Eyeing Up

This week I actually hoovered the entire house. Then I handed over the upstairs to a couple who are considering whether to apply to be wardens of our Retreat House. So I slept downstairs on my IKEA single bed. I fell out of this in the middle of the night! Long and invaluable conversations took place about how we discern God’s will, about the nature of sacrifices, and about eyeing up island life.

Previous to the hoovering I returned to Newcastle Eye hospital. Before my eye operation the surgeon read out the National Health Service’s self-protection splurge: this meant I signed up to the op having been told there was a one in a thousand chance I might go blind. This set me thinking as I lay awaiting the operation. If I went blind what words would I most regret not having memorized during my life? The answer came quick and clear: John’s Gospel. So I began to go through it in my head. I could recall most of the first chapter (but forgot about poor old John the Baptist). I could recall the themes of most chapters but not the words. The greatest sentence in the world stood out in my mind: In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. So this is my homework now: to memorise a bit more of this sublime insight into the nature of God who is eternally communing and inviting us into the communion.

The guest preacher at the local church hit a hole on the causeway and got a flat tyre. She rang us, came to lunch, and one of our applicants sat with her for two hours while she awaited the rescue services.

Then the long journey to Cornwall for a holiday with a purpose. Out of deference to my condition I went slowly, stopped overnight half way and upon arrival went to bed at 4.0 pm. I awoke on Ascension Day . I went into Saint Nectan's Church opposite and sat before the window of Christ's Ascension. Eyeing up the breath-taking scenery can wait until tomorrow. Today my eyes are lifted upwards.