Hello there. I am glad to report that I appear to be over the worst of The Illness. Ugh, it was so boring being ill and unable to breathe but thank you for all your concern. I agree, there's nothing like a common trans-Atlantic virus to bring us even closer.
I felt a lot better over the weekend which was good as we had a lot of things organised and I'd have hated to miss out on any of the fun.
On Friday evening we went to see Slumdog Millionaire. Steva and I started dating in June 2006, got engaged in December 2006 and married in September 2007. We have been to the cinema (I'm British ergo I say cinema!) 3 times together in our lives! Have we had a proper courtship? I'm not sure. Anyway, the film was, well I don't know what to say. Yes, it was enjoyable in many ways, and quite cathartic, but also upsetting and challenging. I spent 6 months working in a Christian school in India in the Himalayas in 1996 so have seen at first hand the poverty, slums, begging and the majesty, splendour and sheer seething mass of humanity that is the sub-continent so it brought a lot of memories back. And it's got a very Hollywood happy-ever- after ending leaving you feeling that money does bring happiness and total fulfilment after all which we know it doesn't... Definitely lots of food for thought there.
On Saturday morning I went to the Ladies' Breakfast being held by one of the local churches (and one that we have visited a couple of times). What a great morning! The speaker challenged us all on the concept of grace and a couple of things she said really struck home with me. She said that one thing that can cause us (she was referring specifically to women) to lose our focus is a tendency to dwell too much on past wrongs and sins, letting them worry us and letting us beat ourselves up with them instead of handing them over to God ONCE AND FOR ALL and then getting on with life. She also reminded us to take life one task at a time, one day at a time and one drama at a time. This was great advice for me given my slightly maddening habit of meeting trouble not half way but about 2cm from my door and crossing a million bridges before I even get to a stretch of water. The other great thing I remember was the section on "Perspective" and the challenge to accept God's grace to get through everything that He sends our way but also to keep it in perspective. Being an individual who loves hyperbole, I'm not totally brilliant on perspective...!
We tried another different local church yesterday morning and enjoyed great fellowship there as well as a belter of a sermon on assurance (so good that I would recommend it and it's already been downloaded onto the church website http://www.ballyloughan.fsnet.co.uk/) which totally set us up for the week ahead. Then later on I got myself in a stew about which church we should decide to go for and came out with the classic line "our problem is that we have far too many good churches near by and we'll never find one to settle in because they are all so great..." What was I just saying about keeping it all in perspective!? Yes, my friends, I really am a work in progress.
Goodness, what a lot of waffle! However it was a great weekend, and meant that I really was not dreading Monday when it came about. That is an achievement worthy of note because my Mondays generally start with a 7am gym class called "Bodypump" which is meant to be good for me but I just don't know sometimes.....
Speak anon.
E
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Very interesting ---what you said about "Slumdog Millionaire." Ben & I saw it, and thought it was a truly excellent film (as an art piece). You offered a good perspective, tho....one I hadn't thought of. Hollywood pulled the wool over our eyes, too, I guess, 'cause I was rejoicing right along with them in the ending, "Yay, we have enough money to live happily ever after!" :P Silly me.
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