It was just like old times. This morning, as I walked from the vestry to the front of the church and turned to face the congregation, thirteen years of my life seemed to vanish and I was back in the last days of my curacy, just before I left to become vicar of three neighbouring parishes.
An awful lot has
happened in my life since then – two more grandsons, another move to a group of
parishes in England, my second cancer diagnosis and finally retirement and the
move back to Wales – but just at that moment it was as though all of that had
never happened.
But of course it
wasn’t just like old times. Faces I had known well were missing and new faces
had taken their place. Like me, the people I still know are older and greyer
and probably just as creaky. Yet none of that mattered as we went through the
service together and talked nineteen to the dozen over coffee afterwards. Until
their new vicar is appointed, I’ll be helping out from time to time at this
church, so time will probably play more tricks on me.
Time can be so
elastic, sometimes snapping back to hide the intervening years, yet in other circumstances
it can stretch out endlessly, making a day or even an hour feel like an
eternity. Sometimes we have too much of it and at others not enough, and I’ve
certainly been experiencing a new shortage of time as I find myself wanting to
fit music practice at least once into every day.
The trouble is I’m
hooked. I really, really want to
learn to play the clarinet, so I’m starting to rearrange other things to make
time for regular practice, even finding my blog-reading and writing time being
eaten into. I need time to do its stretching trick, so that I can have enough
for everything. However, I doubt time will be so accommodating, so I’ll just have
to make better use of the normal daily allowance. If DD, with all her work and
family commitments can do it, surely I, a retired woman of leisure, can manage
it. From now on my new motto had better be ‘Seize the day’.
Images via Google
Good luck with seizing the day - I find time to be as slippery as a wet baby!
ReplyDeleteTime playing tricks on you - I like that way of describing the feeling one has on coming full circle.
A perfect simile, Pondside - I'll just have to hold on tighter. :-) It was a lovely feeling to come back full-circle, to a place where I was very happy and where I still know many people. Life gives us some very pleasant moments.
DeleteYes, seize the day. I love thinking about time and how it works. Now you see it. Now you don't. Whenever I have to do difficult things, I meditate on how soon the bad moment will be over with and gone.
ReplyDeleteI do the same, Rubye, and it's what helps us tackle the hard things. I've often wished I could pin down the different aspects of time, but mostly I just live it and think afterwards.
DeletePerpetura, I can't imagine what being a Parish Priest/Vicar must be like. But from what I have seen on BBC shows, it looks like it could be a very personally rewarding vocation. However, I think you must be a special kind of person to fit the position. And although I was brought up Catholic and still consider myself such, I am no longer a 'church going' person. My 'spirituality' is very personal and the social part of it never sat well with me. But each must find their own path, yes?
ReplyDeleteAs for the clarinet, good show! (or at least that was what my dad would have said - he was English, did I ever mention that?) Occasionally I pop out with things like "Don't take any wooden nickels!", "Spot on", or break out in a chorus of "Onward Christian Soldiers..." and wonder where in the world THAT came from. Dad.
Rian, being a parish priest can be the most wonderful thing, very hard work but deeply fulfilling and often great fun. I've always found it a huge privilege to be involved in people's lives in this way and though now I'm just helping out, along with another retired priest until a new vicar is appointed, it feels great to be back in harness for a bit. :-) You're right that we each have to find our own path and mine has been a very satisfying one.
DeleteI didn't know your dad was English. 'Good show 'and 'spot on' were common expressions in my childhood too, though they sound dated now, but that has never stopped me using them. :-) Even "Onward Christian Soldiers" still gets sung from time to time.
I am so fascinated by your life as a priest. I have often thought that it would be a very interesting job, especially as a wife and mother as well. I am sure it has many challenges but also seems very rewarding. I have a Jesuit education, of which I am very proud because it was so rigorous. One of the most important things I took away from it is the spiritual satisfaction in helping others. I think it was the main reason I became a teacher, though I stopped working to raise my children and now partially homeschool them as well. I think religious work is very interesting. I've always been interested in the work of chaplains, especially. I am so glad you're making time for your study of the clarinet. I played it for a very short time myself. My husband played it as well, and later switched to the bassoon. He still plays the bassoon for fun from time to time. I enjoy having its music in the house.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a long time to find my vocation to ministry, Jennifer, and I was ordained while still working in my first career as a librarian. I was an unpaid curate at this church for 13 years, before finally moving into full-time ministry in my mid-50s, by which time I was not only a wife and mother but a grandmother. :-) It's a very demanding role and life wasn't always easy, but it was also deeply fulfilling. At one stage I thought of doing chaplaincy work, but stayed in parish ministry and have never regretted it.
