Month: October 2026

Categories
Overwhelmed trust

Mary and Martha

I wrote a post either on here on or Substack exploring how I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed and how, though QEC, prayer and free writing, I managed to get to a calmer place. And, on the whole I’m still holding that place, even though this week has been crazy!! My elderly dog has to have his eye out due to a persistent eye ulcer, I’ve got to have some major gum cleaning over several weeks, the little dog still needs some training, the writing groups are growing, and my head is full. As well as all this I’ve had my lovely daughter staying and then in about 10 days I’m potentially off south to see my Mum. I was also worrying about housework-type things, of decluttering and decorating, and of reading a friend’s poems, catching up on emails, and of finding time to sort out more courses for my writing groups, plus finding time for my own writing.

The overwhelm was creeping up again!!! And I can’t get to this lovely place at the moment! But God/The Universe has another plan!

Well I love it when God/The Universe have a something to say and the way they say it. My husband has our new car radio tuned to UCB [United Christian Broadcasters] and I forget to change it before I start driving. So yesterday, after the dentist and before the vet trip, I was driving and popped it on. There was a woman promoting the book she’d written and it started with her saying “and Martha was in the kitchen trying to put together a three course meal.”

Well I reacted to that because I’d read somewhere about how Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus, were wealthy, so I shouted at the radio “But they had servants” to which I felt God reply “And?”

Well then this is what unfurled …..

Mary was sat at Jesus feet because she knew the servants were more than capable of sorting out food for everyone. This might have been the first time Jesus came to eat but they would have often entertained, which is why Jesus knew he wasn’t intruding or making life difficult.

But Martha didn’t quite trust those servants so she was rushing behind them, fussing over them, trying to tell them their job, tell them how to do things extra-specially, as if they didn’t know.

At the moment I knew I could lay things down and trust those who know what they are doing. My dentist knows what’s best for my teeth and, as she herself said, she wouldn’t do work on me if it didn’t need doing. My vet also has had years of training and knows what is best for my dog and wouldn’t be taking his eye out if he didn’t need it.

As for those other things I have to listen not just to my heart as to whether I want to do them or not, whether I am meant to do them now or not, but I need to look at the things in my life that have to be done, which I suppose it also a heart thing.

And I need to trust God/The Universe that I will get done what I should get done for each single day and not worry about either what doesn’t get done or about tomorrow. I think “your will be done” in my life means that I do what has been allotted for me today and let go of the rest.

And the Peace of God, Which Transcends All Understanding… – Bible Inspirations

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Categories
poem Triune God

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Apologise to those who also get my Substack posts as I’ve already shared this on there but I like it so thought I’d share it in both places for those who don’t follow me on both.

Also I’m starting a new writing group this Wednesday afternoon where the focus is poetry and so felt sharing a poem all over the place might be a good idea 🙂

About 7.30 am this morning two little egrets and a heron back on the pond in my local regular dog walking park.

I Didn’t Want To Go To Church This Morning

This morning I decided I didn't want to go to church, 
I didn't want to sit in the pew I always sit
talk to those lovely people who sit near me every week. 
I didn't want to listen to the preacher preach their sermon,
even though I know we are blessed with gifted exponents of the Word.
I didn't want to sing the hymns that would fill the church this morning
or smile benevolently when the elderly organist sounded if he was playing in his mittens.
This morning I didn't want to read the remembered liturgy. 

I had a chat to God about it as I walk small dog round the park,
as I thought they needed to know my plan and hear it from my heart.
I paused in our conversation to marvel at the heron and egrets on the pond.
They said it was ok if I didn't want to go today.
They said that it was ok to go with what my heart felt best for me today. 
They said they were glad I was enjoying their creation. 
Then together we wandered round the park some more, 
check in with those I see each morning, 
who also checked I was fine. 

So this morning instead of going to church I've settled down,
a dog on either side of me,
to write some poems and 
enjoy the winter sun shine into my living room
and allow the day to unfurl as the God of the Universe decides for me today.

Interestingly this is today’s Bible verse on Daily Bible Verse. I feel like by bringing them into the conversation I’ve committed what I do to the Lord so …. wonder what today will unfold into?

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Categories
faith Trees

The Sycamore Tree

Large tree beside a river in an autumn park
A mature tree frames a peaceful river winding through an autumn-colored park. Generated by me and AI

Back in 2023 a well photographed tree on Hadrian’s Wall got cut down. Across the UK there was uproar! But now there are headlines to say the stump is growing saplings and some of those saplings are being planted in communities across the UK thanks to the National Trust. Here’s the article – ‘Flourishing’ Sycamore Gap Tree Has Ring of New Shoots Already 3-Feet Tall

A few weeks ago our vicar did a sermon in which she compared sycamores, and especially the helicopter seeds, as how faith can be. These tenacious seeds spiral and fly all over the place and land in the most random of places. We’ve got a sycamore tree at the back of our houses and often have to pull young growth out of our back wall. There is a sapling growing randomly in the council’s flowerbed which, because we don’t have regular council people employed to pull it out is growing quite nicely. There is also a random one in our local park which marks the little crossing over one of the ditches that take the pond water out to the sea.

Random sycamores all over the place, and this is what I took from what our vicar was preaching. Our faith is random. It blows where it will. It can appear where we don’t expect it.

So back to the one that got chopped down and is now regrowing. What if that too is like faith? What if it was never meant to be alone there? What if it was never meant to be photographed by so many? The article says that it is sprouting so well because the soil isn’t so compacted because people aren’t coming to see it.

So regarding church – how often, I wonder, does church become a memorial? A “this is how we do it”? A “this is how it always is”? And faith is contained within it. Actually the curate we had preaching this Sunday just gone was talking about the Book of Acts and of how God often sent persecution to get the church to move “out to the ends of the world”. Like the iconic sycamore tree it had to be cut down to move out.

I wonder how often we try to keep things as they are, as what we know, as what we like, and I wonder how often we don’t want to move out of what we know and just see where our faith might be replanted?

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Some random trees in my local park photographed by myself last winter. Also thought everyone needs a photo with dogs in it 🙂