Worship {Five Minute Friday}

I lay down and close my eyes. The world spins around me, ears ringing, head full of a thousand thoughts that shout for my attention. Fears and worries, memories, things I forgot to do in work, things I must remember before tomorrow, fears and worries, memories, things I forgot... Round and around in circles, never resolving.

 Somewhere deep inside, there is a quiet place. Though the mountains may fall and the city is desolate, still my child will rest in in disturbed places of peace. That's what you said. As the world quiets around me, so do my thoughts. I prick my ears for the still, small voice.

 And again, I know. I know the rock on which I stand.

 STOP.

Small {Five Minute Friday}

It's Monday, but I'm sure it's still allowed. I need all the practice I can get!

Small

“From a tiny acorn, the mighty oak tree grows”.

The smallest things are the most powerful. My favourite film is Horton Hear a Who. It’s silly and it’s about elephants so it gets marks for that. But it also tells the story of something tiny, and how that made a huge difference to two worlds. An elephant hears a cry coming from a tiny ‘speck’ and discovers that a whole world of people live there. It changes everything for him; he goes from being a happy-go-lucky take-it-or-leave-it spirit to somebody with determination and purpose. He changes a whole community, and rescues another.

I have started small things. I launched a youth group that saw 2 young people to 4 leaders for a whole term. Less than a year on it is still not huge, but I’ve heard people talk about it on the street. Could we change a community?

STOP

Destination Domestication

I'm not sure what's in the air; whether it's my impending wedding, cabin fever from having time off and commitments slimmed down, or if I'm just becoming old. But I have become increasingly 'domestic' over the past month. 'Domestic Goddess' is a wild exaggeration and the thought of Proverbs 31 is enough to bring me out in cold sweats, but I'm giving it a good go. I have picked strawberries and made jam; I've baked cakes for birthdays and just because someone was coming round; I've made stock from old chicken bones. 

On Tuesday my brother came to stay, so with all of these conquests in mind, I decided to try something new for dinner. Chicken pie sounded nice and easy, and in one of Jamie Oliver's 'everyone can cook' books, there's a recipe for a quick and simple recipe. Great. Monday night I caught Morrisons just before closing time (and had to run home for my purse, but that's another story) and bought a kilo of chicken leg & thigh, various veg and some pastry. I was up early in the morning ready to go. 

The meat needed to be skinned and de-boned, so somewhat hesitantly I set about trying to separate the component parts. I have yet to meet anyone who enjoys dealing with raw chicken, but this was a task apart. Ten minutes and a couple of morsels wrestled off, it was too much. Into a boiling pot it went, and soon the cooked (and very hot) meet was being gingerly picked apart as I burned the nerve endings off my fingertips. Asbestos fingers don't just happen: you have to work on them! Suffice to say the pie mix wasn't ready before I left for play scheme that morning.

Five Minute Friday

I like creative writing. In the olden days, when the internet was new and the word 'blog' didn't yet exist, I had a 'livejournal' which was a cross between a blog and a social network, really. Amidst the general teenage angst there were lots of groups dedicated to developing writing as a skill, where you would write a stream of consciousness, based on a single word or concept, for a set number of minutes. I really enjoyed taking part, and have thought back to them infrequently, but have never found anything similar since.

Until this week. I've been browsing through this blog: catch a single thought and the lovely Jess had a feature called "Five Minute Friday" which in a nutshell is what I've just described! So I'm going to give it a go this Friday, and probably not next Friday or the one after that because I'll be away, but maybe the Friday after that, and we'll see how it goes. I might discover a hidden talent; I might write lots of nonsense.

The structure and topic comes from here. The rules are this:
1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. 
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Go and comment on the post of the person who linked up before you. This is the one rule of this community.


Today's topic is: Lonely

Lonely is a funny thing. It can be in a crowd or on your own. Loneliness can feel different too. I know Lonely. It's racking your brain for someone you can tell a secret, or a fear, or some exciting news to. It's realising that in all the busyness, in all the activity and rushing around and doing, you don't know who to call on a rare day off. 

Sometimes Lonely is standing in a room of people, wanting nothing more than to go home. It's walking into a room and wishing you could walk right out again. 

Sometimes it's not about me at all, but the geography. I live in the most densely populated neighbourhood in Western Europe. Lonely is going to stay in the countryside, and feeling the lack of hustle and bustle around you. Sometimes it's just staying in the suburbs!

STOP

Wow, that was a hard one to start with! I'm going to have to brush up on my writing in weeks to come. Gotta start somewhere though. Why not have a try? Let me know if you do!