Lentblog2020

Something I wrote a few years ago which seems fitting for these days.   2 minutes 30 secs.  Enjoy. https://soundcloud.com/carolinehamilton/20130505-worship-at-8-1-trim

Im not a very political person.  I tend to be of the opinion that our politicians, whatever 'flavour' , are generally good and decent people who have gone into politics to try to make a difference and do good.  I have never been a fan of moaning and complaining about policies and procedures because I have a vote and I do believe that in the exercise of my democratic rights I'm a heck of a lot better off than many people in the world who live under dictatorships.   So, whilst I would have preferred to remain in the EU, I am happy to concede that more people wanted to leave, and I'm not going to moan about the process of leaving because I'm not in possession of any of the facts.   I trust that the politicians are trying their best to do a good job in a mad world and I'm happy to leave them to it. But today I do feel that I want to say something about politics - in relation to the virus and all that is going on in the world just now. Like many people, two ...

You are probably going to find this very strange, but it wasn't until last week that I adopted Spotify and started to make myself some playlists on my phone .   For some reason I cant quite explain, I have not listened to much music in the past few years.    As a bit of a technical numpty I have just avoided sorting out my personal musical library until very recently.   But once Sam added me to the family Spotify account I spent a happy afternoon tripping down musical memory lane and adding all my very favourite songs and tracks to my phone.  Yesterday I went out for a walk with my headphones on and sang along to some very old friends. I've made a playlist of worship songs and another one of hymns.  But the music I was listening to yesterday was just entitled ' favourites' and encompassed songs from my childhood right through my teens and twenties to more recent years.   Those songs which have stuck , the ones to which I know all the w...

Im sure its not just me, but at times like this when everyone is posting ' helpful' articles online about how to do life in a pandemic, its easy to get awfully depressed about how little of the helpful stuff you are actually managing to do. If you have children you will be bombarded with people telling you you need to keep the routine, get them up in the morning, encourage them to do their schoolwork at the kitchen table.  ( I haven't actually read anything saying they should be in their school uniforms but it wouldn't surprise me if someone has advised that!)  We need to limit their screen time, get them outside in the fresh air and make sure they go to bed at the same time as on a normal school day.  Oh, and of course not to forget, we have to reassure them about the virus and explain to them that as long as they wash their hands a hundred times a day they will probably be OK. Then for us as adults we are supposed to be keeping to a routine, eating healthily, spen...

I was talking to a friend online yesterday.  She has recently decided to go back to church after several years of being away.  She has a rather complicated story with God and spent years being angry with Him, then years trying to ignore Him.  Now she has decided that there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and it is time to come back and try again.  I admire her hugely for that, because it might not to be easy for her to find the answers she needs.   God has the answers but she is very wary about approaching Him.  Yesterday she told me that she doesn't trust Him.   Which , I think, was a crucial revelation for her.  And it made me think about something I wrote a few years ago which I thought Id share with you here.    Creature and Creator God? Yes Adam You know Eve? Yes Adam You know you gave her to me to be bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh? Yes Adam Well, ummm, there’s something Id like to ask you Yes? You wont be cros...

I was listening to the radio yesterday and the article was about the people who only a few weeks ago were flooded out of their homes and how they are now coping with trying to rebuild their lives and businesses in the midst of the corona virus pandemic.  I'd forgotten about the floods in the UK which were so devastating and long lasting and which only happened a few weeks ago.   I felt guilty that I could have so quickly put those poor people out of mind and I wondered how on earth they are coping with everything that is going on at the moment.     And a few days ago I was talking to someone about how it was really not that long ago that the only topic of conversation was Brexit.  It filled the news every day for weeks and months in the same way that covid 19 is filling our screens now.   But as far as I am aware, since China went into lockdown the 'B word' has not been mentioned by anyone.   Strange isnt it, that something whi...

This isolation thing is starting to sink in now isnt it?  We have all had a couple of days to grasp what's going on and now we are beginning to work out what its going to look and feel like for the next while.  I spent yesterday in my pyjamas.  Pyjamas are cosy and warm. And Im definitely not going to spend the next few weeks doing ten times more laundry than I need to .  So if we all wear our jammies all day every day for the forseeable..... so what? Right now Im  thinking about what it must be like to be sent to prison.   I hope never to be sent to prison. If you had asked me last week how I would cope with prison Id have said that Id probably be OK.  Im an introvert so I dont need lots of company.  I am lazy, so would happily spend huge amounts of time in bed.  But now, thinking about the reality of a complete and total lack of liberty in the light of having lost a small amount of liberty........ well, it suddenly seems to be a lot ...

Yesterday was tough.  Not sure why.  I think being an introvert and having to be closed in with my four men for the forseeable is going to take its toll and to be honest I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage.  I can be very up and down in my moods and I'm not sure how much of that is to do with depression, menopause and just ordinary and understandable frustration.   I know I am going to find it difficult to live with the mess that Keith and the boys generate and genuinely don't bother about.  Is it fair of me to nag and moan about it all the time when they genuinely can't see the issue?  Probably not. So I waver from thoughts of just shutting myself in my room for the next three months and only coming out to eat, letting them all get on with it, to thoughts of being a super organised super-hero Mum who picks up after everyone with stoicism.  All of this stuff going round in my head causes me to spiral, and yesterday I was on a downward tra...

Sometime last year I decided to write another blog.  I called it The Day I met Jesus.  It was intended to be a catalogue of imagined stories of every person in the Gospels who met Jesus in person.  I started with Mary ( obviously) and worked my way through the gospels chapter by chapter putting myself into the heads of each person who met Jesus and trying to see what they saw and feel what they felt.    I managed really well up until the point that Jesus started to meet the Pharisees and teachers of the law and people like that.  And then it started to get a bit complicated to unravel and Im ashamed to say I gave up 😀 Yesterday God didnt seem to have alot to say for Himself.   LOL   Well, of course Im sure He did. its just that I didnt hear it.  So Im posting one of my stories here instead.    I hope you enjoy it.  And perhaps during the lock in I shall be inspired to get back to writing more of them. Blind Ma...