Slow Down, Have a Cuppa.

They say that God is in the ordinary, and what is more ordinary than making a pot of tea and sharing it? In the time taken for such a simple act of hospitality friendships often form, joys and difficulties are shared, and crosses are made lighter. But in our fast-food society we can often lose sight of the opportunity to find peace with ourselves and with others, time to “be”.

 

Even the busiest person sometimes finds oneself with time on one’s hands. But it takes a while for one to get used to that unrushed pace. One of these “busy” friends of mine recently dropped in with a message and I offered him a cup of tea.  Out of sheer habit he said, “Oh no, I must rush”. But then he thought: Where to? He didn’t have any appointment or was needed elsewhere. So he stayed, we had a cuppa, we chatted, and the whole thing was really nice! I think he went away more . . .  ‘human’.

JFK

JFK VISITS WEXFORD

On the 50th anniversary of his death we remember JFK’s last visit to his family homestead in New Ross, Co. Wexford, in the south-east corner of Ireland.

A Bridge

I reflected this morning on Joy Cowley’s little poem A Bridge. Joy, many may know, is a New Zealand author of children’s fiction, novels, and short stories.

 

“There are times in life when we are called to be bridges, not a great monument spanning distance and carrying loads of heavy traffic, but a simple bridge to help one person from here to there over some difficulty such as pain, grief, fear, loneliness a bridge which opens the way for ongoing journey.

When I become a bridge for another, I bring upon myself a blessing, for I escape from the small prison of self and exist for a wider world, breaking out to be a larger being who can enter another’s pain and rejoice in another’s triumph.

I know of only one greater blessing in this life, and that is, who can enter another’s pain and rejoice in another’s triumph?

A bridge transports a person from where he/she is, to where he/she needs to be. How can I be a bridge for others?