It's been a pretty wonderful weekend all things considered... I am, among all people, truly blessed.

Over in the addictive and displacement actvitiy world of social media, there is currently a craze for posting three things for which you are grateful every day for five days.  Ostensibly you tag thee more people a day, but I decided not to do that bit!

It's a good discipline, but for me it's not a new idea - counting blessings, looking for something of beauty, finding a positive every day... it's something I've known since childhood and actively practiced since 23rd August 2010 (well, probalby 24th acutally; BC:AD (before cancer: after diagnosis) transition anyway)

Why then, has it been challenging each day find three things to write down?

I think because, intuitively, when I write them down I feel they need to be a little bit worthy, or at least worthy of begins seen by others, rather than just the fleeting moments that gladden my heart.

Now, four days in (my fifth and final day will be delayed as I am offline for a couple of days meeting some friends in Greenwich) I have expressed my gratitude for...

• the internet
• sticky tape to remove laser toner from clothes and carpets
• rain to green and refresh the city
• lunch and great conversation with my 'mentee'
• Public transport, especially trains, I love riding on trains even when it all does to pot!!
• the NHS
• Greggs (bakers) apple turnovers - tasy and one of my five a day!
• internet shopping
• Waterproof clothing
• My chemo-buddies (who I will be meeting in Greenwich)
• Recycling, upcycling, freecycling and bicycling (the (potential) outworking of de-cluttering.. anyone want a bike??)
• Tea in all its varieties

I know some readers have played this 'game' and others practice 'gratefulness' in other ways, but who knows, maybe there is someone who might benefit from trying for three-a-day!!

Now and then people ask me if get nervous about preaching, and the answer, for the most part, is not really.  But now and then I do.  Especially if, as is the case this week, it's a passage that has 'haunted' me throughout my ministry... am I just regurgitating my hobby horse (rather odd image!) am I being annoying or is it what God wants me to say?

Time will tell whether I deliver what I've worked on or if I (a) bottle it and do something else or (b) have a flash of inspiration that makes it all come together afresh.

Until then I'll just endure that knotted stomach feeling that all preachers experience once in a while...

The de-cluttering continues if not apace, at least it continues!  An hour of so a day is my target so as not to hurt my arms and because there is more to life that chucking stuff away!

Last night I was sifting through ridiculous numbers of photo enevelopes containing now useless negatives and those failed pictures with no heads, or blurred, or out of focus from the good old days where you had to wait and see if photos had worked, to say nothing of spare postal photo-service envelopes that would now have no purpose whatsoever!

In amongst it all I found a piece of A4 paper folded in half with some words typed on them... it was the church magazine article I'd written following my Baptism in which I made mention of Moses coming off the mountain with a shining face that would fade, and of the Transfiguration and Peter at al having to return to earth after their mountain top encounter.  I had long forgotten ever having written this, but it resonated with, and complemented some of, what I said last Sunday... and actually as I now realise anticipated some of what would be preached in my ordination sermon years later.  Spooky but reassuring, curious and comforting.

So one copy of that (I had three...) has survived the cull and will go back into a drawer with other random items of personal significance.

Holy Spirit timing?  Mysterious ways?  Or the interconnectedness of all things?  I don't know, but it made me smile. 

... in which history was made, as the Church of England (finally) agreed to allow women to become Bishops

... in which some dear friends are grieving a life cut short by a tragic accident

... in which I discovered that refillable laser cartridges aren't really: what a mess!

... in which rain freshened and re-greened the city so that it is lovely ready for the Games

... in which I printed and planned and emailed and pondered

... in which life in all its diversity and fullness arose

Always perspective, always joys and sorrows, always the trivial, trite and tedious, always the profound and wonderful...

Life is a gift to be cherished