

I had better quickly add, in these litigious times, do NOT try this at home children, or mothers.  Well, not until after Armageddon, when nature is no longer "red in tooth and claw".

We started August off in splendid tiger-style with 3 Jersey Tiger moths on our balcony - and they have turned up every morning so far.

I watched a youtube video about the reintroduction of Bison into a Kent woodland. What wonderful curators of the wood they are, and how close they came to extinction - almost literally a hairsbreadth.

It is here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/991535107047282    and well worth a watch.

The inspired definition of faith at Hebrews 11:1 was brought out in the talk on Sunday.  Writing under inspiration, Paul said: "Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen."

Faith must be based on reason, on logic.  Or what is to stop us from believing that the moon is made of green cheese and worrying that Elvis is eating his way through it from the dark side?

And it was the beauty of the creation that told me there had to be a Creator. But for me to find him, and to be able to say thanks, I had to talk to the Jehovah's Witnesses who called as it was they who opened my eyes to what the Bible on my shelf had been telling me all along.

I am so thankful they called that day.  It was a long time ago, but I can remember hesitating on the door and thinking well, I have been looking for some time and not found the answers. I'll ask them in and hear them out, maybe they have a piece of the puzzle.  It sounded unlikely to me then, but I asked them in. And I listened.

I been part of the congregated people of Jehovah ever since, in that I have been taught as part of his congregation ever since that moment - nearly 40 years ago!

Once again I note how quickly the time goes, how the years fly by - or is it just that our lives are so short now, so quickly over?

A busy day lies ahead, two Zoom sessions this morning, two this afternoon, plus Col's Zoom with his brothers a bit later.

The School

 

Me at school - Notre Dame - many years ago. I am end middle row, left as you look at it.  One of the girls beside me died some years ago, the other has lived in NZ for many years.

I had a part in the Ministry School on Thursday, which prompted the heading and photo for this blog. And how kindly, gently and patiently Jehovah teaches us.  So different from one's schooldays, which I hated with a passion.  Though I suppose they did their best with the massive classes of the post war babyboom.

This has been a difficult week - for me, in my state, now.  I have managed to get to our Bible student to conduct the study. We get such a lovely warm welcome from the hospitable Lady of the Flowers. Then I had a part in the meeting at the Hall last night, and after praying and the help of my gallant valet and chauffeur Captain B I was there in person not pixel. The script is below.

And then - aarrgghh - I had two medical appointments today.  The first a blood test in the morning - complicated these days by the condition of my skin, but accomplished without - so far! -  a massive bruise. Then a scan - bonescan - in the afternoon.

It meant a long drive through holiday traffic - poor old Col. But we did it. And he says we can get fish and chips for supper- a rare treat.

Here is the script for Thursday. I had a wonderful Householder which helped.  You will see that I have featured my medical woes.

Brief:

4. Starting a Conversation

(4 min.) INFORMAL WITNESSING. Find a natural way to let the person know that you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. (lmd lesson 2 point 4)

4. Be patient. Do not feel that you must introduce a Bible truth immediately. Wait for the right opportunity so that you can bring it up naturally. Sometimes, this may mean waiting until the next conversation you have with the person.

Setting: In Waitrose, having coffee

HH:  Do you mind if I join you - I think this is the only chair left.

Sue:  Of course.  It’s always busy in the Waitrose cafe isn’t it?

HH;  Yes.  We usually come here for a coffee after our Tuesday shop. But it does seem extra busy today.  I won’t be long anyway. I am just waiting for my husband. He had a dental appointment this morning, so he dropped me off here to get the shopping done.  We then have to rush off for a hospital appointment in Worthing, for a scan.

Sue:  Oh dear you are having a medical day of it! I do sympathise, sometimes life seems to be nothing but one medical appointment after another.  Anyway, I do hope this scan will put your mind at rest

HH:  Thanks, but it is all so stressful.  And it’s a worry too what is happening with the health service.  I have had to wait ages for this scan and they have already cancelled on me once.   We are hoping that this new Prime Minister might be able to improve things. 