DeleteI'm definitely making time for my clarinet practice and am also trying to find myself a teacher, as there's a limit to how much progress I can make by myself. The grandson who lent me his old clarinet is starting to hint that he'd like to try the bassoon (as well as the clarinet, saxophone and piano he already plays) His brother also plays 3 instruments as does their mother, so I didn't stand a chance really. :-)
You were right about the dinner party we attended last night stretching into the small hours. We scraped back the chairs and headed to bed at gone 2.00am, just as you predicted. So we would never have made it to "your service", but hey! Maybe next month,,,
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile there is curry to be had. See you and your DH on Friday. Carpe Diem, indeed
Love as always
Baby Sis
Now why am I not surprised to read that, Baby Sis? I'm glad you had such a good evening. I really enjoyed being back in what I still think of as my home church and everyone was very welcoming.
DeleteDH is starting to drool already at the thought of Friday's curry. :-) He's been happily watching Masters snooker today, while I got on with my clarinet practice.
Love the motto! And yes, time is incredibly elastic - I found myself chatting away to a 'girl' I knew at Junior High School via Facebook last night. She was 12 when we last spoke! In fact, there may be a post on its way about it...
ReplyDeleteI'm delighted you're facing a congregation again - it obviously has really energised you and that's often when you find all the time you need. You'll fit it all in, I'm sure, and we will be patient if there's a gap between posts. Have great fun - seize that day!
Axxx
When you get to my age, Annie, there aren't quite so many days ahead, so seizing them starts to look like a very good idea,. :-) I'm glad you've had your own demonstration of the elasticity of time. What fun to link up so easily with someone you haven't been in contact with for so long.
DeleteYou're so right about feeling energised. I was positively fizzing by the time I got home, partly because it was months since I'd last led a service and I do find it so rewarding ,and partly because it had been so much easier this time, now my sight is better. I'm only doing one service a month, but it's good to be doing as much as that again and clarinet practice also seems to be multiplying. :-)
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteOh how wonderful to be flexing those spiritual skills once again - every bit as good as learning the new one I am sure. I determined some years ago to not let time be the monster. It works. Mostly... Blessings and wishes for extended minutes. YAM xx
It feels wonderful, Yam. What with DH's illness and my operation it's been a long time since I took a service and I so enjoyed it. There's another retired priest and also a lay ministry team helping out, but I'll really have fun preparing that one service a month and doing anything else I'm asked to do. But I won't let it prevent me doing the clarinet either as I'm finding it so challenging and enjoyable. I'm a lucky woman. :-)
DeleteSince when was it possible to equate retirement with leisure? I for one have done more in the past 20 years than in the previous forty.
ReplyDeleteThe clarinet is a wonderful goal, try not to be deflected.
I don't know what you're taking, but I'd like some please.
I know, I know... It's just that the last few months have been so quiet and home-bound, with DH's illness and my operation, that it feels really good to be out and doing again. In the past I was used to juggling so many time commitments, but i'm a bit out of practice.....
DeleteThe clarinet is wonderful - full stop. I'm really loving getting to grips with it, though practice is surprisingly hard work, even though I'm sitting down, and after half an hour I'm ready for a rest. As for what I'm on, it's just feeling back in touch with the world that's doing it, I think. You're no slouch either, what with your work for the choir and the parish office. :-)
So you're helping provide cover during the interregnum in your title parish of Llan...... Perpetua. I won't put in the full parish name to protect your partial anonymity & lots of places in Wales do begin with 'Llan' :-) I would certainly find it strange to go back & take a service in one of my former parishes. Also, unlike you, so far I've never been invited back!
ReplyDeleteI do know what you mean about time. I never seem to have enough of it these days. My intention of writing one blog post a week seems to be beyond my capabilities at present which is why I've dropped so far down your blog roll :-( I'm also not the best user of broken time. Rather than 'seize the day', I need to learn better how to seize the occasional hour or two between other fixed appointments.
