Being honest with myself is perhaps what I need to work harder on. I turned 50 on my last birthday and this has been a significant event for me. Life still has all sorts of adventures to offer and yet I can only reach out and enjoy these if I am
realistic about what I can and cannot do. (If I choose to train for the Great North run, I can do, but I doubt that I will come in first!) I also need to really decide what I really want to do. (probably not train for the Great North Run!)
What does it mean to be fully honest with ourselves and with God? Acknowledging all our good points, strengths, gifts and talents. Loving our bodies – we are each only given one. Acknowledging all our weaknesses, frailties, patterns of unhealthy behaviour. Once we have named and acknowledged all of these things, we can ask God what we are to do with them. How are we to use our gifts and our strengths to live well in God? How are we to be kind to ourselves in our weaknesses and avoid the situations that activate our own harmful behaviour?
Recently I have been rediscovering things that I used to love and had forgotten about. All through my childhood, I spent time on the Derbyshire moors. A couple of weekends
ago I drove up to Edinburgh through the Northumbrian countryside and rediscovered the beauty of that wild type of landscape. Now I plan to spend some time walking in those hills, recapturing that love of being in nature.
This week, let us try being honest to God and honest with ourselves – we are held in Divine Love, so we have nothing to lose.
God bless,
Cecilia