Sue:  I am sure he will do his best.  But it’s not easy, the Health Service is an immense machine with immense demands being made on it and I don’t know that one person, one government, can really cope with it, no matter how good their intentions.

HH;  That is a point.  It’s like this climate change we seem to be going through.  Which is getting frightening now, but somehow governments seem powerless to sort things out.

Sue:  Yes, these fires in France and Spain are terrifying. What is really needed I have come to realise is what they call a one world government, one that could tackle the problems of the whole human family, in a properly organised way.

HH:  Well, I do understand why you say that. But I must admit the thought of any government having that kind of power is a scary one.

Sue: I couldn’t agree with you more.  We have already seen what some governments, some rulers have done with the limited power they have - the suffering, the millions dead.  But I wasn’t thinking of a human government, I was thinking of something else.  Can I ask you, have you ever said the Lord’s Prayer?

HH:  (surprised).  The Lord’s Prayer.  Well, yes, we used to say it every day in school assemblies. And of course at church when we used to go with my parents.

Sue:  Yes, I too said it many times, in my schooldays. Do you remember how it began?

HH:  For sure:  Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come.

Sue:  Yes.  But have you ever thought about what we were praying for when we asked for God’s Kingdom to come?

HH:   Now that you ask, no, I never thought about it.

Sue:  Neither had I for so many years. It wasn’t until two Jehovah’s Witnesses called at my door one day and asked me the same question that I began to wonder. And I found out what we were praying for is for a government that CAN put things right on the earth, the heavenly one.  And I would love to show you a verse from the Bible explaining that which was shown to me.  But is that your husband approaching, waving rather urgently at us?

HH:  Oh yes, I must be off. But, listen, what you just said is so interesting, I would love to hear more.

Sue: Could we meet up here next Tuesday at this time, after we have done our shopping,  have a coffee and maybe I could show you and your husband the Bible verse I mentioned?

HH:  Yes, I’m quite intrigued by this.

Sue: Could we have a quick exchange of phone numbers before you go, just in case either of us can’t make it.  I’m Sue by the way.

HH;  Yes. Good idea. And I’m HH.

Sue. Look forward to seeing you next week, HH.   And I do hope the scan goes well.                                                          

Canary Shoulders

This is a recent visitor to our balcony - a Canary-shouldered Thorn moth.

Given the number of moths on our balcony, I would say it is a good moth year. And we are apparently heading back into the heatwave. I hope we will get some rain beforehand though. It is already beginning to look like Autumn as the trees are having to shed their leaves. There are fearsome fires in France and Spain.

How clear it is that we need a worldwide government that can perfectly control the weather. Which brings me right back to the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government, with Jesus at its head.  Remember when he calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, and his followers said:  "What sort of person is this?  Even the winds and the sea obey him."

Isn't that the ruler we need?

Saturday morning there were loads of micro-moths all over the Moth Hotel and our balcony walls. Though it still hasn't reached the stage some years ago when it seems the whole of the wall under the balcony light was awash with Moth, it is a year of moth-abundance.

I wish I could manage a poem, or at least a verse, to celebrate.  In fact, here goes:

Our moth hotel has room for all/and room for campers on the wall/weary travellers see our light/and from the sea they find respite/they may seem made of lacy stuff/but, fragile-looking, they are tough.

We spend most evenings out on our balcony at the moment - with a glass of home made wine, Col with his binoculars seeing and reporting on what is out on the English Channel, and me talking about old times.  And wondering how much longer we have to be together.

I am hoping we can be together forever, in the restored earthly paradise.  Not so sure about Captain B - well not if Rachel from Countdown is available.  I have assured him that she is already spoken for, so he has NO chance. 

Zoom's Most Wanted?

 

A photo shot from the family Zoom session on Monday morning.  Oh dear...  though it does include the lovely youngest member of the extended family (on my side).  But what happened to the rest of us once young siblings?!