I am indeed, Ricky, and thoroughly enjoying myself. Of course in many ways it's my home parish, as I spent over twenty years there, lay and ordained,.and still live only a few miles away, so it feels quite natural to help out when needed. I'm sure you'd enjoy the experience if you ever have the chance to revisit any of your previous parishes.
DeleteAs for using time, I well remember how hard it was to fit everything in when I was in full-time parish ministry. Work always seemed to expand well beyond the hours I had available and things got neglected, despite my best intentions. Perhaps shorter blog-posts might be the way to go until life eases up a bit for you.
You must be very happy to be returning to that church and its congregation....and they must be so glad to have you to 'help out' until a new appointment is made - not, I hope on the lines of the requirements recently outlined by the Beaker Folk.
ReplyDeleteI often think that I had more time for my own hobbies and pleasures when I was still working - where, I now ask myself, tempted by mentions of weaving in Cup on the Bus, would I find the time to spin, to dye the yarn and weave the fabric to make furnishings, as I used to do...
I suspect that I was a lot more time disciplined then...and my time was my own.
You'll sort it. Busy people always do.
It was super, Helen, and I enjoyed myself tremendously. It's not that I haven't been to services in tjis church since I retired back to the area, but that's not the same as being up at the front leading worship. That's what caused time to slip so amazingly. Thankfully I'm not involved in any of the admin work, so I haven't a clue what kind of super(wo)man has been specified in the job description.The Beaker Folk had it spot on about unrealistic expectations. :-)
DeleteI was exactly the same when I was working. Day job, non-stipendiary ministry, teenage children, hobbies and even a bit of social life - somehow I fitted them all in. The truth is that when we get older we slow down and our self-discipline slackens off along with our waistlines.
It's the TV watching which will go. The clarinet is already a must-do. :-)
It's lovely to come round full circle occasionally. Hope you manage to squeeze everything thing into your schedule.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realised quite how good it would feel. :-) The schedule is going to have to be flexible, but somehow we'll get there....
DeleteDear Perpetua - but DD is still a young women! When we are young we seem to be able to juggle so many balls in the air, but once we drop them tasks become harder and harder. I also think that we get so used to pleasing ourselves and doing what we want when we want.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I sense a renaissance women within you, and that you will achieve whatever you set out to do.
You're so right, Rosemary. At DD's age I'd just been ordained to non-stipendiary ministry while still working full-time as a librarian and having one child at school and the other at university. With retirement most of us lose the ability to organise and concentrate as well as we used to do However they do say that motivation is all and I really am motivated to learn the clarinet, so I will persevere. :-)
DeleteTime is elusive! In fact sometimes I think that time plays a game with us; the children's game of hide and seek. I admire your desire to play the clarinet, and am sure you will find time:)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of time playing hide and seek with us. :-) that's just how it feels when we try to find those extra hours or minutes. Where the clarinet is concerned, I'm already finding my priorities changing, so that I make time for practice. Who would have thought it?
DeleteI like how you describe time as being elastic. I've never thought of it quite that way before, but it is a very good description. Perhaps one that applies more as we get older. I had just been wondering how the clarinet was going, so thanks for the update. Do you ever wonder how it is that anyone could ever be bored? There are always so many things to do and not enough time to do them in!
ReplyDeleteIt's one of my favourite ways of thinking of time and yes, it has become more evident the older I get. You're still too young to be very aware of this peculiarity of time. :-) The clarinet is going very well, thanks. I've added a couple more notes and am playing a lot more tunes, but am also on the hunt for a teacher to correct my bad habits. Boredom, what's that? I'm not sure I've ever really made its acquaintance. :-)
DeleteYes, elastic is a good word for time. At the moment I think my elastic has shrunk as the days and, in fact, the past year has just flown. I suppose I am trying to fit too much into it but the past year has been wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI love the though of our elastic shrinking as we get older. So true. I sometimes don't know where the weeks, months and even years go. I'm glad the past year has been so good for you, even if it did pass too quickly. You deserve it.
Delete"...Time, like money, is measured by our needs...", George Eliot, Middlemarch. And, we might add, by our interests.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the quote which is new to me. If it's true then I expect time to expand to accommodate my increased needs. :-) Practising is very time-consuming....
