Holy Week always feels like a time when we ought to slow a little and 'live' with the narrative.  Sometimes I find myself wondering what the story might have looked like from the perspective of people who are not mentioned - who may not have existed. This year I offer a few, off the top of my head, starters for your imagination.

Palm Sunday and the Clearing of the Temple are messy stories - clothes thrown into the street, branches torn from trees (or possibly taken from heaps that had been pruned), animals running amok having been liberated from the Temple precints.  I wonder what it would have been like to have been street sweeper in Jerusalem at what was already a busy time - thousands of pilgrims (tourists?) filling the city, traders selling their wares, disposable pottery cups abandoned, dropped food, lost property and so on.  Maybe they picked up a fair few coins that had fallen, unnoticed by passers by, but they really could have done without all the extra work Jesus and his crew created!

Imagine yourself standing in the city, a broom in your hands or with a cart to collect rubbish.  How do you feel?  What do you see?  What does the coming festival mean for you?  What do you think about what Jesus is doing?

Yesterday was just a wonderful day - beginning with children running in to the Gathering Place shouting 'hosanna' at the start of an interative all age service led by the Sunday School and culminating in a united service for Palm Sunday where the hall we met in was full to capacity.  Energising and inspiring.

And today, after nuking, it was Back to Work, hurrah!  Only a half day in the office as I don't currently have a computer at church (mine came home with me at Christmas) but it was just great to back there again.  So, a gentle morning preparing a couple of visual aids and sharpening pencils before meeting another minister for a long overdue cupcake.  It was good to catch up and even better to be back at work - I've missed the routine and the challenges and the fun and the frustrations and so on and so on.

I need to be sensible and not work to hard or do too much too soon, not least as the nuking does seem to leave me slightly queasy, but it's good to be back to work.

Did I mention it's good to be back at work?  Well it is!  I am so looking forward to Sunday!

A silver lining is not a reason, justification or explanation of something bad, unpleasant or downright awful, rather it is something positive that is discerned or determined within it.  It doesn't make everything right not does it deny the reality which can be, for some people, very, very grim.  Finding silver linings is not playing Pollyanna's 'glad game', it's just seeing things that brighten the darkness, lift the spirits, delight the heart.  Yuk, this sounds like bad poetry written out as prose!  Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that silver linings are good things that might not have been experienced otherwise.

Today I am singing with the church choir again, something that I very rarely have opportunity to do, and something that I don't think is feasible or appropriate when I'm leading worship.  I am singing alto - which for me is quite brave as I'm not that confident in my ability to read and hold a part that's not the melody (in the hymns I revert to soprano, not hope of singing the 'underneath' of something I've known for 40 years).  It is fun to sing with our choir; people self-select, our MD is endlessly patient and gracious and there is is always an element of the unknown -  just sometimes he will throw the choir something complicated at short notice.

This evening is a united service with our C of S friends for Palm Sunday and the choirs of the various churches are uniting to lead the music.  I have been learning alto parts on and off all week for some of the material we'll be singing.  It should be fun - and it should help us catch something of the atmosphere as we move into Holy Week.

This morning's service has been written by our Sunday School and is a dramatised reading of events from Palm Sunday on into Holy Week.  Our Sunday School is small and most of the children very young, so it's not an easy undertaking.  However, I am looking forward to sharing their enjoyment of the moment as we travel in our imaginations to Jerusalem at festival time.

Next Sunday I'm back up front... not that I'm counting the days or anything!

My spy across the pond sent me this link to a newly published book on English (sorry Scots/Waleans/Irish readers) Baptist women preachers in the 17th century.  No, that's not a typo, 17th century.  Somewhere along the line English Baptists lost their way over this until the early 20th century when, although they have struggled with it ever since, they rediscovered this heritage.  Here in Caledonia it's a different tale but maybe in four hundred years time (!) someone will tell the stories of M and F who have preached so excellently and authentically at the Gathering Place.

Alas at $69.95 US plus postage it's too dear to justify buying - but if the BHS would like to send me a copy to review...!

Today my exercise class has had to be cancelled as we've been ousted in favour of the Glasgow World Cup Gymnastic Competition.  The room we usually meet in is to be used for the VIP guests - I'm sure they'll love walking up the dingy stairs we climb each week to reach it!  I just hope they appreciate they are standing where I, and the rest of the class, have stood!  If they get bored they can always pedal a few miles on the exercise bikes or practice their 'step' workouts.

It's good that a prestigious event is taking place here... just hope the fire alarms don't go off!

Hopefully those who attend will have a really good day.  As for me I guess it's the Wii fit and a decent walk.