From the Interim Moderator
Dear Friends,
I find this time of the year somewhat strange. It is the middle of Winter. Well, further on than the middle. There are certainly signs of spring in my garden. I have snowdrops about to come into flower. The hellebores are pushing their flowers through the ground. I know these are commonly called Christmas roses but my experience is that inevitably they are at their best in the weeks leading up to Easter. I reckon that this year mine will be in full flower about mid March. And the daffodils and tulips are showing vigorous growth and the promise of vibrant colour to come. I have much to look forward to in my garden.
Yet I also know that I cannot be certain what the weather will be like from day to day. We have had quite a mild winter so far and my guess is that we have had below average rainfall. But all of that could change. My car was covered with frost this morning and there have been warnings of a noticeable drop in the temperature in the next few days.
If all of this makes me sound like a keen gardener who worries about what is happening in my garden, then I may have misled you. Yes, I do just about everything in our garden but I tend to do it in fits and starts. I have to admit that I am not a Winter gardener. Every year I say that I will do a little each week so that when Spring comes everything will be ready and from then on it will just need regular hoeing to keep the weeds from developing. It is a wonderful theory but with me it just doesn't work. In the winter I do an hour or two in the garden about every 3 weeks... or 4 or more.
My point is that I enjoy my garden but I am not obsessed by it. In the winter I want simply to see what is happening and to leave it to its own ways to develop. If I want to be a little pretentious about this I would say that at this time of the year I want to be reflective about my garden rather than active in it.
Recently I have thought about some verses from the Bible, from the Book of Ecclesiastes: For everything its season, and for every activity under heaven its time;... God has made everything to suit its time. I believe that this time of the year is a time for being reflective, for seeking to live at a different speed. It is a time for slowing down the pace of life, for taking time to notice things, for seeing a tree when every branch is highlighted by frost, for walking by the sea and noticing the sunlight on every wave, for sitting in a comfortable chair with a book and savouring every word. In many, many ways I have loved the busyness of my life. Now, in retirement, I am discovering that the writer of Ecclesiates was right. There is a time for every season under heaven.
Grace and peace,
Bill Mahood
February 2012
- Previous Interim Moderator's letters - Bill Mahood:
- December 2011 / January 2012 (Anne Scarff)
- November 2011
- October 2011
- August / September 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- February 2011
- December 2010 / January 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August / September 2010
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