Sunday 1st March - Lent 2 - Just Showing Up

St David's Day!

We had a short break in Tewksbury back in 2012 (I think) and this dragon was siting just inside someone's garden, yearning towards Wales, across the River Severn where the curlews call to it.

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The next '52 ways to improve my spiritual life' idea is to Just Show Up. I'm so ready to pick and choose whether I go to things; 'oh I'm feeling a bit tired', 'oh I'm not in the mood', and even 'oh, I don't really like that person's style in leading church'. And so I talk myself, all to easily, into not going. Dare I even say into not bothering?

It's different if I'm taking an active part, or hosting the event, I'll surely be there then, but it's not enough. Communities, be they swimming sessions, choirs, book clubs, church services, home groups, all need people to turn up on days when they are just part of the group.

So, starting from today, this morning in fact, I'm going to push Just Showing Up higher up my list of priorities. 

Obviously if I am actually unwell, or on my knees with exhaustion, or have a really unavoidable conflict in the diary, that's a different matter.

Today I Just Showed Up to zoom church  - well, I was reading the first lesson, so I had to - and I felt all the better for joining the other two dozen regular members of our online community.

I do have a terrible tendency to doodle in the reflection though...

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I'm glad I took a picture of my witch hazel tree in the middle on the month. It has been a bright blaze of yellow to fill the gap between the snowdrops and the daffodils. Here it is on 14th February 

And here's the picture I took yesterday. You can see why I notes that the flowers were like yellow spiders earlier, and have now turned brown.  

You can see some of the daffodils, and if you 'embiggen*' the photograph, you can make out the buds on the hazel. (* embiggen is a word Granny Marigold shared on a recent blogpost - I love it!)

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Here's Benjamin Brittten's arrangement of a traditional Welsh Folk Song, The Ash Grove.