Cleaning up the environment today!  I have yet to do my chosen challenge, but that's the theme.

QUICK WORK
Pick up any litter you spot today and drop it into a bin. (You might want to wear latex gloves or use a litter-picker!) Not going out? Sort out your kitchen so that you can get into the habit of recycling easily.

I'VE GOT MORE TIME
Pick a patch of land around where you live and commit to keep it litter free. You might also plant a few bulbs or flowers that will attract bees and butterflies.

GO THE WHOLE HOG
Organise a community clean-up or find out about conservation groups in your neighbourhood. Connect with other 40acters in your area and arrange a date/time to scrub off some graffiti or do a group litter-pick.

So, I thought I'd do the first one on my way to church... but by the time I'd walked about fifty yards I knew that wasn't going to work, I'd have needed several sacks and not a few pairs of gloves.  It was salutary to realise how acccustomed I have become to the appalling level of littering in this part of the city.  I recalled how shocked I had been when I first arrived here, and to a degree still am, at the casual attitude people here have to dropping litter - often when they are in arm's length of a bin.  So, what kind of things did I see...

drinks cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles (broken)

pizza cartons, burger boxes, chip wrappers

lollipop sticks (dozens), sweet wrappers, crisp bags

carrier bags (which are no longer free here) and re-usable shopping bags

paper, tissues, card

a mop, gloves, socks

a cat food sachet

and then I gave up keeping a mental list after I saw a council refuse truck take a corner at speed and scatter broken glass aross the road in the process...

Once I have posted this, I will go a litter pick round the church grounds... there is an empty salad container in the sand bucket by the back door, and any amount of empty cigarette boxes and fag-ends abandoned by folk from the support groups that use our premises.  Good job I have plastic gloves and bin sacks in the vestry!!

And here is the perversity of it all - I will actually derive pleasure from picking up this mess!

One last thought, back in the day when we were at school, litter-picking was a task that every registration group had to take a turn at... if nothing else it taught us not to litter!  Should I mention this to the nice people at Holyrood and Westminster... ;-)

Today we are invited to talk meaningfully to our nextdoor neighbour... I know my nextdoor neighbours reasonably well and they are currently away, so that's a tad tricky.  So I'm going to have to find a way to adapt the action!

Here the options:

I'M A LITTLE SHY

Start with a smile and a wave, instead of avoiding eye contact! For bonus points, pop a 'hello!' note through their door.

FEELING A LITTLE BOLDER

Introduce yourself. If you can go beyond small talk, do. Make an extra effort to remember details.

I'M ALREADY FRIENDS WITH MY NEIGHBOURS

Great – so let’s take that friendship to the next level. Make today the day to organise a social; a shared meal, trip to the cinema or even just a healthy walk around the block together.

So, what will I do?  I have a cunning plan!  I will get some nice blank cards (I have loads at church) write a little message on them, pop in a small bar of chocolate and give them to all eleven neighbours in my block :-)

There, now I've said it, I have to do it!

... and to dust you will return.

A couple of years ago I blogged a reflection on this, which seemed to resonate with some readers... the story of how I had come to value these words, and the comfort of knowing that the atoms and molecules that make up my body will still be here and still part of life on earth long after I have gone.

For various reasons, recently I've had lots of conversations about disposal (or not) of "cremated remains" also known as ashes.  Should they be buried or dispersed?  Is it OK to divide them into portions?  Is it ghoulish to keep grandma (or Fido) on the mantlepiece?  Ashes converted to diamonds and incorporated into jewellry; ashes smeared on skin and then tattooed into it; ashes launched into space... the possibilties are, it seems, pretty much endless.  I have my views on the various practices listed above, and some would definitely not be "for me".

Remember you are dust and too dust you will return... this keeps us from becoming too arrogant in life, but raises huge challenges about what happens to our mortal remains after we die.  Within all of the questions and all of the choices people make is, I suspect, a tacit wrestling with what that all means... a need to make meaningful something that potentially destroys meaning.

I am still comforted and reassured by the knowledge that the atoms and molecules that make me will go on being part of the life of this planet as long as it exists.  I am comforted and reassured by the hope I have in Christ that my life will continue beyond the here and now.  Death and dying are profound mysteries, taboos we rarely speak about depsite their inevitability.  Maybe it is good one day a year to be reminded, gently, of our own mortality and assured that in the end it'll all be OK.

Oh, and if anyone wonders, when my time comes, just set me free on the breeze.... :-)

Today we are offered this verse from Isaiah, and invited to pause to plan what our forty days might involve..

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.  I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ Isaiah 46:10 (NIV)

Three actions:

FIVE MINUTES

A quick and effective way to prep? Pray. Ask God to be at the centre of your generosity this Lent.  Write down your prayer and pin it somewhere you’ll see it every day.

TEN MINUTES

Start a journal. Keep a list of all the people you'd like to bless this Lent, and use it to document all the things you learn over the next 40 days.

ONE HOUR

Create a generosity kit that you'll keep with you every day during Lent.  Fill it up with things you can use to bless others – a chocolate bar, a spare umbrella and a few pens.

Does any of these appeal to you? 

I'll let you in to a secret - the word "journal" made me groan, carrying with it memories of all those years of mandatory journalling.  So I'm going to re-imagine that as "blog", and rather than a list of people I might want to bless, it will be a set of daily reflections on the actions I choose.

Praying is always good, so I can do that one too.  Not so sure about the 'generosity pack' that feels everso slightly contrived, though I get the intent.  Maybe I'll take a wander round the shops and pick up a few odds and ends?

Today I will be taking the kitties to meet the V.E.T.  I am aware I never took them a 'thank you' gift for taking care of Holly, so today's "random act of generosity" may take the form of something for them...

Glasgow Uni has undertaken a huge project to remember, on their anniversary of death, all alumni killed in World War I, and to place a poppy cross in the University memorial garden.

Today it was one Thomas Hathaway, a Lancastrian-born man who never studied there but was part of the OTC.  He was just 20 years old when he was killed.