It’s surprising how much time flies when we’re not having a good time. Last time I wrote an article life was calm, quiet, and largely predictable. I was settling into a routine which was becoming increasingly comfortable. I was a prospective parliamentary candidate for a party which I still believed had a great future if only a few issues about its direction could be sorted out. I was happy in a new church where a friend was the curate and she and I were getting on well as we worked together serving the local community with a weekly meal cooked mainly by the vicar and his wife. Everything was quietly settling into a pleasant routine with pleasant relationships all round.
Then, just as I was thinking I was finally happy and all I needed to do was relax and carry on with my normal activities, it all changed.
First my friend went sick and I was sorry to miss her, but I thought she’d be back in a few days. For reasons unknown to anyone else, the Diocese decided to pull her out of the Parish and she never came back. I have seen her once since and know she is well, but I do miss seeing her around. The last week I saw her she had given me a lift home and told me I was good company. I felt really flattered and it made my day! Life felt good. The next Sunday, the vicar was unwell so she had to look after us all on her own. She did it really well, but it was to be her last service with us, and no one knew. Even she wouldn’t have any idea. This has left a big hole, and the weekly community meals have had to stop. There will be reasons which we do not know.
This is not unknown, of course. There are many times an unexpected decision removes someone’s expectations: a company stops making a drug, a shop decides to close, a bus service is cancelled, and so on. Somewhere there will be somebody who misses the provision and while it might have made financial sense to axe the service, someone else loses a key aspect of life. We must get used to such upheavals.
Then things became more seriously amiss with my political party. It proved not to be the party I expected it to be. After five years of belonging I saw it drifting away from the party I’d joined and moving to an increasingly intolerant position. Reason seemed to depart to be replaced with aggression, and after trying every last-ditch effort I could think of from the position I was in it came to a crunch where I decided I could no longer be identified with it. I have told the full story elsewhere so won’t bore people with it here. So I have left and am politically homeless once more. Where now? I don’t know.
Life throws up new challenges and we never know what they are until they happen. Sometimes, I just wish the challenges were a little less frequent and we could relax a little more, but then I expect I’d be bored. At least the weather has improved for now. It’s finally stopped raining quite so much. Enjoy it while it lasts.
