Just as I have a lovely week, other people do not.  I was reminded of this poem/prayer someone sent me about a decade ago, maybe it will help someone, somehow...

Even as we seem to be dying

In weakness,

In fear,

Overwhelmed by all the force against us,

There are moments when we know

That we will never be determined

By any of that.

There is a God

Who says to us

Weep strongly,

Be strongly afraid,

Care strongly,

Choose life strongly in faith,

And I will live strongly

In all of that.

There is a God

Who moves from hill to mountain top,

Who stands high in the depths of the pit,

Who gasps free of the waters of drowning

And plants the cross-shaped tree

On the very shaking ground on which we stand

As tough our trembling earth is like a rock.

There is a God

Who steps free

Of the binding chains around our souls

And calls us in a voice

Which always knows our name,

Who always feels our pain,

Who lifts our feet

As through our life

Stands cupped in a saving hand

And cherished forever in a life-filled place.

Dorothy McRae McMahon in Liturgies for the Journey of Life,SPCK, 2000, p 124

For me, this has been a very happy week.  Having changed my work pattern just a bit, and having worked out how to make the best use of odd pockets of time on days when I need to be elsewhere, I am feeling very energised and upbeat, despite having worked two very long days and a total that would exceed the EU working hours directive, if it applied.  The fatigue and lethargy that had built steadily since September seems to have evaporated.  Amazing the difference a few tweaks can make.

The grand plan is that I will finish work early on Fridays, which feels like an unexpected bonus!  The challenge is to find good thing to do with that time so that I don't just fritter it away with meaningless activities or end up working because, after all there is always more that I could do.

So today it will be lunch in a local cafe and then head home to do some piano practice (one of my self-imposed challenges for this year!  If I get one session a week that'll do me!!)