Seeker

This Lent I am occasionally posting on the theme of kindness. Today is St Cuthbert's Day and I found myself thinking about the kindness of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne. He died on this day in 687 A.D. Here is his statue near to Holy Island, Northumberland, England. Cuthbert is one of the most popular English/Scottish saints. Cuthbert was born around 640 in the Scottish lowlands (then part of the Northumbrian Kingdom). As a child he had a vision and decided to dedicate his life to God. He became a monk at Melrose Abbey. From there he began missionary work, which he continued from Lindisfarne where he became abbot. He became a bishop in 685 and continued travelling and preaching, walking all over the rough hills of his diocese, spending time as a hermit on Farne Island in between. On 20 March 687 he died and his body was eventually laid to rest in Durham. There are many stories about him. Here’s one that illustrates his kindly nature and his care to teach others to share what you...

An act of kindness can be something simple, like an act of courtesy. This morning I went on an adventure. Well, it felt adventurous. I entered a supermarket to do some shopping for the first time since December. It was a relief to find I'd not forgotten the behaviour protocols for Covid risk reduction. I'm grateful that other masked early morning shoppers were careful to observe the 2-metre apart distance rule. How strange that the kindess of courtesy now includes keeping physically distanced from other people. The highlight of today's supermarket trip was provided by the young man working the checkout till. The staff in that particular place are always courteous, but he seemed especially so, going the extra mile in what he said to me and how he looked at me. Even though he was masked, the smile on his face was obvious by his eyes. I give him full marks for courtesy, because today his courteous behaviour felt like a kindness, a lovely gift just for me. That young man's ...

Can dogs be kind? In my Lent series on the theme of kindness, I thought of entitling this post, 'Kindness of Dogs'. I decided that might be an anthropomorphic step too far. My experience of dogs is that they seem to be kinder than cats. If you are a cat lover you may disagree. I think that in a sense dogs can be kind. There are so many examples of loyal dogs doing good things for their owners, being faithful companions. I called this post 'Kindness through dogs' because people can find kindness through dogs, even if that was not the dogs altruistic intention. Going back to my childhood, when I felt miserable there was always comfort to be found in stroking the family dog. Like most dogs our mongrel was sensitive to human moods or sickness. When our children were growing up, our pet labrador was there for any of us not feeling our best. Kindness can be spread through posting images of dogs on social media. During lockdown I have enjoyed seeing photos and videos of the do...

  During Lent, I've decided to post as often as I can about kindness. (See my post of yesterday, Ash Wednesday 2021 .) So today I'm starting with an early memory of how someone was kind to me. It involved plums and plum stones. I was about 4 years old and attending a kindergarten school. Usually I went home for lunch. The day of my plum stone memory was, I believe, the first day that I had lunch at school. It was a hot meal cooked in the school kitchen. The dessert that day was stewed plums. I ate one. It tasted good, but it contained the plum seed, hard as stone. What was I supposed to do with the plum stone? At home I'd been taught to spit the plum stone into my spoon and place the stone on the rim of the pudding bowl. My immediate problem on that 1st day of staying for school lunch was that the school bowls had no rims. My longer term problem was that I was then a rather shy little girl. I didn't dare ask what I should do with the stone. I knew I shouldn't put it...

  Ash Wednesday feels very different this year. In the UK we are several weeks into another lockdown due to Covid and expect several weeks more. Last year, just before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, someone asked me if I planned to give anything up for Lent. My answer was that I hadn't yet decided, but had a feeling that "something would emerge". I didn't in 2020 make any decision about giving something up. In the end, at the start of the 4th week of Lent our 1st lockdown began and that included closing all public worship where people physically gathered together. So what I eventually gave up was 'going to church' for the rest of Lent and many weeks afterwards. I  didn't give up church, just the regular habit of going to a church building to worship with others - at least temporarily. Church is a community of Christian believers. Those local communities have continued to worship, pray and care for others throughout the pandemic in all sorts of cr...

Life tends to throw up the unexpected. People like me who like to plan ahead don't always find this easy. At the start of Lent I intended to blog daily with posts about ordinary things for which I was thankful. If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know I have failed to fulfill this intention and thankfulness posts have become sporadic. As someone once said, "if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans". During this Lent there have been several unforeseen events in my life. There have been some days when I haven't felt thankful at all. The last 10 days have been the most difficult. It's also been a time when I have noticed more things to be thankful for but have not had the energy to write any posts. On 11 March my very elderly mother fell and broke her hip. I dropped everything I was committed to do and went with my husband to snow-bound Kent.  What followed is not something I want to share here - or at least not now.  Instead, here...

Kindness is the focus for today's prayer for the General Synod of the Church of England meeting in London next Monday to Wednesday. Let us pray for kindness among Christians  and that we may be humble enough  to receive as well as give. "Give and it will be given to you". Luke 6: 38 "...be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:32 NRSV "As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience." Colossians 3: 12 NRSV This is the 5th day of the  NovemberNovena  days of prayer for the Church of England General Synod. Prayer for General Synod: love and joy  covered the first 2 days Prayer for General Synod: peace was the 3rd day Prayer for General Synod: patience was the 4th day Image Credits: Realistic Imaginations, CC License NovemberNovena candle icon , used with permission ...