Apologies & Happy Christmas

To all those who follow my blog, you’ll have noticed that it has been distinctly lacking in entries for the past few months.  Hmm, not good, is it?

I apologise for the lack of posts, of snippets, of links, of entries about stuff which may or may not interest you greatly.  I’m back on track again now though so expect to be amazed & bewildered by the Reflections blog  in the days to come – or just note that I will be posting entries again sometime soon!

The photo a day challenge came to an end in summer (I know, I failed to last the whole year, but hey ho, what can I say!) but I will be uploading all those images that I never got around to posting, some time over the next couple of weeks.

So all it leaves for me to say for now is: Happy Christmas to each & every one of you.   May you be surrounded by those who you love & care for at this special time of year, may you know the joy of friends and family, recognise how fortunate you are to have them & to be loved and cared for by others, to have those things which mean the most to you and those which we all take for granted, and may you feel the blessings of this special Christmas time of year within your own heart.

Away in a Manager
No crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus
Lay down his sweet head
The stars in the bright sky
Looked down where he lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay

The cattle are lowing 
The baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying he makes
I love Thee Lord Jesus
Look down from the sky
And stay by my side
Until morning is nigh

Be near me Lord Jesus
I ask thee to stay
Close by me forever,
And love me I pray
Bless all the dear children
In thy tender care
And fit us for Heaven
To live with Thee there

x

The internet can be a dangerous thing

Do you ever have that feeling in the pit of your stomach?  You know the one, when someone tells you something & your brain goes into overdrive and thinks the worst?  Well that’s where I am right now.  I’ve been told something that scares me.  To be honest it didn’t scare me straight away, it was only when I decided to do a Google search that I became scared.  The internet can be a such a dangerous thing!

So now that I’ve read the bad stuff online, I can’t quite wipe that out of my mind & so now I’m sitting here really rather scared & a tad tearful even worrying about something that I can’t change and about something which in all probability isn’t even fact.  I’ve got that horrible feeling in my stomach & my inside is turning over doing somersaults

I guess it’s part of my make-up, that sense of worry & concern about people I love and care for.  I’ve inherited it from my Mum & I can’t do anything about it.  I can tell myself not to worry.  I can tell myself that there’s nothing to worry about.  I can even convince myself that that’s true – well almost.  But then my brain reminds me & there goes my stomach acrobatics again!

What is it they say about knowledge?  Too much can be a bad thing?  Hmm, I reckon I can appreciate that right now :S

Trying times

I’ve been working for almost 17 years now. I know that to some of you that might sound like an eternity but to others it must sound like I’m fresh out of nappies!  Well anyway, during that 17 years there have been a variety of moments and experiences, some highs and some lows but I can honestly say that the past couple of weeks have been amongst the most challenging – and unfortunately not in a good way. And if i’m really honest, yesterday was perhaps the worst day of my working life, period!  And that takes some doing seeing as I was made redundant from my last employer.

I don’t know what you do to overcome moments like these, times which challenge you to the utmost.  How do you actually shrug your shoulders, turn the other cheek, pick yourself up & carry on, and all those other cliches? They say forgive and forget, and ok, an apology does help to a certain degree but right now I can’t seem to get over that hurt, that feeling of utter dispair when I really didn’t know what I could do & where I could turn. (Although I was fortunate to stumble across a colleague at that point, which helped a little at the time of most despair!)

So in an attempt to try & move on, here I am back at my blog again, trying to find that cathartic feeling that so often comes from physically putting words down in print. Yes, I’ve neglected my blog in recent months.  Perhaps that indicative of all the thing that have been going on in my life lately.  They’ve certainly not all been bad things either. Actually despite some incredibly busy times, there have been many fantastic and memorable moments lately.  I guess the challenge now is to push those experiences to the forefront of my mind and to bury away the bad experiences of the past few weeks.

What is it they say? Everything happens for a reason.  These moments are made to strengthen us?  God only challenges us as much as he knows we can bear?

Hmm, right now it’s really kinda hard to see that silver lining or the brightness on the horizon ahead of me. I only hope that I’ll get there soon cos in the meantime I have work to do & I have to face some difficult individuals on a daily basis.  Definitely time for a self pep talk me thinks!

Year in Photos (10-Apr-11)

View from the M1 near Heathrow airport on my journey back home from Croydon. (I hasten to add that I wasn’t driving & this photo was taken through a window) It was a lovely sunset

Year in Photos (9-Apr-11)

This was one of the pictures in my bedroom this evening.  I thought it was worthy of a photo.

Year in Photos (8-Apr-11)

I love tulips.  They’re probably amongst my favourite flowers.  It’s just a shame that they don’t stay in flower for very long.  I love this photo of them, it means I can keep looking at tulips all year long!

Year in Photos (6-Apr-11)

A snapshot of my Kindle bookshelf on my iPad.

Year in Photos (5-Apr-11)

I was at the physiotherapists this morning & waited in their rather nice conservatory.  The roof was pretty cool.

Year in Photos (4-Apr-11)

A wooden flower.  I guess it makes a change from the real ones – although I’m not sure it’s quite as nice!

Year in Photos (1-Apr-11)

No, it’s not a belated April Fool.  Today’s photo really is a photo of my bed – actually it’s my spare bed but I’m using it at the moment cos I’ve been having a few back problems recently & this one is more comfortable.  Actually the photo isn’t just of my bed.  To be more precise it’s a photo of a mattress topper which I’m trying out at the moment to see if it makes a difference to my back.  Watch this space for the answer …