Tag: blessing

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blessing concert

Unexpected Blessings

All photographed by myself Wednesday 19th June 2024 at Llangogllen International Pavilion

Blessings come from unexpected places and, I don’t know about you, but I need to keep being reminded of that.

Yesterday hubby and I went to see del Amitri and Simple Minds in concert for his 56th birthday; reliving our teen/mid-twenties angst!

First blessing was being able to stand mid-way in the arena but against the walkway/firebreak type area, so we had a perfect view of the stage even if these photos don’t do it justice.

Then when we left and drove home we were we blessed by the horizon [we headed north home] always having an orange streak to it where the sun wasn’t setting. The photos are taken from the venue at about 10.45. I wish I’d taken some on our sea front when we got home but we were exhausted and wanting to check the dog was ok – which he was.

But not only having that lovely sunset we were also followed by the gorgeous full moon. Those photos, again taken at the venue, do not do it justice to how the moon kept peeking out behind the clouds and then disappearing again. It was awesome.

So perfect spot to watch the bands of our youth, amazing almost longest day sky and a beautiful full moon. Blessed and blessed and blessed.

Flip side – I had to get up about 2am because the pain in my legs and feet was unbearable from standing up for 5 hours, dancing for 3 of those 5.

I have a choice – I can remember that night for the lack of sleep and the pain in my legs and the reminder that I’m not 25 any more, or I can remember the great music, great spot, sunset and moon. Which do I choose?

It seems like a no-contest to me but too often we slide into the negative rather than the positive totally missing the blessing and the joy. Even on average days or even rubbish days there is always a blessing lurking in there – like when we had a serious of unfortunate deaths but we’d bought our puppy just before it all happened and he just kept us laughing through our tears. Or even just on the ordinary when the sun peaks through the clouds – as RS Thomas reminds us The Bright Field – there is always blessing to be found.

So yesterday was awesome. Today is ordinary. But in each there is a blessing to be found if we look for it.

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blessing joy

February

My dog’s response when I told him it was February! Photographed by myself 1st Feb 2024. He doesn’t care what day of the week or day of the month or whatever it is!

No I’m not going to start a series of months of the year. Or I don’t think so. Who know where my mind might take me this year??

St Brigid’s day. Imbolc. Candlemass. Groundhog day. Halfway between winter solstice and the spring equinox. All different names to celebrate the 1st and 2nd February. Or as many people like to say or feel “thank goodness we’ve made it through January, the longest month of the year“.

Here the sun has shone for the last two days after a Monday, 29th Jan, where it poured with rain all day solidly. It feels like spring is coming. There are snowdrops and even some hardy daffodils showing their heads. On the grass over the road from my house the crocuses that were planted by someone long before we moved in are showing their heads.

So this is a post with no deep meaning but just to say “Hello February” and “I’m pleased you’re here and looking good.”

photographed by myself 25th January at Rhuddlan nature reserve

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blessing inconvenience

Inconvenience?

Both the above pictures are taken about half a mile from my house. My town is “on the map” now due to I’m A Celebrity being shot at Gwrych Castle. Both images have had an effect on my town. But it has got me thinking – “what is an inconvenience and what is a blessing?” Or does it depend where you are standing?

The publicity has been awesome. No longer is the town just a sign off of the A55 but is known. We can now say we live in the town where I’m a Celeb is filmed. House prices have gone up, shops have opened, and according to the local council trade has been brought into the town. With people deciding that a holiday in the UK is better than facing the rigmarole of covid testing going abroad it is great to know that Abergele now figures in their choices.

But also, as can be seen from the first picture things are not all flames, fireworks and income. There are footpath closures, pavements blocked, a favorite walk of mine has had to be curtailed until the end of December, and a speed limit of 20mph has been imposed by the castle and 30 along a 60mph road. All to keep people safe. But also inconvenient.

This has got me thinking of how people deal with things they disagree on – not just the minor disagreements in my town but across the world; in governments, with climate change, in businesses, in relationships. How often when two sides to come together to reconcile they actually spend more time putting over their point of view and listening to the other. Or if they do listen it is for just long enough to be able come up with a counter argument. Not really listening to others. Each side would be wanting to brow beat the other into agreeing with them wants to be proved right and the other sides to be wrong. There is no time for understanding.

I think it is why the story in Genesis talks of man eating from the Tree of Good and Evil, because mankind wants to put things in good and bad boxes, whereas if we chose the Tree of Life then, I believe we would hear what the other side was feeling, not just saying, and would try to care more.

As for my town – I love it being a place people now know where it is, I love that things are being done to improve the town, and I hope they continue after covid has stopped being such a big threat and I’m a Celeb goes back to Australia, but also I do find the blocked footpaths and the speed limit frustrating. Is it it good or bad? I don’t think so at all. I am learning that sometimes things just are and I need to accept that.

So my hope is for those on different sides of a fence that they would look and see that on each side there is a human being working through things with their own issues, needs, fears, and desires. Not right, not wrong, but just as it is.

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blessing QEC

Blessing not Processing

Picture of a honeysuckle bush close to a barbed wire fence with trees the other side taken by Diane Woodrow
Taken by me on Sunday 5th September 2021

I seem to have blog a lot and then stopped for a week or so. The reason for stopping is that we have had a busy time with family and friends, which has been lovely but the introvert in me has got tired from it. But something struck me through it all – I could moan and grumble about not having time at to myself [cursing] or I could see what was going on a a blessing.

In Moses’s last soliloquy to the Israelites he says that they must choose between blessing or cursing. Often I have seen this, and maybe been taught this, that it is about the way I behave, but over the past couple of weeks I have started to see it as being about the way I think. As with the QEC way it is how you think that determines the energy you give off. From the energy you give off comes the way the atmosphere around you is and from there how you can affect those around you.

So instead of seeing those who stayed with us as hard work and an inconvenience I saw them as a blessing to my world. And the interesting things was not only was the atmosphere nice but also they were a blessing to me. Yes I was tired by having people around but wasn’t stressed with it. I understood the why I was tired and so made sure I took myself to my bed to read alone early enough in the evening, and found time to “unfolded” in the mornings alone. But I had a great time

It also seemed to happen that things were said that wouldn’t normally be said, conversations that had needed to be said were said in a gentle atmosphere and no one fell out. Yes these conversations were emotional, some of which because they had been bottled up for a long time but they didn’t come out like they had burst from a fizzy bottle but came out gently and well-poured.

The above picture is taken one morning when I was able to get out on my own with my dog and got to write some poetry, which was well needed. But again it was a blessing not a “having to get away”.

I came back tired but refreshed and also came back blessed. I have accepted how I felt at some of the times through what was said, triggers that happened, but instead of processing I was able to turn them into blessings which actually I feel is one step further on than even stopping looking through the garbage.