The month of June

It’s suddenly been a whole little while since I last posted so thought I’d write a brief update since I’m not keeping up!

This week I celebrated my 22nd birthday (praise God!) and I have been blessed with being able to see family and friends from Birmingham, Cambridge and London. I have been thoroughly spoiled with flowers, cards, x2 games nights, the ‘birthday breakfast’ vicarage tradition, and by Rich staying up late to make me a cake!

I haven’t stopped writing – it’s just mostly been diverted into various job applications (and something I’ve written for Christian Aid)! I also have a ‘reflective essay’ to be getting on with, my last assignment for my grad scheme year, which needs to be submitted in just a few weeks…! It’s all keeping me rather busy!

On a slightly different ending note, Hannah Malcolm read this poem at the ‘Christians on the Left’ Conference yesterday. It feels very apt for things I’m thinking about at the moment and I think it’s worth sharing here –

Life After Death ~ Laura Gilpin          

These things I know:
        how the living go on living
        and how the dead go on living with them

So that in a forest
        even a dead tree casts a shadow
        and the leaves fall one by one
        and the branches break in the wind
        and the bark peels off slowly
        and the trunk cracks
        and the rain seeps in through the cracks
        and the trunk falls to the ground
        and the moss covers it

        and in the spring the rabbits find it
        and build their nest inside
        and have their young
        and their young will live safely
        inside the dead tree
So that nothing is wasted in nature
        or in love.