The star-crowned glory
of the fallen fair,
the fairly thrown down
thralls of princely hue,
the flaring brightness
shadowed, shadowing the sun,
the circling oneness
shattered, fallen, dulled.

And so, continuing
in procession, proceeding
out of preceding plenty
squandered, abandoned, spent;
proceeding piteously, painfully
encountering the day
with bleeding colours blackened,
beauty battered and bruised.

And then, the star-crowned
glory of the chosen, now
the freely broken beauty
of that brightening sun;
embattled, burning up with
yearning for the dawn
of life, encompassed with
encircling death.

And now, the frozen field
of fallen finds itself fractured,
feels itself opened by a probing
touch of light now rising,
blazing earth’s frigidity
into startled fecundity,
questioning, pushing the seed
to the brink.

Edith Schaeffer on life

"The thing about real life is that important events don't announce themselves. Trumpets don't blow, drums don't beat to let you know you are going to meet the most important person you've ever met, or read the most important thing you are ever going to read, or have the most important conversation you are ever going to have, or spend the most important week you are ever going to spend. Usually something that is going to change your whole life is a memory before you can stop and be impressed about it. You don't usually have a chance to get excited about that sort of thing ... ahead of time!"

(Edith Schaeffer, L'Abri (The Norfolk Press, 1969), p.53.)

goodbyes & hellos

Cambridge had its goodbyes, including a party for Tessa's birthday and lunch at the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is a good place for an elegant snack. It seemed a shame that, due to our course timing, our MPhil group drifted away in ones and twos rather than going out with a bang, but it was nice to see those we saw.


Back in sunny Sleaford, it has been decided that I ought to learn how to cook, so I have been cooking for the family every night for the past week. Although I have to allow for triple the preparation time suggested in the recipe, things have turned out fairly well so far. My repertoire includes prawn pilau rice and ratatouille chicken.

Last Saturday we went to an ecofriendly house somewhere, which was open to the public for the day. This was a fascinating experience, the house having solar heating, earth banks supporting the walls and extensive grounds. Some of the more interesting technical details escape my memory.

We had a goodbye party on Thursday for two girls from church going off to university.

On Saturday night my sister Lizzy suggested watching a DVD she bought for 99p. The film, I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore, about a Italian-American graduate student who dates an obese male for the sake of her research, was surprisingly engaging, though one might need to be in the mood for 1980s-style cheese (though my research tells me it's actually from 1992). During this film my sister made some colourful cards for varied occasions.


Yesterday at church we had a guest preacher, Steve Melnichuk from Next Level International, a missions organisation involved in training leaders to plant churches in central and eastern Europe. NLI has taken my sisters and parents on trips to Ukraine. Afterwards my family took the Melnichuks (Steve & Michelle, Alexa, Shayelle and Isaak) out for lunch at a restaurant near an old watermill. Steve and Michelle are from Canada but with Ukrainian ancestry and have travelled around quite a bit so conversation was wide-ranging. Grinding flour in the mill was quite fun too, especially for the children.

Today I helped out with a parent and toddler group, helping with carrying things, clearing toys (from around children’s feet) and collecting cash (from mums and childminders). Our takings were £8.50 above what they should have been given the number of people and the most likely explanation seems to be that I didn’t give someone change from a £10 note. Whoops!

resurfacing

Well.

I've now handed in my MPhil dissertation and, having been home for a week, am loitering in Cambridge for a few days to tie up loose ends.



I was locked in the library for most of the summer, but they did let me out to play occasionally. This gave me the opportunity to fall in the river clutching a punt pole. I went right under for a few seconds and managed to keep hold of the pole underwater and when I surfaced. I did find it was hard to swim back to the punt with one arm while holding onto the pole with the other arm. I also went to an Alice in Wonderland unbirthday party, ably organised by Caro, wearing rabbit ears.

Another nice break from work was Tim and Rachel's wedding, after which they were punted to their reception by the best man Chris. The more amusing part of the proceedings was that the photographer was in a punt behind which had to keep up.

Over the bank holiday weekend I went to the Grapevine Christian conference on the Lincolnshire Showground. Wow (12,000 people with some pretty good teaching and music of varying styles and personalities). Two of my sisters were playing in the orchestra. I lasted one night camping and settled down to the daily shuttle run by car.

On Friday I managed to set off the fire alarm by burning an omelette. After the excitement was over, I ended up having a 2 pm brunch of cold burnt omelette with golden syrup.

I'm still waiting for my MPhil result, but expect to return in October to begin a PhD. I will be living in Link House, a big house for international postgrads, as a token useful British resident.

VLADIMIR: That passed the time.
ESTRAGON: It would have passed in any case.
VLADIMIR: Yes, but not so rapidly.

(Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot)

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is
today."
(Chinese proverb)