2010:365:51 Getting harder to think ...

What do you do when you're right out of inspiration?  

Finding the photograph for the 365Project theme "Sign of the Times" was easy enough.  Since last Christmas this little message has been hanging around the kitchen (another gift from friends who know me well).  

This is a room that reflects how busy, or preoccupied, I am.  Some days it is no problem to put everything away in its place and keep the surfaces free from clutter.  At other times the shopping is piled up here, things to be sorted are dumped there and everywhere is chaos.

At the minute we're somewhere between very tidy and the beginning of mess.  Today's groceries are almost all put away but the cotton bags have been left on the counters.  Since the dishwasher is empty there are no dirty pots and pans around but some empty packets are waiting to be sent to recycling.  Was life easier before we had to sort out the brown bin from the blue bin and make sure that the black bin didn't receive the glass which has to go to a separate collection point?  

I suppose if we care for the world at all then everyone has a part to play in trying to preserve the environment and to engage in reducing waste and in reusing and recycling.  It was easy for me to change to longer lasting carrier bags made from cotton or hessian instead of plastic and I try to have some of them in the car wherever I go.  And yes, I suppose I've adapted to the different bins (although I don't always remember to leave whichever one out for collection).  From time to time I even take the glass to recycling.  

So what am I complaining about?

Nothing really.  Just rambling; and remembering when bins were collected every week and when they were taken back into your garden and not abandoned on the footpath.  But hey!  We live in a great country where bins ARE collected and where we don't have to worry about what to do with rubbish.  AND.  We do have rubbish - which means we had "stuff" to begin with.  A lot of STUFF.  Perhaps too much STUFF.  

Are we thankful for what we have - or is there always an hankering after things we don't have and complaints about the little irritations of life.

This is Lent.  It is a good time to work on keeping our focus on things that are important!

... In your great love you gave him (Jesus)

to be made man for us and to share our common life.

He was tempted in every way as we are,

yet he did not sin;

and he gives us strength to control our desires,

and to walk in his way of love. .... 

Book of Common Prayer

From the Second Eucharistic Prayer