Lockdown comparisons

Sunday 28th February, 2021

An extraordinary day...it has been dominated by two things. Firstly I seemed to have a spurt of energy and my walk really was fun. I did not feel lethargic or tired or full of aches and breathlessness but bounced along. The Park was particularly vibrant and looking up from a bench in to the leafless trees gave a fabulous display at the tracery of the branches...they are stunning, like growing lively lace. I took my litter grabber and at one point I met an acquaintance. He told me that he had read about a lot of people, in London especially, now doing the same as myself. So we are a growing throng of do Gooders with a purpose...let us hope it spills over in to all walks of life and Governments legislate for oceans and fuels and oils and coals and for the protection of wild lands and parks and areas of beauty. We would all benefit.

Also today a friend has given me huge hope and help. I am in the process of trying to find somewhere to live on my own which I can afford. This friend is a vibrant brilliant person who is able to look in to properties, suss them out, evaluate and probably negotiate to my best advantage. It is giving me hope. I am also excited and feel a real end may be in sight. I am grateful to the friend who houses me now so generously but I am at heart a man in need of a 'home alone'. I have never owned a property so it is a new adventure and mildly daunting.

Also today as I looked out of the sitting room window so I saw a robin on the fat ball. Glorious as we have had few birds. Later a pigeon, then a black bird...so Spring is in the air and I felt is as I walked.

Also the readings of the streamed Mass were good. The story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. A very provoking act of obedience and misguided conscience. The letter of St Paul noting ' if God is for us, who can be against us?' Then the Gospel reading of the Transfiguration. That remarkable moment when the fullness of God appears in Christ. Just stunning. Also a possibility for us all...to be seen as we are, not as we pretend to be. A full revelation, a relief, a moment of Divine Grace. What a hope that is.

Finally a friend emailed me an article on lockdown survival. It was the true stories of first the miners trapped for 69 days in a collapsed mine shaft. Then the story of the crashed air craft in Peru famous for the fact that survivors had to eat the flesh of their dead fellow humans. Both stories were based on individuals...I read with astounded admiration and disbelief. What is our lockdown in comparison?

So I end with two observations. First the pigeon at the fat ball. I was at the window and I moved slightly. The pigeon saw and simply stared at me...what an eye full it was, his beady eye utterly alive and focussed. And second, is that not like the eye of God focussed on us so if He is for us who is against us?