advent2020

 For those of you interested in the process of listening to God here's how I landed on thinking about names.   Ive recently been childminding a little boy called Lewis.  He is 7.  He lives a couple of doors down from us and is the eldest of three.  His Mum and Dad have both been trying to work from home since March and were struggling to do the homeschooling thing so I offered to help out.  Ive been doing his homework with him and generally hanging out and having fun.  Lewis and I are best pals and he will no doubt feature in these blogs as we go along as he is about the only person outside my family Ive seen for months  😁    Anyhow, it comes to thinking about Christmas and I decided Id quite like to get him a wee something with his name on it.  You know, a mug or a keyring or something.  You'd think that would be quite  straightforward wouldnt you?  But no, apparently Lewis isnt a common enough name to feature ...

 When I moved to Northern Ireland from Scotland 20 years ago I was not prepared for the stress I would feel on encountering so many names I'd never heard before.  Worse than that, names I had not the foggiest idea how to pronounce.  Working with small children over the past two decades Ive met lot of Cairrai's and Saoirse's and Eoin's and Fiadh's as well as children who have ' ordinary names' spelled in unusual ways ( Aimee, Hollie, Robyn, Darragh etc)  It is very very disconcerting indeed to look at a child's name badge and not know how to pronounce their name.  Or to be writing out a name and have a parent correct your spelling of it.  Our names are something so fundamental to our very existence - we all have one, we all have an opinion about the one we have, we all feel the weight of responsibility in naming our children or pets or even our houses.  Names are important. They are our very first point of contact with people.  Right back at the ve...

  If this is your first time joining us on our jolly jaunt through Advent you are so very welcome and thank you.  If you have been reading these for the past nine years ( can you believe it??!!) then your long service medal is in the post 😇 Im going to try really hard to steer clear of the Covid word in the coming weeks.  We've all had enough of it already, and the whole point of these pages is to focus our eyes on the things that are above. So if you see me straying into virus territory please feel free to give me a nudge and get me back on track 😁 This post is just going to be a small insight into what to expect and what is going through my mind today as I launch into another season of listening to God and trying to communicate what I think He is saying to me.  Its terrifying actually.  All this week Ive been gearing myself up to face the very real pressure of coming up with something significant/entertaining/insightful to share each day.  Because I kno...