DeleteI seemed to have so much time to spare to fit everything in when I was working full-time, Now I'm retired there just aren't enough hours in the day. I think it's probably because we do things at a much slower pace now. Good luck with the clarinet...I hope you find enough time to master it.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the club, Ayak! This seems to be an almost universal experience for those of us with interests beyond work. I feel so sorry for those for whom work was all-consuming and who don't know what to do with themselves in retirement. I know I've slowed down, but I've also found things to do which positively eat up time - blogging for one, and now the clarinet :-)
DeleteA lovely heart-warming post, Perpetua. It is so nice to think of you back in action, and enjoying it so much. I can just feel that you are a warm and wonderful priest, rather like our local Anglican priest, a lady almost my exact equal in age. Sadly, she is resigning soon and will be greatly missed. The clarinet project is so exciting, and your enthusiasm is no doubt reaping rewards by the day. The odd missed practice will make no difference at all. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks,. Patricia. It felt great to be back doing something again after the long gap that was much of last year. It will probably take about 3 months to find a new vicar, so another retired priest and I are holding the fort in the meantime. :-) I imagine your local Anglican priest will also be able to enjoy some retirement ministry if she wants to. It feels good to go on being useful.
DeleteI'm really enjoying clarinet practice, which I'm not sure I would have said about my violin practice as a schoolgirl. :-) I'm now trying to track down a clarinet teacher locally - not easy in a rural area, but I'm following leads....
I prefer your moto ‘Seize the day’, because I believe that time is always the same thing (is it a thing?:), but it depends on how you use it. Good luck with clarinet!
ReplyDeleteHello Muitines and welcome to my blog. You're probably right that time stays the same, but our perception of it varies. It certainly seems to stretch or shrink according to how busy I am. :-) Thanks for the good wishes. I'm really enjoying the clarinet.
DeleteHow lovely that you are able to help out with the parish duties for a while. I often look back to my years working in the City and I'd love to go back, just for a couple of weeks to experience it all over again. But that was 45 years ago and I think it would be a whole different world out there now. But where did that 45 years go. I know what you mean about time being elasticated. My own motto in life has always been Carpe Diem - Seize the day - but some days it just flies by and I haven't be able to seize it before bedtime! When I was studying for those six years, I fitted everything around it - hobbies, interests, socialising and of course housework and it all got done. Now though, it's a different scenario and wonder how I had the time and energy to fit studying into my life!
ReplyDeletePatricia x
Patricia x
Some people say we should never try to go back, Patricia, but that wasn't my experience yesterday. Mind you, I'm only talking about 13 years, not 45. The City must have changed almost beyond recognition in that time and probably not for the better in many eyes. 45 years takes me back to the early days of our marriage and the world was very different then, as were we. :-)
DeleteSix years is a long time to be doing self-motivating study. I studied for ordination for 3 years alongside my full-time job and managed to fit it all in, but now I too wonder how I did it. Motivation has to be the answer, which is why I hope that I can carry on with the clarinet. Plenty of motivation at the moment, if not much skill. :-)
As everyone else says, where does the time go when you were older, and how did we do so much in our youth? We commented on that this weekend when we went back to Spain. Weekends used to be longer, but a weekend away these days is so short! Why?
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to learn the clarinet. I quite wanted to at school, but my parents didn't opt for extra optional and paid-for music lessons. In later years I've lusted after a tenor sax, so far I've only bought the book, a sax in a terrace house seemed a bit inconsiderate on the neighbours.
When my father died, there was a locum priest standing in for the vicar who was on extended hols, I think. She was excellent. I think she got a local parish afterwards. She was so very sincere, had I been religious I might have jumped ship, although she was good friends with the local vicar. I am sure you are being warmly received, temporary, lay, whatever, it's the genuine feeling that matters to the people in the parish. Hope you continue to enjoy it for as long as you can.
Hi roughseas, how nice to see you. :-) The elasticity of time is obviously a major feature of getting older, but not one the self-help manuals warn us about. I know what you mean about weekends. Once upon a time I could cram so much into a couple of days but now it just slips through the fingers...
