O Adonai

Now that I'm not coughing so much, and have a bit more energy, I attended the midweek Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning, but didn't join the discussion group afterwards, as I needed to got to the shops, and then return and cook a meal for us.

A parcel arrived from my sister June containing a generous sized 'fleece' jacket, which fits me well. I wore it instead of a normal jacket to go for a walk in the afternoon, and it worked well beneath my top coat.

After lunch, I completed the Christmas card mail-out job I started last week but didn't have the energy to complete, and sent the additional  list of email greetings as well. I also took the opportunity to revise our family address 'master' database, something I haven't done for years. Using a list dating back to 2010, which had been revised piecemeal since then, I went through it to remove the names of all the people who have died since then. It's quite a sobering exercise, to realise how many friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances are no longer with us. 

Some of those were in our address book well before I made the first digital copy thirty five years ago, and belong to the elders of our extended families. Now we're the elders, destined sooner or later to disappear from other people's contact lists. In the meanwhile, there's something to be said for looking back through old address books and list, to glimpse the names of people who were once part of your everyday story. People talk a lot about relationships these days of 'moving on'. Life changes direction, and relationships, both good and bad cease to have significance and fade away. Very few of them turn in to friendships or acquaintances with shared interests which persist for generations. The fact that life and work may oblige us to shift and settle in different places drives this cycle of impermanence. It's hard to see that it does us any good. 

We're very grateful to have children who still want to keep in touch with their parents and each other, and enjoy family gatherings when opportunity arises. They may not be interested in churchgoing and have more problems with religion than their parents, but celebrating Christmas together still remains a highlight of the family year. One week to go now!