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.