Sophie cat is busy watching over the latest stack of packets waiting to be posted off to all corners of the UK!

A couple are the remanants of my craft stuff, going to people who will use them in charitable endeavours, the rest are maps and guides from long distance walks I've done or places I've been.  Scattering this collection of maps, etc. between around a dozen folk feels surprisingly positive.  I have had pleasure from the walks and holidays, and somewhere, deep in my memory, they can all be relived.  Now other people can enjoy making thier own memories, leaving their footprints in the same places... and that feels quite a precious gift to offer.

I'm not quite sure where the clear out will stop... there's still a heck of a lot of stuff that needs to be shed, but it's surprisingly liberating to let this stuff go, and, by doing it now when I am comparatively young and in good health, I have the pleasure of knowing where things go.

By the end of tomorrow, several large items will have left the building en route to new homes overseas via a Baptist charity, and over the coming weeks I am fairly sure that CDs, DVDs, books and other stuff will set off on new adventures.

Many years ago, I recall chatting to some overseas mission workers who said that they learned to hold possessions very lightly - it wasn't that they didn't want or enjoy having 'stuff', they simply recognised it as what it was, enabled to enjoy it and let it go.  If I can reach that level of 'lightly holding' things, I'll be happy.... and, as the saying goes, there're no pockets in shrouds!!

Many people have loyally read this blog over many years, and have continued to be supportive and encouraging as I've moved on after breast cancer.  Today was my annual check up and, subject to the results of the mammogram, I am still a NED.

I think I have the best breast team in the world, not least because after these years we can share some good banter as well as discuss serious stuff.  Kind of nice when your consultant walks in and says 'Hello Trouble' and refers to the BCN as 'a Monster' all the time with a smile on his face.  And equally nice when you can ask questions and express concerns (should they arise) knowing you'll be taken seriously and taken good care of.

The NHS, in its various guises, and despite the things that are not good or not fair or less than ideal, is a truly wonderful thing, and I am very blessed to be a recipient of it.

Not a greeting, a statement of fact.

This evening the planning group for our up coming Church Away Day met, pretty much with a blank sheet of paper, and in 90 minutes, during which time we also shared a meal, we had come up with something that I think is exciting.  Lots to sort out and lots of 'maybes' but I know with this great Team on the case, it'll be really good.

Can't give you any details here, yet, except to say that my celery soup tasted OK and the cheese scones went down a treat!!

Today, being my 'day off', I took myself off on the train to the place where the West Highland Way starts, and enjoyed a walk of roughly 7-8 miles, blowing away a lot of cobwebs in the process.

On the inbound walk, I stopped to take photographs, including this one which says, just about discernibly, "privacy's edge" - being on the boundary of public land and a private, permissive path.

It got me thinking a bit about the boundaries between public and private in our own lives, and more epsecially, about the stuff I share on this blog.

Privacy's edge... that delicate balance between what is or is not appropriate to share; and another between what I choose to offer because actually I think that someone has to say it (which is why my cancer stuff always drew a large readership) and between what I don't offer because, actually, I don't want to share it...

I kind of liked the fact that the stone was obscured, that I had to look closely to make out what it said, because that seemed to reflect the blurred, imprecise nature of public/private boundaries in blogging.

I'm not sure I'll ever fully suss out the answer, but I did have a lovely, muddy walk, which did me a power of good - something I am quite happy to share!!

As week one of an exploration of a few of the Psalms, and under the heading "all creation worships God?" this is the creative writing that emerged for this morning's service... (Advance posted to appear when we are at church!!)

The author of Luke tells us that as Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

Stones, rocks, boulders, pebbles…

We come in all shapes and sizes

And are born – if we may use such a word – in different ways:

Spewed forth from the molten heart of a volcano

Squeezed beneath the surface of the earth

Or the product of centuries of sedimentation…

Silently, we observe all human life.

Silently, we are used, and abused, in the cause of human life.

Flints struck to create a spark to light a fire

Stones sharpened for use as tools… and as weapons…

Polished and cut to ornament human bodies… or the floors of palaces…

Used as slingshot to maim or kill

Quarried and fashioned into regular blocks

And built in dwellings for humans… or for deities…

Gathered into circles to contain fires

Or built into walls to protect sheep and cattle… or exclude entire nations…

Pebbles joyfully skimmed across the surface of a river

Or thrown angrily, deep into the depths of the sea…

Silently we watch… silently we listen…

Silently we delight… silently we despair…

Just below the threshold of human hearing.

Just beyond the comprehension of those whose lives we share,

We too, utter prayers and praises to the one in whom we have our being

For the hurt we have caused, in natural disaster and in human activity, Lord, have mercy

For the joys we have brought, in the natural environment and in human endeavour, Lord we praise you

That your promises be fulfilled, that all will be made anew in your Kingdom of Shalom, Lord we beseech you

God, rock of ages, hear our prayer. Amen.