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Rector's Letter, May 2003 Dear Friends, Well so far this spring we can’t complain about the weather. Heather in her ‘Letter from Australia’, said how they had been praying for rain in the church she and Len had attended – implying ‘unlike us’. If this dry spell continues we might well have to start praying for rain. It seems unlikely though. We’re all going around not quite able to believe our good fortune. I think our subconscious has been trained, in this country, by bitter experience, not to expect too much from a few weeks of respite from the cold, wind and rain. It unnerves us to have our main source of everyday complaint taken from us. I suppose if the dryness continues and we do get worried about water supplies, we will be able to moan about that and return to something like normality. It always fascinates me how so many people are never happy unless they’ve something to moan or worry about. One meets people in the most horrendous circumstances and it would seem they have every right to worry and fret. But often they don’t seem to be complaining any more than someone whose life seems relatively trouble free. It’s as if the human brain must have something to be worrying at. We fool ourselves that if we remove one source of complaint we will be happy when all we do is find another. It all goes to show that we should not let our brains and lives just tick over – as the devil finds work for idle hands so he does for idle brains. We have to keep our minds polished, interested, active and thinking positively. All very bracing stuff. What with keeping our brains polished and in as good a working order as age and natural ability allow, we’ve also been trying to keep the church in a similar state. I am not the world’s most gifted cleaner. I am all too easily distracted from the task in hand. I’ve known me wash a floor, put newspaper down to keep muddy foot and paw prints off till it dries, and then spend the next ¾ hour on my knees reading the papers as various articles catch my attention. Meanwhile the rest of the cleaning is forgotten. Anyway, gifted or not, we seem to have been doing a lot of clearing and cleaning lately – the new toilets in church and hall are and will be great, but what a lot of mess results. We’ve cleared toilets, choir vestry and in the midst having found woodworm, we’ve cleared the stage and under it and put it, not quite all, back again. Dust never confines itself to one area. I’m sure it’s all been a very good Lenten exercise – not that Easter is seeing the end in sight. I’m sure if we put as much energy into our spiritual lives as we do into everything else, both we and the world would be in far better shape. Paul encourages us to keep renewing our minds. Janice |