Winter Words

It's Sunday again, the first day of the week- not the last. This is often forgotten; I heard something recently about a campaign to get calendar makers to recognise this. Quite right too! Memory is vital to us all, and what more important thing can there be to remember than the rest period in the creation of the world. For rest it is: it might be challenging and difficult for many to see it today, but God is still at work in the world in every creative or productive act, every gesture of love and compassion, every smile and every tear.

There is a lot of the latter going on in both world events at the moment and also my own life. At least, I have felt like crying quite a bit over the last week or so. Although I try to make these blogs an open expression of my own thoughts and feelings, some are not easy to express in a public medium even though sharing and "getting it off your chest" can help so much, I find. If you're one of my close friends, spare a prayer as you read these thoughts today and if you are a regular reader, you'll maybe understand why I have not been quite so prolific with my writing this week.

My dear Mum, who God willing will be eighty in just under three weeks, was admitted to the local hospital on the 14th January, following a stroke. This was on top of a period of vague ill health and an infection. While the infection has cleared up and there is no problem with temperature, pulse or respiration, the stroke has left her with the distressing and frustrating condition of dysphasia- commonly called aphasia though not strictly correctly. This means that she has erratic difficulty in communicating. On top of this, she has a weakness in her right arm as well as the generalised mobility difficulties she has increasingly had for some years.

It's not until you see someone having difficulty communicating, that you realise how much we take it for granted in our daily, adult lives. Like so much else though, it is a learned skill. Theoretically at least, it can be re-learned when the part of the brain affected by stroke or other disease is afflicted. But it also takes patience, something less easy for some of us to learn, I guess.

Yesterday afternoon, I visited with my brother, having in the week gone over earlier in the afternoon by myself. On Friday, I actually found Mum quite cheerful and positive. She was smiling and managing to get by with her words most of the time. She was most thankful for a particular friendship and even phoned that friend. I felt more positive and hopeful for her. Unfortunately, it was less so yesterday. It was a struggle to understand what she was trying to get across. Apparently, people with dysphasia have no intellectual impairment and can think normally- how cruel it seems that they cannot share clearly their thoughts with their loved ones and friends through the spoken word.

HERE IS THE MUSE
The spoken word, fortunately perhaps, is not the same as the thought word. Even if lack of language skills prevents us getting across what we long to say to others, we can still dwell in our private world and think and enjoy the world. This was a point made by the preacher at Christ Church this morning, who is one of the old school. He much prefers his Authorised Version of the Bible to the modern translations; I did not press him on what he thinks of the fidelity of contemporary versions.

400-year old language can sound strange to modern ears, but there is a timelessness in God's word which overcame this. The preacher delivered a helpful and uplifting message, and his choice of hymns brought some of the comfort and peace I needed this morning, even though I did not really feel I could get it from the congregation. Now if only they still wrote words like "What a Friend We Have In Jesus". How true, and to love and be loved by him transcends words alone.

THE FROZEN NORTH (AMERICA0
We're basking in a relative heat wave here in Middlesex today, compared to the Eastern Seeboard of North America where blizzards have caused the closure of many of the continent's major airports and the cancellation of flights both ways across the great pond. The forecasters could have seen this coming on Thursday, when George Dubya was inaugarated for his second term of four years. Whether the next years can bring a thawing of the frosty relations between the rest of the world and the US, who knows. I wouldn't wish icy cold on anyone, but there is a kind of satisfaction about the greatest power on earth being brought low by a great power above earth, the winter weather. That's one thing which all humanity shares and which no wars have yet tamed.