DeleteSorry you didn't manage to learn the clarinet back then, but perhaps the sax may prove possible one day. DD took up the alto sax in her late 30s and now not only plays that but also the tenor and has taken up the flute. She's lucky to have a detached house. More difficult with immediate next-door neighbours. As a child I learned the violin, but was fortunate enough to be given free lessons at lunchtime as the school wanted players for the orchestra. I don't think our neighbours ever complained about the practising, or if they did my parents didn't tell me :-)
Unless they are regular churchgoers, I think a lot of people's first experience of women's ministry is at weddings or funerals and from my observation, and what people have said to me over the years, many of then are very pleasantly surprised by what they see and hear. Nowadays of course, so many women are being ordained that we're no longer a novelty, which is just as it should be. :-) i certainly intend to go on helping out where I can as long as anyone wants me....
Seizing the day sounds perfect.....and the energising effect of really being involved in this work again sounds as if it is really exciting. I hope you continue to enjoy it....and stretch those hours so you can fit in all thosenothervthings too. jxxx
ReplyDeleteYou've obviously arrived safely, Janice and I hope the flight was good. Yes, I do feel energised by being back in harness, even if only temporarily and the clarinet is proving to be the other great energiser. As my mother would have said, much better to wear out than rust. :-)
DeleteExcuse above typos......typing on this I pad is not quite as straight forward as I hoped !
ReplyDeleteDon't tell me - it has an annoying, so-called intuitive, auto-correct which is faster than you are, :-)
DeleteI think it's wonderful that you're learning the clarinet, really worth a bit of 'time juggling' - but you'll do it - you will!
ReplyDeleteI will, I really WILL, Molly, though rather more slowly than I was hoping when I wrote this. :-)
DeleteYou are such an inspiration to me, Perpetua, as I'm sure you are to your family and friends, as well as to those to whom you have ministered to - and will someday soon entertain with the clarinet, as wellt.
ReplyDeleteHow rewarding it must feel to "come home again" in your parish of so many years, with new faces and familiar faces, and feel as if you might not have ever left.
As you know, I grew up in the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, whose liturgy is so rich and ancient, while still new, just the same. The church, however, did not have a place for women at the pulpit. In my adult years, I've watched a niece married by a female rabbi, was good friends with a Catholic nun, enjoy the rich and varied sermons of a woman pastor, who was a mentor to our younger daughter, who is also ordained. All these things, of course, came about my strong, faithful women such as you, who felt their calling in a time when women were not necessarily accepted. Thank you, dear one, for your faith, and for the examples you set each time you write here.
It was a lovely feeling to stand there again, Penny, despite the intervening years and the changes they have wrought. I'm scheduled to take at least another couple of services there, in February and March, but no more for a while which is fortuitous in the circumstances.
DeleteMy sense of calling was ignited by the example of other women in ministry, just as you describe, and to my great pleasure I'm sharing the work now with another retired woman from the parish. It's like old times to be working together again. :-)
Ah time. I so agree with your comments, and even when I convince myself that setting aside a certain amount of time for particular things, it never happens, for various reasons. I do hope you will make time for your clarinet, as I am trying to do for my uke. I remember a few chords, but need to work on more. Blessings as you offer your services to the church. I have found that retirement never did bring leisure, always finding something to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bonnie. I love the fact that you're taking up your ukulele and trying to get back into practice. It's great to have company. Even if i do have to give practising a miss for a little while. I will find time when I'm fit again. Luckily I'm sharing the ministry at the moment.
DeleteIn this driech January it is cheering to read of how energised you sound by the challenges of ministry and music. I've noticed that priests never really get the chance to retire, so it's just as well that ministry is a vocation! The parish is blessed to have you.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for taking up the clarinet. I too was enormously inspired by Mozart's clarinet concerto on first hearing it as a schoolgirl: it is still one of my favourite pieces, although I ended up grappling with viola rather than the mellow clarinet. Oh, and if you work out how to Carpe Diem effectively, please share your tips here: I am utterly, embarrassingly hopeless at time management!
Energised is exactly how I felt as i sat down to write that post last Sunday, DB. Unfortunately events immediately got in the way, but I know I'll feel the same way when I do more services in the future. The clarinet has really got hold of me and as soon as I can I'll be practising again. I really love the sound it makes. As for time management, i'm afraid I was never the world's best at it and now I'm retired it's too easy to let other things slide in order to do the things I love. What an admission.....