I am thinking of the ending of a Thomas Hardy poem:  

A ghost-girl-rider. And though, toil-tried,
            He withers daily,
            Time touches her not,
            But she still rides gaily
            In his rapt thought
            On that shagged and shaly
            Atlantic spot,
            And as when first eyed
Draws rein and sings to the swing of the tide.

https://poets.org/poem/phantom-horsewoman

After his wife, Emma, died, the past- their courting days in Cornwall, came back to Hardy vividly, and he wrote so movingly about them. It is the line about withering daily that is resonating with me at the moment.

We saw my Bible student on Wednesday. Col was out detecting with the lads in a distant Field on Thursday - found nothing himself, but 4 gold items were found. And I pulled myself together a bit - the pain has somewhat abated, got a load of washing done, did my studying for the evening meeting, and (I had hoped) made an apple crumble.

However, not only am I breaking down, but now our oven has - the crumble warmish but uncooked after nearly an hour... and my shower no longer works and is having to be replaced. What next?!

I guess our flat and its appliances must be a good thirty years old by now.

On the doubleplusgood side (an acknowledgement of the Orwellian world we find ourselves living in)... well, I was interrupted and my train of thought has vanished.

Oh yes, it was the new study we began on Thursday night, from the book "Walk Courageously With God", which you can find on JW.org, in the library.  It is full of examples of the courageous faithful men and women of old, as recorded in the Inspired Scriptures, and is really going to make us think about how Jehovah supported them and how we can emulate them IF we rely on Jehovah's support.

And for someone like myself, who has a backbone of solid custard, Jehovah's support is all I can rely on, and I know I can get through anything IF I rely on him.  The year long study of these Biblical examples is going to help all of us so much.

Though I must also add how grateful I am for Captain Butterfly's constant support, and for always making me laugh.  You have a lot of running jokes when you have been married a long time.  And that is also something I must thank Jehovah for too, as He is the originator of the marriage arrangement.  And He also teaches us how to have a happy marriage, a loving partnership.

And what a precious thing that is.

Pippa's Song

Pippa's Song  by Robert Browning

And the day’s at the morn,
Morning‘s at seven;
The hillside’s dew-pearled
The lark‘s on the wing
The snail’s on the thorn;
God is in His heaven
All’s right with the world.

This always brings tears to my eyes.  Pippa passes through the corrupted world, the spoilt paradise, singing, her song reminding us of what we have lost and of the paradise earth to come - because Jehovah IS in his heaven, and He WILL put all right with the world. That is the wonderful reassuring message of the Bible - from Paradise lost, to Paradise regained.

Will the poet, his wife Elizabeth Barrett, and their son Pen wake from the dreamless sleep of death one day to find that truly all is right with the world?  I hope so.

In the meantime, we had a nice day with family on Saturday.  The little one, 3 years old, spent a lot of time on the balcony, drawing - and also had a good time on the beach and in the playground.  She added some treasures to her pebble and shell collection too.  

I have known Linda, Evie's gran, since she was a little girl herself, when Col and I first began a'courting. And now she is a grandma of three lovely girls with another one imminent.

The strangeness of time passing...

The flowers were a pressie from our guests, along with a bottle of wine.

And Pippa's song seems just right for Evie.  A dear little creature, full of the joy of life.  And she said a charming  "Thank you for having me" as she left.  

Apparently she loves being outside.  Which takes me back to my own youth in post WW2 Sheffield, food rationing, bomb sites, and the whole town black with soot from the steel foundries. We played out all the time.  And one of my earliest memories is of being outside in the stone walled back garden of a little friend. It was May and we were playing shop with flowers and petals.  I remember how the white blossom shone against the black paving, and it gave me such a feeling of happiness.

I think of it now as a paradise feeling, just a glimpse of that lovely garden our first parents once lived in so happily.  For sure it was not paradise back then, but there are still glimpses of it everywhere. So can they remind us that it is not gone for good?  If what the Bible promises is true, as I believe, there is more happiness ahead for us, right here on the earth, than we can now imagine.

