Dear Alex, "Do not worry about tomorrow..."
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| An early visit, back in France, Alex's 33rd Birthday... |
November 19th
2012
Dear Alex,
Coarse ground coffee,
smell potent and rich, hot milk, frothy, sugared and it’s ready. You smell,
inhale the taste to come, reach to the table, slightly jerkily bring it to
where you anticipate your mouth to be. It’s getting there, we’re getting there,
but there’s still a very long way to go…
It’s become about
living in the present, offering praise, thanks, gratitude for the very moment
we are in. life restricts, it takes away, it leaves you fraught and breathless
and worrying for the next day. The future too much sometimes when we face it with all the what
ifs and maybes and can you imagine ifs…
Someone once said “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” He was
right. I am learning this message. Tomorrow has many worries, it can overwhelm
you so much it scars the moment, stifles any freedom, joy, appreciation. Jesus
had it sussed!
The council have us in
band 2 for housing-brief explanation; not really that urgent. This is my next step. I got you safely to Chalfont Lodge, now you unsettle as you
realise it’s unfamiliar, readjusting and unable to make sense. It’s an hour
from me, the drives are long. Each time I have to leave, you cry, sob, asking me
to take you home. Shards of burning pain and helplessness, eyes sting with
fear, anxiety, sore with repressed tears, trying to be strong for the children,
for you.
I need the council to
listen, we need to be in band 1, this is an urgent housing need, how can they
NOT see that? Fobbing me off as a not-so-urgent case.
I may have to start again,
move out of area, there is just not a house here.
So, with all that
facing me, I am trying to be brave. I am (with having had a tooth extracted
yesterday morning!) in pain and tired. A long drive to do now to see you.
I will trust, I will
ask, I will pray, I will hope…
I will not be crushed,
I will thank God for all the things I do have, the moments that are beautiful,
the leaves blowing in sudden arrays of dancing yellow, gold, brown. The chitter
chatter of four beautiful souls around a table, porridge warm, hot tea in the
pot. I will give thanks for the friends that wink as I pass by, who message me,
support me who listen. I will give thanks for the food I have, the day that I have
been given.
And I will keep giving
thanks, because that is living in the moment, life not racing by in the same
way, over before you know it.
You can’t catch life
as it races by- you have to stand firm in it, in the present, by being grateful
for each second of what we are blessed with. That’s what slows it down, gives
you a ‘grip’…
So as I begin the next
quest-finding a house, imploring the council to take my situation seriously,
moving me up into band 1. Maybe even moving again…I will continue to give
thanks.
Me xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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