So, today is the day, and here is the thankfulness playlist suggested by assorted friends 'real' and 'virtual' - absolutely love it.  A wonderful afternoon's listening in prospect.

A Whisper Away - Michael English
Dimming of the Day - Alison Krauss
Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
Go forth into the world in peace - John Rutter
Happiness - The Blue Nile
Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel
I can see Elvis - Waterboys
I hope you dance - Lee Ann Womack
I want to break free - Queen
Ille Libro Del AMore - 2Cellos featuring Zucchero
Living Doll - Cliff Richard
Love lift us up where we belong - Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes
More than Words - Extreme
Morning has broken - Cat Stevens
O God, you search me and you know me - Bernadette Farrell
O love that will not let me go - George Matheson (hymnwriter)
One more step along the world I go - Sydney Carter (hymnwriter)
Spem im Alium - Thomas Tallis (a little bit of culture!!)
Step by Step - Whitney Houston
Thank you (FRalletinmebe Mice Elf Again) Sly and the Family Stone
The Heart of Worship - Matt Redman
The Living Years - Mike and the Mechanics
The Prayer - Andrea Bocelli & Celine Dion
This is the Day - David Wellington (hymnwriter)
Tubthumping - Chumbawumba
Wings - Birdy
Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton
Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
You've got a friend - Carole King
Zipadeedoodah - Disney

Just home after a lovely lunch with some of the people who were there at the start of my cancer journey five years ago, and who have travelled with me ever since.

Loving the surprise gift of a '5' balloon which encapsulates perfectly what it was all about.

I have ideas for a more reflective post to follow but for now I am content to savour the moment in gratitude for, and to, all who have, in any way, shared this experience.

In a while I'll be making a peer support call to someone going through treatment, and later I will pause to remember the absent friends who journeys were shorter.  Those both seem fitting.

Surely I am a very blessed person.

Mission accomplished... I finished my blanket on Monday and posted it off on Tuesday so it will have reached its interim destination in Hampshire yesterday ready to be "sent with love" to its final recipient in the near future.

I had a lot of fun knitting it, and it carries some poignant memories too - since I began knitting it I've said 'farewell' to the person whose receipt of such a blanket inspired me to knit it, and witnessed a lot of other sadness close at hand.

But this is not a sad project, it is a joyful one, celebrating life in all its fullness, delighting in diversity, making a 'Persian carpet' (many times over), having fun designing 'squares', discovering 'magic' wool and much more.

My target date for completion was Sunday 23rd August, I easily met that and there is just the outside chance that it may reach it's final destination by then, but it really doesn't matter.

The post office teller asked me what the value of the blanket was... so I said £20, roughly the cost of the materials.  But that's just a number, it can never capture the significance of the project, the love worked into each square, the memories it evokes and the hope, I trust, it might inspire.

Really chuffed with the end result, not perfect by any means, but 'sent with love' and gratitude.

It's been a busy week so far, and very diverse in what's been involved, but overall it feels pretty satisfactory.  Nothing exciting, just regular ministerial stuff...

Lots of administrative stuff completed.

Service for Sunday just about there.

Meetings attended.

Pastoral visits completed.

Some planning and preparing achieved.

More of the same tomorrow... and that feels satisfactory.

I've just completed a first draft of this week's sermon... I think it's broadly OK, maybe a bit waffly in places but generally says what I'm trying to say.  After seven weeks of writing ten minute reflections it's a bit odd writing a full sized sermon... I hope I don't send everyone off to the land of nod!

Now to start on the assorted prayers that are needed.