Back home at last – in fact, I’ve been home for a few days. Getting back to normal routines like blogging and watching the news is taking longer to accomplish. The terrible events in Norway and the famine in East Africa dominate world events and everything seems a bit too much to cope with. That seems ridiculous to say when it is those involved who need our empathy, prayers and support. Forgive me, I must be suffering from post-holiday blues.
The weather has turned into summer and is wonderful, perhaps that explains some of the tiredness and lethargy. Bit by bit I shall recover and hopefully will have more to blog about than self-indulgent woes and an inability to cope with life.
We came home in time for a special service at church to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the church building. The whole village seemed to be there, plus members of the clan Gregor. Overall it was tremendous, well-supported, joyful and evidencing a community/village that is in good health and growing. Nibbles in the new community centre afterwards gave us all the opportunity to catch up and share future plans. This whole year has been one of celebration – a great way to celebrate, to involve a whole community and to get to know one another better. The Office Bearers and our minister, Liz Gibson, have been doing a wonderful job.
So why the tiredness and feeling lethargic? Particularly about getting started on this blog? I usually rush to the page, keen to share some news or something quirky I’ve come across on the web. My life is an ordinary one, with the usual ups and downs. Nowadays I tend to be grateful for peace, space to be reflective and time to meditate and pray. I enjoy catching up on reading blogs of people I have been getting to know online over the years, and I like it when they comment on what I have to share. Fortunately, most of their remarks are pertinent, encouraging and sometimes very funny.
The problem? Someone recently told me in person that my life is too small. Those were not the actual words, I had to look the words up in the dictionary. But yes……. my life is small. The marvel is that I can share my thoughts, fears, inadequacies, joys and triumphs with anyone who cares to open up the world of Dalamory.
Small and ordinary is good. I’m not a celebrity – imagine how awful that would be….. intrusive and worrying. I’m past my working life – and thankful to be retired…….. free to follow my own interests and to do what little I can to spread the news that God loves us all. I have no soap box other than a belief in goodness overcoming evil…….. even in the face of the tragedy of the shootings and deaths in Norway.
And I want to say thank you, faithful reader, for being here.
Small and ordinary – I think that is what most of us wish for in our retirement. Some peace and quiet fulfilment after years of hectic striving in our working lives when we hope that we have in some way, however small, made our mark. I agree celebrity is not what the normal person would seek and reading some of their day to day life activities they do seem small and ordinary and they are not yet retired! Keep blogging and keep us grounded.
Surely it is an interest in the “small and ordinary” things which constitute most of what makes human life.
I know we all occasionally find ourselves overwhelmed by huge events, or stopped in our tracks by something outstandingly wonderful or awful, but it is a relief then to return to the everyday ‘stuff of life’.
Please keep blogging and all your readers will keep on reading.
Small is good!
Small isn’t bad, as you point out. I think I live my life small some days and huge on others. Variety is good!
Sorry , Freda, but there is no way you or anyone else can call your life small. Your life and thoughts enrich and inspire readers around the world. And in order to have and share those thoughts you cultivate a deep and rich interior life that shines forth in the midst of life-sustaining small and ordinary.
Besides, you took ballroom dance lessons. That makes you heroic in my eyes!!
In these times it is sane to feel despair at the state of affairs. but then, yes, the small things soothe us…
Aloha from Waikiki;
Comfort Spiral
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Thanks for the encouragement, everybody. It’s almost as if you are collectively saying, “Small is beautiful.” – and that is not bad at all. And it helps to know that the ordinary and the everyday is of interest. Come to think of it, I like the minutiae of people’s lives – and love stories about their companion animals and birds.
All our “smalls” add up to large. Goodness happens that way I think.