The Beauty of the Underwing

 

This beautifully designed creature is a Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing.  It checked in and out of our balcony moth hotel a few days ago.

It ought to inspire a wonderful poem, but I don't seem to be up to it any more...  beauty of the underwing/makes my heart sing... There was a young Under of Wing, so lovely it needed no bling...

I can't thank Jehovah for this lovely world from a perfect heart yet, but I hope that both the Captain and I, and all those we love, will be able to one day.

That will be such a moment when and if it comes.

We have family visitors coming at the weekend - a rare thing these days, compared to our first years by the sea when we had family and friends down all summer. So many of them are no longer with us, or no longer able to travel. We were talking about them on the balcony last night.  Our good friends Chuck and Mary - Ralph - Janie - Diane - all the uncles and aunts... and so many others.  Our parents - though only Col's mum ever came here. She used to like coming though and would sit and watch all the goings-on on The Green for ages.

And of course Jackie...  who was so much a part of our retirement.  We can and do visit her in her Home when I am able to travel there - not so often now - but she is a limited version of herself. 

I had to go through my notes from the Convention as we discussed what we had learnt at the meeting on Thursday night.  I did manage to extract a few gems from the scrawl, but overall I think what the Convention left me with was the very comforting thought of how much love and sympathy Jesus - and therefore his father, Jehovah  (as he perfectly reflects his Father's qualities) - feel for us, and how much they want to help us.

And we, the children of Adam, need to feel this love and sympathy for each other.  And help each other.  Not constantly let "the world" and our own imperfections force us in the opposite direction.

My bro and sister-in-law in Germany have just experienced such a tragedy, a close friend, a young friend, has been killed in the war in The Ukraine. She was visiting family.  Such a senseless and cruel waste.  I might write a bit more about it in another blog.

It's not as warm as it was. which is fine by me.  I almost wanted a woolly on when we were out on the balcony last night.   In theory the Big Heat is over for the moment.

In a lot of pain still. And I remember talking sternly to myself when I hit seventy - and how young that seems now - that it was not going to get easier and that I must be grateful for every day. And now, with Eighty looming up in the rear view mirror and about to overtake me, I must cling on to that thought even more

Family visits today.  I am providing a sandwich lunch. Which is why I must now post this and get myself started.  I am hoping for a brief refreshing dip into the Zoom field service first.

A Leopard on our Balcony

There was a young tiger from Jersey
From the Arun, not from the Mersey

On our balcony bed

He rested his head

And for that he was none the worse-y.

Erm... that's it folks.

My previous blog has a photo of our flying tiger from Jersey on it - but I hadn't written the limerick then.   And you, my blog reader, may well feel I have not written it now either!

Today's photo is of the Leopard moth, but its hard to find the rhyme... could he put something in Jeopard-y?

Lots of medical calls on Monday, with medical appointments coming up - two telephone ones, a blood test, and a bone scan - so far.  Made an appointment for Monday as requested - in the afternoon, as our Bible study has been rescheduled to Monday morning.  Appointment confirmed by email. Then another email came through re-scheduling it for the morning, when I will be out. Another email sent, so now, who knows?

When, where, or what

Will my appointment be got.

And if we live in the bleak and pointless world of Darwinian Evolution, WHY will my appointment be got?  What use could someone of my advanced age be, in Darwinian terms?

But, if Genesis tells the true story of us, as I believe, then I am valuable. Every one of us damaged children of disobedient Adam is so precious, has such potential.

Don't we know that, at some very deep level?

The phone call did come.  I think. But unfortunately on my OutSmartMe phone which, as usual, would not let me answer it.  I now have an email telling me to rebook the call...

It was the monthly get together of us Fantastic Book authors on Monday night. Encouraging to know that one of us - Penny step forward please - had just sold out at a local bookshop and actually earned some money. An encouragement to us all.

A Tiger on our Balcony

 

A Jersey Tiger spent the night in our Moth Hotel on Tuesday. And here it is. A truly splendid moth.  

