I got the darkness? *

This was one of these days when it never seemed to be truly daylight; it rained more or less non-stop, the wind was from the east, there seemed no reason not to stay indoors, and yet ... And yet there I was, going out in the gloom of breakfast-time to do the shopping as usual, going back out a couple of hours later to post more cards and go to the surgery for yet another blood test, going up to the church as the darkness thickened into night. It was still raining.

Perhaps the gloom intensified my need to take my mind away from huvtaes, or perhaps the battle I was having online to complete an order on a page that suddenly decided it didn't exist (and told me so, cheerfully), leaving me stranded mid-payment and with a horrid feeling I might have paid twice...whatever it was, I was determined that I was going this year to attend the Advent book group. I've always felt that somehow I couldn't make space for it, but suddenly with everything the way it is now - war, destruction, wanton cruelty - it seemed more important than ever to focus for however briefly on the point of the season. We held it in the empty rectory (there's still a gas fire and central heating), and two of the chaps had brought a few folding chairs over from the church, so a wee group of us sat round the fire in a semicircle to discuss Paula Gooder's Advent book The Meaning is in the Waiting. I think I may have talked too much ...

Afterwards we went along the mossy path in the rain to the church. On the way I stopped to take today's photo of the church, shining a welcome in its pool of light on its dark, windy hill behind the town. I used to be in the habit of attending the Thursday evening communion service, but got out of the way of it when the time changed to teatime as opposed to evening. It was peaceful and necessary and I was glad I'd gone.

I got a lift home from a friend - I'd have walked had it been dry - and found I was looking forward to my dinner (baked salmon, potatoes, tender stem broccoli) immensely. And there was a tube of very promising hand cream in tonight's wee Advent Calendar house!





*https://youtu.be/0fKd33AkTgE?si=x9xSf5iVHYkGlNSJ