Midweek Musings

Dear All

One thing I am really missing in this lockdown is being able to go to the sea.  I love the sea and inherited that from my father, who was a sailor, and my mother.  My mother grew up in the East End of London and was very much a city person, but she loved the sea.  

When we first moved to Taunton, when I was six, she missed London hugely but the compensation for her was being able to get to the sea.  So every Saturday (and sometimes Sunday after church) in Summer we would pack up the car and head for Sidmouth, Lyme Regis, Minehead or further afield to West Bay or further along the Dorset coast.  My mother always swam in the sea whatever the weather and taught me to be fearless of big waves!

So I have really missed the opportunity to get to the coast.  

Saturday is the feast of St Brendan, the great Irish saint and monk who was best known for his amazing sea voyages.  He and some fellow monks headed out in coracles across the ocean and probably reached Orkney, Shetland and Iceland.  Some scholars claim that he actually reached North America!   Brendan wrote a factual account of his voyages, but also saw them as metaphors for facing the storms and dangers on the ocean of life - all in our small boats - but being held always by God.

I share this lovely reflection that I found on the Northumbria Community website:

Many a ship has sailed from port to port

with no interference from Me,

because Strong Will has been at the wheel.

Multitudes of pleasure cruises

go merrily on their ways,

untouched by the power of My hand.

But you have put your life into My keeping,

and because you are

depending on Me for guidance and direction,

I shall give it.

Move on steadily,

and know that the waters that carry you

are the waters of My love and My kindness,

and I will keep you on the right course.

Blessings to you all.

Ann 

--

Rev'd Ann Kember

Rector of St Mary's Chard, St Nicholas Combe, St Mary's Wambrook and St Andrew's, Whitestaunton

01460 351521

07490 236179