Today we received a paper heart, and were invited to write a message and send it to someone else.  I have someone in mind who  think may appreciate this message.

Today I am very grateful for friends who encourage me with kind words and precious insights.

Today's poem is The Kingdom by R S Thomas, which is easy enough to find online, for example here

The photo is a building bearing the inscription.The Glasgow Eye Infirmary' - a hospital where people would seek the restoration of vision.  Nowadays the building houses specialist sexual health services, a range of routine and crisis support for the people of this city.

Thomas's poem employs the image of the Kingdom as a hospital, where true healing is found, and a single green leaf as symbol of faith.

The prayer:

God whose governance defies human understanding,

As we gaze into the mirrors of our own hearts and mind

Help us to glimpse again the vision

The vision of healing, wholeness, hope and harmony...

And renew our faith, so that it is as simple as a single green leaf

Amen

A small sticker, with a silhouette nativity scene and the words 'Christmas Blessings'

At the heart of Christmas is the story of a baby born in a barn/outhouse/stable/cave in a time of oppression and hardship, yet this was the greatest gift of love, when LOVE entered creation to transform it from within.  What better blessing could there be.

Unsurprisingly, I found another candle on which to stick my sticker - and I am enjoying its gentle warmth and flickering glow as I type.

I wonder what others will do with theirs?

Today's poem isn't the one I originally planned - I made a late change both to it, and to the accompanying photo; fortunately the prayer still seems to fit!

The poem is 'Adjustments' by R S Thomas, the first of three successive poems I have chosen by this Welsh writer.  Unfortunately, I can't find it online, but it is alluded to in this which uses the poem 'Absence' which I originally chose but, today, felt wasn't quite right.

Here is the prayer...

God who is present, even when it seems you are absent,

Hidden from sight, and sound and sense...

Yet, mysteriously, closer than our breathing.

When concepts fail, and words melt away

Help us to wait patiently

Trusting that, though we cannot discern it,

You  are with us always

Amen

Today's gift was a small roll of Love Heart sweets - a childhood memory stirred of vivid colours (no more) and amusing messages.

The symbolism is more than the gift itself - half a dozen sugary tablets of themselves mean little.  But love, and the 'sweet nothings' that some forms of love evoke, are worth contemplating - if only for long enough for one sugary message to dissolve in the mouth!