DeleteI really love it when you share about your parish work and I admire the work you do. I know that you must surely be a blessing to the people who know you as their Vicar. I completely understand the pull of time. I am continually trying to manufacture it, and I think I only partly understand that I'm only allotted the same 24 hours as everyone else. I think playing the clarinet is providing some creative nourishment and really must be prioritized. This was a really beautiful post, Perpetua. We all need to think about whether or not we're using our time to invest well in pursuits that nurture and nourish us. ox
ReplyDeleteThanks, Debra. I do enjoy writing about both music and ministry and will do more in the future, once I'm back to doing them both after this current time out. With your outside work commitments you have every reason to feel short of time, but believe me, with all your interests things won't be any easier when you retire . :-)
DeleteI always admire those who can play a musical instrument. I'm sure you're finding it a satisfying experience since taking up the new skill of learning to play the clarinet. Having the time in retirement for different interests, voluntary work etc. is a blessing, but also needs some thought as to how one uses precious hours in the day.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, Linda, I wish I'd done it ages ago, when I had more puff and better coordination. :-) But I'm taking the approach of better late than never and am finding I'm not the only very late starter. Time is becoming too precious to waste.
DeleteWhat's going on? Every time I try to comment on blogs outside Wordpress, nothing comes up!
ReplyDeleteIt's not you, honest, it's Blogger, MM. The so-called Product Forum is stuffed with complaints of things not working properly at the moment, with the comment system being high on the list. Even Blogger users are having difficulties.
DeleteTo crown it all, DH and I are currently having problems with our ISP bouncing some emails, including some Blogger comment notifications,. Grr!
So now it's finally turned up trumps, I can comment. All very strange. I've had the problem with other blogs too (Sarah, I'll keep trying) :-) It's great that you have had this opportunity to preach again - I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason, and these opportunities should be grasped with both hands. Keep up the clarinet practice!
ReplyDeleteGlad you persevered and yes, it was brilliant to be back again. now i have to get myself fit for the service I'm scheduled to do next month. :-) As for the clarinet, I'm learning - just not blowing at the moment.....
DeleteIt’s so hard to make time for everything we want to cram into the day. I blame lack of energy. Really, it’s a tendency to dream the day away.
ReplyDeleteWonderful that you are ministering to a flock you well. Enjoy it while you have the chance. The call of the clarinet will be answered if it’s loud and urgent enough.
Good luck. You may have to cut back on blogging. Says she, who desperately wants to continue writing and finds herself staring at blogs instead.
Don't be too hard on yourself, Friko. OK, we can all waste time daydreaming, but our energy levels do diminish as we get older, as I'm finding to my frustration.
DeleteIt's good to be back in a place I know and love so much, even if only temporarily. The clarinet too won't be ignored, even if I'm having to call pause for a while. I'm already finding I have to ration the time spent blogging, however much I love it. Ration - not give up.
Dear Perpetua, I'm so glad to learn that you are practicing--daily! And one of these days I hope to watch a video and hear you play your instrument and make music. I suspect that the parishioners who were there at church this past Sunday were so delighted to see you and to hear your words and your wisdom.
ReplyDeleteAnd you've inspired me with your carpe diem attitude. That's just what I need. Thank you. Peace.
Correction, I WAS practising daily, until Monday night's events upset the apple-cart, Dee. :-) Now I'm busy learning other music-related things for a while. I think it may be some time before I'll want any of my performances recorded on video, but I'll aim for it.
DeleteI think the parishioners were pleased to see me in action again. I know I was truly delighted to be there.
When we want too Perpetua, we can fit more things in.
ReplyDeleteI wished I had stuck to piano.. but alas just gave up. I enjoyed outdoors more
How nice that you are back in the pulpit. It is amazing how as we get older, we remember a face and wonder..where is that person.
It really all sounds exciting Perpetua.
Enjoy it all..life is so short.
God bless. val xxx
I'm sure you're right, Val. We just have to want the things enough to fit them in. A shame you gave up piano, but I'm guessing you got a great deal of satisfaction out of your outdoor activities.
DeleteIt's lovely to be back, but you're so right about the way our memory for names and faces can play tricks and raise questions in our minds. So many faces over so many years....
Yes, life is short - too short to miss the opportunities that come our way, Val.