Just a short week ago, while driving home from yoga, feeling very tired and desperate about how to create more time to take care of Mom's post-heart-attack appointments, tests, etc. a little voice in my head said quite clearly, "It doesn't have to be all or nothing, you know". Bingo! Brilliant! It doesn't have to be retire or keeping struggling to keep up. I could take a 2-month leave from work. I could get my life in order, get Mom settled in a new routine, and then pick up where I left off and keep on going a little longer, doing the work I really love. Amazing! I felt as thought Someone had just picked up the 1000 pound weight from my shoulders...Someone. Nudging me...
Today, while enjoying a snow day, I spent a little time googling information about a very old print I had removed from an old frame that used to be in my father's house. It was put out by the Pears Soap people in 1908 and suddenly I found myself reading about the beginnings of the commerical soap business in the 19th century. Fascinating stuff! Almost as good as the story of sugar. And then there were links to the Pears soap saga, and suddenly up came a page about Mevagissy, Cornwall, England. The minute I saw the peculiar name it rang a bell...and as I read more it all came back to me. This was the quaint little fishing town Peter and I had driven through on the local bus when we left Heligan Gardens to return to our B&B in St. Austell (and the birth place of Andrew Pears). It is a town with streets so narrow that people have to stand in their doorways when the bus goes through! And we went there because the kind bus driver made a detour to deliver a pregnant lady home after she had missed the last bus of the day to Mevagissy! What are the chances? An old print, an intriguing story of soap, a tiny town in Cornwall with a bizarre name...synchronicities...
And memories - where would we be without our memories? First a call from old friends - catching up on health news, church news, wonderful laughter...and then working on my liturgy for Christmas Eve: finding a prayer written by an another friend, professor and mentor! Just like a hug! We'll use it Christmas Eve - no one else will know that it's special, but I'll know that my friend is there with me...
nudgings, synchronicities, memories - ignore them at your peril!
