Communion and community is not about “in-person” or “digital”.  I am learning that community and communion is or is not.

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Good morning Paul.  I was sat (yet again) in my garden this morning just chilling with the birds and the bumblebees when wonder of wonders a beautiful iridescent dragonfly landed on my arm.   Now if that is not a good start to my day I don’t know what is. 
Enjoy this wonderful weather and I hope you have a day filled with love and joy 💗

Came back almost as soon as I had posted this –

Just giving my fuzzy head time to clear (and these overnight thoughts as well) …

Broken night and now the banging headache. Sinus headache. Pipes blocked. So an early shower. Head and neck massage. Hot water and the jets just so. Back of head. Down the neck. Up the neck. Over and over. Massaging that stubborn gunk to start it shifting. And then wonderful “phlegm noises” best not shared with the neighbours. After ten minutes or so that clears 75% of the headache and 60% of the pipes. So next … the morning routine.

Kettle on upstairs. The spare one which takes forever to boil. And then downstairs while the kettle does its thing. Say hello to Maisy (our dog). Unlock the backdoor. Encourage her to have a morning pee. Put on the downstairs kettle. Get her dried food out. Rinse and refill her water bowl with fresh water. Put out her daily tablets, measure her daily medicine. Let her back in. Take the almost boiling water and half-fill her food bowl with hot water so the dried food goes mushy – enough for her to eat it – the trials of getting old – but our old lady! And then …. while the food soaks up the water –

Dishwasher. Take out my bits and put them in my kitchen drawer. Two big plates, one side. Two dessert bowls and one cereal. Knives, forks, spoons and teaspoons. Oh, and a sharp knife. Then the rest of the dishwasher into the main kitchen cupboards and drawers. This routine we established weeks ago. Separate the germs. Mine from Mrs Paul and Mrs Paul from mine. The dishwasher with its germ-free cargo clean enough for me to touch.

I remember the running joke when the children were growing up. The “Have you washed your hands?” routine applied to everyone but Mrs Paul. Always the same response – always with laughter: “Mum has – last week!” A family-only-in-joke that binds us all tighter. Good old mum – our cook and chef who regarded hand-washing as optional. Who was in and out of the shower faster than it took me to get wet in the shower – another family-only-in-joke: Mum moved so fast in the shower she never got wet – and saved having to dry herself when she got out! 😊

And now look at us. Mrs Paul and I in separate rooms – six feet apart so the germs don’t mix – me with my own drawer in the kitchen – our new shielding routines.

And yet in these ten weeks even those routines have changed. The bleach-spray bottle used less and less. My hands no longer constantly chapped as hand-washing becomes functional rather than obsessive. Not as much wiping everything as that becomes functional as well. Even the occasional “almost-bumping-into-each-other” as we forget when moving around the house. Twice-daily dog-walking now my job again. Same with the bins each week.

Our germs have always mixed a bit. Still do. And yet I feel safe. Mrs Paul feels safe going out and doing stuff. Coming back and being sensible. We baptised the shopping in bleach once and then never again. Sometimes we quarantine parcels through the door and sometimes not. Depends how keen we are to open them.

And yet we both feel safe. We are both safe. We are both sensible and safe in our little routines we seem to find (no matter how spontaneous we think ourselves).

Last night in the big bed I could hear one of the neighbours in their garden.

From the volume of chatter, different voices, and raucous laughter not just them. My gut-response was happiness for them. With the windows open it could have been any neighbour of four or five. But tucked up in bed I didn’t need to know who. They were probably sitting six feet apart – probably why they were all talking so loudly! Good for them! Living together – laughing together – being together. All the things I want. So why should I judge them? Why should I blame them?

As soon as I can – we can – safely, THAT will be ME!

I remember waking after a great night’s sleep – still dark – looked at the clock – saw it was only an hour and a half later – heard them still talking – this time quietly and respectfully for those like me who were/are snoring unconsciously.

And this morning as I pottered around doing the morning routine –

We have all ALWAYS broken rules in some way that works for us. Then and me now. I wasn’t made to live in a sterile test-tube. I never have and guess I never will. I may even have touched a few invisible virus particles. Not enough to overwhelm the defences my body has – all those “defences” not in my control. My brilliant and complex body does that without me controlling much of that at all. Explained by all the science and biology I don’t understand. Have little interest in. My body doing its thing every second of every minute of every day of every … ALL just to keep me safe and alive.

And we don’t ever stand and applaud our body’s superb physiology. We just take it for granted. I know I do.

So as the sun climbs in the sky for another great Saturday … as my sinuses clear – all the gunk and pipes doing their thing with only minimal help from me … I think that I have been shielded all my life – that my body is my shield wherever I go. And all I need is to give my wonderful physiology a helping hand every now and then. Like now. Because my physiology has always survived the consequences even of Mrs Paul’s optional hand-washing all these years!  🙂  

Have a great day!

And the communion and community that flows here ..

His Sue, this slower pace of life has immense appeal!  Now to figure out how to keep that and reclaim the rest!  You make my day with your gentle “Hello from my garden!”  You write pictures I can see, hear and be part of from here.  Thank you!!  This group is more connecting than I ever thought possible.  Here’s to enjoying what we have 🥰🥰🥰

Have a great day!

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