It's been a splendid moth summer so far - they must really like the heat.  And it is hot again, though we did get quite a nice sea breeze on Saturday, which makes all the difference.  Col went to the Detectorist BBQ in the afternoon - taking sausages, drinks and crisps with him.

The days when I would have made something for him to take are now in the past, sadly.  

We have been sitting out on the balcony of an evening with a glass of wine.  Even I have been having wine rather than tea, hoping it might act as a bit of a painkiller.  We hold hands and talk about the past.  It is great to have shared so much with the Captain, but now... well, how much longer do we have?

On the last day of our District Convention - last Sunday - we were learning how to apply lessons from Jesus' illustrations.  And we were reminded that his illustrations were so clear and so simple that they can be understood even today.  Which is an example for us as we try to tell others what the Bible says.

There are plenty of improvements to be made...   For example: "People who love people do well in the preaching work".   That is of course true. But worrying, as that does not describe me.  I am not someone who loves people.  Not that I hate them...  but I am an introvert, somewhat on the spectrum, find interacting with people stressful - and am not doing all that well in the preaching work.   But we were given the example of a brother in Denmark, who also has the same sorts of difficulties.  Like me, he is trying.

So, with Jehovah's help I can hope to improve.  Even at my advanced age.

We were also reminded of the great teaching work to come during the Thousand Years.  Most people will learn about their loving Creator, Jehovah, after he wakes them from the dreamless sleep of death. They will long to hear and to learn then.  It will be such a pleasure and a privilege to be involved in teaching them.  And of course we will all be learning together.  We will never stop learning.

Col is busy checking out the guests from his moth hotel as I finish this blog. They are swirling happily around - exquisite creatures all of them. Once he has them photographed, off they go, to live happily ever after - I hope.

Moth City

 

Col took this photo of our balcony flowers - geraniums and nemesia - a few days ago. They are enjoying the weather at any rate.   I don't know if you can make out our parched Green through the railings.

We have had no scent from our nemesia yet, but then it is an elusive thing, scentwise, so who knows.   Sometimes they fill the whole balcony with a soft vanilla smell.

The heatwave returns, and it seems the moths are loving it, judging by the numbers checking into our balcony hotel, on our balcony walls, on our balcony door, and fluttering round the room as they check out of the hotel every morning.

I am sort of getting back to normal - or what passes for it in old age.  It is all actually new territory, the constant deterioration, the vanishing energy - but in balance it comes with an ever increasing appreciation for the precious gift of life.

I am still struggling with my Convention notes, having failed, yet again, to take few but legible ones.  But I think I can manage an overview of Saturday.  It centred round a discussion and video about the Sermon on the Mount. And we were reminded that, before he taught them, Jesus went among the crowd healing people.  So how eager would you be to hear the words of someone who had just healed you, and how much easier to listen if you were no longer in pain?

And wasn't Jesus showing us what he can and will do for us - what he longs to do for us - once he is ruling over the earth as the King of Jehovah's Kingdom?

Talking to a friend about it on Tuesday afternoon - she and her husband also attended in Zoom (health reasons) - she said she found it hard to accept how quickly it was over.  Me too. Those three days just flew by. And we will have to wait till next year for the next instalment of The Good News According to Jesus.  They gave us a preview of it on Sunday.

At any rate I do know how quickly a year can fly by. But will we fly along with it?  

We celebrated out 53rd wedding anniversary on Monday.  Well, we didn't celebrate it as such, but were just glad we are still here and still together. We had intended to get a takeaway, but in the end we didn't.  I made Himself an omelette and had beans on toast myself.  I don't think we even managed a glass of wine.  We are just grateful to still be together.

It is very hot today, but we do have a slight breeze through the flat, which makes all the difference.

The July Calendar - the Frog Orchid

 

We chose a Frog Orchard from Col's photo gallery for our July calendar this year.  I am already starting to wonder what the theme for our next year's calendar could be.  A Finds Calendar maybe, featuring some of the detected artefacts?

That, of course, is if we make it into 2027...

