Jonah, a Beautiful Stone and a Jolly Bishop.

Saturday felt a bit off. Even though things are going well, and the weather was better - weak sunshine and a degree of warmth -, and  we had a free day and I had things I wanted to do, and Alex had an invitation to a friend, and I even knew what I was going to make for supper - I still felt that pulling-down feeling in my stomach, as if something was holding its two bottom corners and tugging downward. Going to church on Sunday we had an excellent talk on Jonah, and the word that stuck out was "Surrender." Jonah, sinking down, surrendered himself to God, and see what God did. I don't know particularly what was getting me down, but I can surrender life with all its good things and its down days, and that feels better.

On Sunday afternoon we all had a great gardening session. We clipped and yanked out ivy and trimmed the trees in our hedge, and now the middle of the garden is full of huge piles of greenery, and the edges look clearer and much more open and light. In the process of cutting back ivy from one overgrown corner, I discovered an interesting, stripey rock, with two holes carved or worn through it - clearly someone's possession at one point, but long lost under dark green curtains.

It made me think of the unexpected treasures you can discover when you cut back the junk that grows and overwhelms. But then again, in other paces where we stripped off ivy, we uncovered an ugly cement block wall - so, you can tell me the parable behind that...!

In the evening we went to a Baptism Renewal service, because Dan had to go and wanted us to accompany him. To be honest, none of the rest of us were very enthusiastic about going...(Abby and Alex haven't even been baptised yet), but it was actually very jolly and quite good fun. It was just what you might imagine - the baptism words and vows were repeated and we were asked if we wanted to reaffirm them for ourselves, we were given tall candles, we sang nice hymns, and the best bit was when the Bishop of Tewkesbury walked among us very gleefully spraying us with water from a basin using a large rosemary branch. We got pretty drenched!