Over at revgals Kathyrnjz is talking about life saving or life giving moments... she shares some thoughts and then challenges us to think about:
1) Your lifesaving food/beverage.
I have to say hot tea- I am horrible in the morning without at least two good mugs of tea, a dash of milk and no sugar... once I have had that I can cope with the day...until then, watch out!
2) Your lifesaving article of clothing.
My slippers, I HATE having cold feet, if my feet are cold I am cold, so I can't cope without a comfy pair of slippers!
3) Your lifesaving movie/book/tv show/music.
A prayer by Nicola Slee posted for me by my friend Mike a few years ago now at a time when I needed to be angry with God. It has been something I have returned to again and again.
Rage ricochets off the empty cloister walls,
anger erupts at the altar.
The silence palls.
My serene piety falters and crumbles.
My lips mouth the prayers
but my heart lurches and stumbles
on the edge of this gaping pit
into which my cries have fallen.
I will storm this silence
not with praise but with venom.
I will blast this emptiness
not with patience but with anger.
My mantra is not "mercy"
but a cacophony of curses
hurled headlong at your distance,
spat in the face of your absence.
Show yourself!
Answer me!
I am sick of your silence,
I have had my fill of you hiddenness,
I am faint with the worry of waiting
on your word which never comes.
Have you not seen my pain?
Have you not heard
the anguish of my heart?
How can you stand far off
and watch me writhing and straining for you
with my bleary, tear-filled eyes,
crying for you with my dry and weary throat?
Why do you gloat from afar?
Will you not come?
Will you not show yourself?
Answer me!
As for music, there is always Bach... and then there is this:
4) Your lifesaving friend.
There are so many, but my best and most consistent life saving friend is my husband Tim, he has saved me from myself again and again!
Tim at Flamborough Head where we walked for hours the weekend my mum died.
5) Your lifesaving moment.
A moment during a communion service where I was assisting. It happened during my training, on a morning when I was about to throw the whole thing in and walk away. I had forgotten that I was assisting until I got there, but as I served my friends from the chalice one of them looked me straight in the eyes, and I knew then that everything would be OK.
It was a life saving and life giving moment, a moment of grace that will always stay with me.