When I am old I shall wear purple!

As you know, we love having visitors and meeting new people. Today Vivien and Rebecca came to stay with us, 2 students giving their weekend to help out at Extreme Day, our church’s youth event.  Rebecca comes from Florida and was obviously brought up to be very polite “Yes, sir.” “Yes Ma’am” etc etc so she started off calling me Miss Kathy.

Aaargh! I feel so old.

As the saying goes, growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. My mother only stopped saying she was APPROACHING middle age shortly before her 60^th birthday, yet my mother-in-law tells me that each new decade is better than the last.  If I can’t fight it, I might as well enjoy it. Jenny Joseph said it so well:

When I am old I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple. 

Genesis – Revelation

At the age of 13 I made a commitment to Christ as my Lord and Saviour, although at the time I didn’t fully understand all that it would mean, it has proved to be the best decision I ever made. As the Bible is the Word of God what better way to get to know Him than to read it! So over the years I have regularly and irregularly read my Bible but *hangs head in shame* I have never read through every single book of the Bible. I love reading the New Testament, Proverbs and Psalms, but Chronicles, Numbers? I write enough lists of my own without reading anyone else’s!!

But actually that attitude is rather skew-wiff. If I believe that the Bible is wholly inspired by God (which I do) then it stands to reason that Numbers, Chronicles, Ezekiel and the like are included for a reason and therefore I'm missing something quite important if I ignore them. There are many reading plans for reading through the Bible in a year but I decided just to start at the beginning a work through.

For those of you who have dismissed the idea of God just because some Christians or some Churches aren’t living or acting or loving the way Jesus instructs them to in the Bible I would challenge you to do your own research. Are you really going to make such a big decision based on someone else’s opinion? People don’t reject marriage just because 45% end in divorce.  

Anyhow, here’s what a few other people have said about the Bible:

Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. - Horace Mann

Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. - St. Jerome

I believe that the existence of the Bible is the greatest benefit to the human race. Any attempt to belittle it, I believe, is a crime against humanity. - Immanuel Kant, German idealist philosopher, 1724-1804
A thorough understanding of the Bible is better than a college education. - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, 1858-1919

The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world. - Charles Dickens

Reading the Bible without meditating on it is like trying to eat without swallowing. – Anonymous

ps: I’m not a perfect Christian, I know that all too well, in fact there is no such thing! However, with God's help, I aim to improve, little by little, day be day. 

Sail the 7 seas, tickle the ivories and throw myself off a cliff!

These three are purely fun personal goals. Although I was born and breed less than 2 miles from the shore I never learned to sail. Paddling about in an inflatable dingy on holiday doesn’t count! I have no intention of following Tracy Edwards or Ellen MacArther in circumnavigating the globe, but to jibe and tack across a lake or round a Greek island in the summer sounds like fun don’t you think! One of my best friends offered her husband to teach me to sail but that would be in the Celtic Sea/ Severn Estuary so unless I can find a heated wet suit………..Nnnnoooooooooo! Don’t, do, cold :/

One of the things I love about visiting my in-laws is that my father-in-law is hardly ever off the piano. Having a musical accompaniment to everyday life is rather lovely, cooking with Chopin, reading with Rossini and chatting to Tchaikovsky. I started learning the piano as a child but was very shy and would only practice with the door tightly shut or preferably when no one was home, eventually I gave up. I now regret that decision but have never done anything about it. So it’s time for action. Just this week a friend told me she is moving and offered me first refusal on her piano once she’s had it valued, Matt’s comment was “Well I’m not being involved with carrying it up 4 flights of stairs!!!” 

Staying on the subject of Mr H, this last fun goal will give him scary tingly feelings in his feet just at the thought. Paragliding!

There is a school at the Achensee –Tirol, so Matt can keep his feet firmly on the ground (under the kitchen table) drinking coffee at the Plattner house whilst I jump off the top of a mountain. J

This is what my next birthday present should look like Matt!

http://www.gleitschirmschule-achensee.at/Download/tandemgutschein_muster.pdf