With that in mind, my day started with a phone call from a young medic at the doctors, outcome of which is a new med and I am back on the blood pressure machine routine - just for 4 days this time, but 6 times a day.

The theme for the first day of our Convention - Friday - was Matthew 5:3: "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need".

It is a Scripture I knew from my convent schooldays, but we knew it as "Happy are the poor in spirit", so I never understood what it meant.   What it does mean is very simple.  If we feel the need for our Creator, the need for his support and guidance, if we feel the loneliness of being born cut off from Him, in a damaged and dying state (through no fault of our own), we will seek for Him, even if we don't exactly know who it is we are searching for.

And if we seek for our loving Creator, Jehovah, he will let us find him, as He has promised.  And, as Jesus himself assured us, if you keep on seeking, you will find.  I found that to be true.

Here is a question asked by one of the Convention's speakers:  Are some of us so tired of being in constant pain, and life being a constant round of doctor's and hospital visits?

Yes. I think many of us are.  We are grateful, very, for the NHS.  But how we long for perfect health.

While the weekend was warm and sunny, it was not the return of the heatwave. Not yet.  Col was home on Friday - and gave me a consoling hug when he saw my eyes filling with tears during the Convention.  Episode 4 of the video series The Good News According to Jesus included Jesus healing the leper, and it showed how Jesus reached out to him and touched him just before he healed him.

How long since that man had been touched by anyone?  Leprosy is - or was then - so contagious that lepers had to stay isolated.

And I want to remember and treasure this, from Friday morning:

You make known to me the path of life.

In your presence is abundant joy;
There is happiness at your right hand forever.

Psalm 16:11

Happiness forever.  Don't those two words perfectly express what we long for?  And we long for it because that is what Jehovah made us for - to be happy, under the loving care of the happy God.

Eternal Happiness Convention

 

A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

By Lewis Carroll

A boat beneath a sunny sky,

Lingering onward dreamily

In an evening of July —

Children three that nestle near,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Pleased a simple tale to hear —

Long has paled that sunny sky:

Echoes fade and memories die:

Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,

Alice moving under skies

Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream —

Lingering in the golden gleam —

Life, what is it but a dream?

I am sure I have blogged this poem before - in another July. And, as I love it, I may do so again, if I live to see another July.  Because, yes, what are our lives now but a dream, just a moment in time, so quickly gone.

But once paradise is restored, will there be one July to come, maybe hundreds of years from now, when I can talk to the poet, to Alice, and to the other children so lovingly remembered in the poem?   If I can keep on going faithfully to the end - the end of the current wicked system of things on the earth, or of my life, whichever comes first - then it is more than possible.

The young man came to fix our phone on Wednesday morning. He was due at 8:00 and turned up promptly at 8:00!  And, hopefully, he has fixed it- our ancient horse-drawn phone that is, not our mean OutSmartYou ones.

I managed to get myself up and dressed, which is as exhausting as a full day's work these days, made the usual lentil veggie curry soup, and the weekly mushroom curry.  Plus I made a strawberry yoghurt for afters.  Just doing that required a lot of stops for rest. I am reminding myself, somewhat worryingly, of my mother and my granny in their latter years.

I also had my double Zoom with a friend in the afternoon. We both got some work done and a good talk.  It all helps so much.  Col detected on Thursday leaving very early, and I managed to change the beds, wash the sheets, and do my Watchtower study for Sunday. But that was it.  I slept all afternoon, trying to escape from the pain.

And another night of odd dreams followed, punctuated by trips to the loo.   But during my dreams I somehow kept a consciousness that I am due at the ETERNAL HAPPINESS Convention this morning - via pixel, on my computer - and woke myself up in time.  Well, hopefully, given how much it takes to unwind from the pain.

But eternal happiness... who could ask for more? And it is what the Bible promises us - right here on this lovely earth for most of us.

Its strange to think that I used to be able to go on the coach. And even stranger to think that one year I drove Maggie, Jean and Ken to Brighton and back for the whole three days!