Retreat

This post will have most valency for those who know me personally. For the rest of you, you will have to trust me when I say that I am a little 'in yer face', no - really! I seem to have boundless energy, a healthy sense of fun, have been described as comedically quick, and rarely stand still for long. One the whole, I must be knackering to watch, but all of the above serves me well when I visit the school.

I survive on batteries, like anyone, that require a routine recharge. My energies, despite appearance, are not boundless - they are really rather bounded. I do flag eventually - and then what?

I retreat into myself. I love space and quiet, and even with the love that I have for my wife and beautiful children, I seek space from them too. The missus is the same, so that is helpful. 

This all said, I am energised by being among others - but only in the way that an 'override button' delivers a few percent extra to whatever is taking place. I am energised by Presiding over the Eucharist, by meetings (sometimes), social gatherings and so on. The thing with that 'override button' is that it drains me faster. After a exhilerating Eucharist (is there any other sort?) I am exhausted - physically and emotionally. I am discovering therefore, that I have to find things to do on Sunday afternoons, for example, that grant me inner space and quiet. I have a very clear sense that we all have a 'spiritual room' (cf Henri Nouwen), and it is to that place where I retreat. This may even be in the context of family life, with the kids by my side hollering at one another - so I dig flowerbeds, mow lawns, I vacuum, I cook food. I find inner peace and solitude there - well, at least the sort that allows me to recharge. Once I am lost in my thoughts I am seeing the dial rise once again towards 'full'.

I am not sure where I want to go with this post - the contents have been growing in my mind all the day (and seventy seedlings later). The England caught in the raptures of World Cup fever feels a little like the inside of my head at times; while the country watches its team avidly and the noise of the cheering echoes around, the silence on the streets is palpable. The increase in clamour and noise brings with a clear growth in silence elsewhere. One exists with the other.

What charges your batteries? What drains them most rapidly?

I Was Wrong

I read with interest Seeker's post on  the World Cup 2010. I, like her, am not a footballist, and for the life of me do not understand the attraction of kicking the spleen of a badger around a lawn with lines on it. Still, all the rage it seems to be, and I know this even beyond the electrification of my televisual device - I only have to look at the myriad flags that are festooned over the estate-Mercs and people-carriers of the nation.

We are in the throes of World Cup Fever. Yay.

Despite my inexorable and overpowering need to 'tut' and moan, I sense that this is a good time. If we forget for a moment that millions of people are now displaying the Christian symbol on their cars, quite unintentionally, I cast my mind back to an earlier post on identity where I grumbled about people not standing true to their own. What I am seeing is a nation of people who, for a couple of weeks at least, will probably put aside much that is unhelpful in our society, climb behind the Cross of St George and celebrate who they regard themselves to be - celebrate it in a healthy and positive way at that. I have heard it said that people can become united behind a common foe - and it now seems that people can become united behind a common hope.

No, I am not a footballist (except for the the bit after the semi finals when I too will watch avidly), and I am the first to bang on about ITV hijacking of my weekday evening TV viewing in favour of those who are 'Football United' - but for now, I am going to end a post glad. I am glad of this opportunity that we have to celebrate who were are, have some fun doing it, release some of that pent up frustration and agression, and glad that we are a nation who can stand up and claim unity, every once in a while. 

Is now a good time to confess that I support Honduras?

...only joking.

Worth following: Karen Gorham's Blog - as she follows the World Cup from South Africa