People

I love our house at the close of a sunny day.

It is slightly hazy now but there is enough sunlight to cast a very pleasing shadow all along the western side of our building.

Right about now all across our nation in every town and city there will be busy preparations being made. Clothes will be pulled on to perfumed bodies, hair and make up will be adjusted to perfection……..and the women will be doing the same!

The madness of Friday night partying will commence in earnest in a few hours and culminate in unfortunate decisions, chaos carnage and a lot of laughs. That has little appeal to me now. The silence of a slowly sinking sun tracing it’s waning light down the walls will do me just fine tonight as I enjoy the last coffee of the day.

I think that I spoke with more people today than in some whole months of last year. The conversations were incredibly varied in their scope as each face had a different story to convey in this day.

Lying beneath the car this morning (I was fixing it, not just hiding under it) with dirt and dust having a competition to find an open eye to drop into, I was filled with the thoughts of friends going through a very hard day. I was helpless to assist but prayed furiously for them to have what they needed, they did, but the day ended worse for them than we could have ever thought.

Picking up dinner from the supermarket I met a friend from ten years ago, church is a funny thing in that we spend periods of time as close friends with people and then don’t see them for years as life moves on. This gentleman was having a new lease of life with the addition of a great grandchild and a pacemaker. He was looking better than the last time I saw him and ten years had been an improvement in quality in spite of a rising birthday count.

I had coffee on a wall with a friend as she ate her lunch in the sunshine, she is always cheerful and we talked nonsense about elections, bicycles, glasses and all manner of inane things. Those ten minutes were full of levity and happiness which I did not take for granted as I walked up to get my medication. The difference that four weeks can make is incredible.

On my way home I bumped into a couple who serve in one of the local churches, never underestimate what this type of life takes out of people. Regardless of your opinion about what they do, what it does to them is measurable. I have walked that road and it can leave you like a raisin by the roadside, now that I am beginning to feel a little better I appreciate again those who walked alongside and spoke truth when it was needed.

As the revellers head to the clubs and pubs tonight it will be to forget reality, the lives of the hurting and weary will not be on the radar of many as they guzzle shots.

The sad reality is that those same hurts beset us all, they are still present in the morning because we can’t dance or drink them away.

Each of my friends mentioned hold to their faith,  they keep going because they are not lost although they may wander at times.

Wandering can lead to wondering, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, we must give ourselves to pondering and reflection if we are to ever find answers.