Care for your heart

Thursday 18th February, 2021

The forecasters said it was bound to rain. They changed their minds at 10am so the day looked set for dryness. At 10.15am I set off for the bread and was able to get three of my favourite loaves. They are for charity and near or passed their 'use by' dates and given to and obtained from the local Community Centre. They cannot be bought as they are M and S best sourdoughs. I always give a donation as the Centre needs help at the moment and otherwise the breads get thrown out for many are staying locked down and too frightened to go out. As it was I was given four packets of bread rolls which were stale. 'Feed them to the birds' I was told. I did and to my delight a multitude of varieties came and enjoyed them over an hour or so, including mildly terrifying sea gulls, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's horror movie 'The Birds'.

At 11am I sat in the sitting room in my vigil for the Tesco delivery. My landlady will not be there for fear of catching Covid so I volunteer. A charming lady came with the goodies at 11.17am. She told me she was not supposed to bring the purchases in to the house, whereas my landlady says that Tescos specifically says for the over 70s they will. I am over 70 but do not mind. The landlady is to complain. Whatever in my haste I knocked the cream off the table. So a near pint of thin cream spread across the recently washed floor and seeped under the fridge. It was hellish trying to clear it up. I fear a slow growth in a odour of sour cream!

After that I looked to my emails. Sadly a friend in Texas has had, in the midst of their horrific cold weather and snow, to have his beloved rescue dog, Simba, put down. She developed some agonising stomach and lung complaint almost over night and the vet said it was the kindest thing to do. He is devastated. He called Simba the 'bestest of dogs and the loyalest and sweetest of pets'.

I went for my walk with my litter grabber at 13.15. I walked for over an hour, met many of the usual walkers and their pets, found the usual irritating amount of detritus and felt very unfit. Not having walked for about a week I feel the hills more than ever. Fortunately I know where the benches are so can be strategically clever. Returning I popped in to the Coop to look for cream. They had none but I espied reduced grilled chicken pieces and bought those. I had a bread roll left and had a delicious lunch. The weather pundits got it wrong for it drizzled on the way home. As I neared the house so I saw our local pharmacist and his son walking. He said as we passed ' do not catch a cold as I am holiday for a week!'.

Finally a letter arrived from an old friend in Suffolk. His son is a nurse and his son's girlfriend is as well and she caught Covid. They were isolated for ten days but have since returned. I hear of more and more friends who have had it as well as have had the jab! What else is there to talk of these days?

So the excitement of the day was the Tesco delivery. The horror of the day the death of Simba and the spilling of cream. I am about to pick up my Mingyur Rinpoche book on his pilgrimage from his Abbatial status and security and revered teacher position to going to be a beggar and pilgrim without any backup. It is riveting and so wholesome. As with my uneventful day so he writes of the ups and downs of the new and uncertain action he has taken. He is more accepting than am I and I determine he is holier and a man of greater integrity. He claims life is emptiness but not nothing. I claim life is sacred because of the Incarnation and divine creation we are but is merely a gateway to the fullness of life. I find this fascinating.