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Do you remember …

The days when if we had a really bad winter we had a really bad winter?  One that would be referred to in years to come as “Remember that really bad winter in … “  Same with summers.  The Summer Of 69.  “Remember the summer of 69 – that was a roaster that was.”

I am not very good at remembering dates and occasions.  Have to do all the mental arithmetic of a dodgy memory (and then usually end up asking a friend)!

Nowadays every rain-shower or snowflake (or missing rain-shower or snowflake) is evidence for (or against) Global Warming.  That slowly approaching (or not) Armageddon of Science (or God – or not).  We are attuned to managing crisis.  We are trained to be for (or against).  To see signs (or missing signs).  And – in pre-global-always-on-news-and-social-media – what we thought just another passing season – a good summer/winter (or bad summer/winter) is now a portent of something much bigger.

This winter we are analysing weather.

Lots of rain.  Too much rain.  Flooding next to rivers of homes built on flood plains (the clue is in the name) … floods that are not biblical but which are decimating normal living (in our evermore concreted-over “green and pleasant land”).  Yet we have had little frost and almost no snow.  Go figure.

We are living in “the (climactic) moment” – and bitching about it no matter the weather.  And, as someone who touts “living in the moment” (as the way to live), it fascinates me.

It seems the same as this increasing “believers’ fervour” (of the biblical “moment”).  The signs of a Fast-Approaching Rapture or (as it seems to me) “Me getting my just-desserts while “they” get theirs”.   Increasingly seeing “the moment” as reason to give-up and prepare for the worst (or best).  Wherein every snippet of global-always-on-news-and-social-media becomes “a sign”.  Signs that evolve a sackcloth-and-ashes mentality … a “the end is nigh” mindset … an immersion in “sin” (that is self-fulfilling).

And – oddly (or not) – an increasing “passing by on the other side” justification or (as it seems to me) “What’s the point”.

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“What it feels like to work in mental health”, The Other Path – Grace Dobson

“When this happens, we pick ourselves up and are thankful for the frost in the mornings, the way the sun perfectly slots through the window onto our tired faces and how good coffee tastes.  We’re thankful to be alive, to be resilient and strong, to be available to help tend to the mental wounds of others and have someone tend to ours.”

I know the author.

I have great affection and respect for the author.  I have no idea of religious views or beliefs . I have no idea of climate change views or beliefs.  I have no idea if I would agree or disagree even if I did.

But I do know this …

I see someone connected.  I see someone kind.  I see someone who cares.  Not about “what this all means” nor if “we live in a sin filled world on the brink of salvation”.  I see a Samaritan NOT passing by on the other side.  I see NOT a Pharisee telling others what to believe and how to live.  I see NOT a “poor homeless person” to be pitied as “that could be Jesus”.  I see NONE of the cliched detached-from-reality we have come to think of as “reality” –

I also see no bible verses … no preaching or teaching.

I see only kindness and confusion.  I see connection and certainty.  I see love without condition.

“That we were there, and we cared, and then we left to care for ourselves.”

Is Love as I read in the bible we all fight over.

Yet these words are written not of the bible but of the moment.  A moment – oddly – that sees others as the bible sees me.  So I won’t waste another moment reading biblical tea-leaves.

I am loved AND I love AND without condition!

(if I allow)

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