April Fool

Thursday 1st April, 2021

Had all sorts of ideas for April fools when I awoke but then thought better of it. Yet did do my childhood ritual of a pinch and a punch for the first of the month! By 11.15am I was off to the Community Centre for the bread roll call. Lots of it and also out door sales of jumble.

At midday the sun came out, the skies turned blue and the wind dropped and it became the perfect spring day. So I set off to Tayport down the Fife coastal path. Evidence of Spring everywhere and many birds including a yellow hammer, a yellow wagtail and various finches plus the squabbling sparrows. Sadly quite a bit of litter but it was such a lovely day I forgot to be angry. It is Maundy Thursday so I took the gospel reading with me...the preparation of the Passover, the betrayal by Judas, the agony in the Garden, the arrest, trial and denial by Peter. A day of turmoil, desperation, abandonment, bewilderment etc and all to be pondered. I shall be off to a live streaming of the Mass of the Last Supper as I finish this.

The tides at Tayport were out. I walked out on to the mud flats and saw so many varieties of sea bird, many of which I could not name. It was utterly awe inspiring with the sun gleaming down and the lap of the waves so soporific and gentle. I spent three hours in all and caught a bus back. Since then I have done a little gardening, mainly watering, and written a letter on receiving an email telling me of the death of a friend. I have also written to another friend frightened of her health condition and with the news of her son having a heart attack.

Yet I am buoyant as I know God so loved the world that He sent His only son and that Son is on his way through the giving of himself to the agony in Gethsemane, the trial, crowning with thorns and all the rest with the culmination tomorrow of the crucifixion. But the story does not end there. Nor does our story end here. Hope and trust and love triumph.