I have never wanted this blog to just be a record of "first I did this, then I did that" but for my own interest, if not for anyone else's, I thought there could be something to be said for capturing, at a certain moment in time, a little of what life looks like. I don't think that I could entirely say I have any such thing as a typical week so I guess this one is as good as any other (incidentally this is attempt number 3 at this recently having got distracted mid week on the two previous occasions!)
Sunday: Even by my standards the previous week to this was exceptionally busy so by today I had hit the point of borderline overwhelmed and really quite tired! But I didn't have to be up particularly early ... just with enough time to plan and prep what to do with junior church, before leading it. Decided it was high time to get the paints out having not done so for a few weeks. I was a little bit caught between a long jobs list and needing a rest but actually ended up doing neither very well as I was relatively unproductive so probably should have just switched off. I did manage to pop out and enjoy at least a little bit of sunshine, and buy a couple of gifts I wanted to get for people. It was also my turn to cook ... turns out I can confirm eggs are fine a long way past their sell-by date! Plus I finished first in the diamond league (it's a Duolingo thing) ... I still can't speak Arabic, obviously, but maybe there's glimmers of a tiny bit of progress.
Monday: We restarted public, livestreamed morning prayer today after the long summer break. I have done morning prayer on my own relatively often but not entirely consistently through the summer, but I am grateful for the return of this structure to my days and the feeling of being connected with others as we pray together. Quite a lot of variety in the rest of my day including a long chat with a colleague, meeting up, separately, with two members of the stories group to offer support and encouragement in two very different situations, one online meeting and a very brief visit to my old haunt St Chad's Sanctuary. Then this evening I started the breadcrumbs challenge, an online art programme which I first did at a similar time last year. It's an exploration of ideas and making connections between life and art rather than a technical skills course and it's interesting to reflect on the ways in which I am in a different place to last time round.
Tuesday: In one of my roles I support newly arrived asylum-seeking families with children: consistently one of their very first questions and concerns is how to get their children into school. Today I spend most of the morning helping a small number of little people register for school places, find school uniform and sort everything so that tomorrow they can begin. I came home with my heart warmed by the gestures of welcome I saw offered and the great joy it gave. In more mundane news, between other odds and end, in a rare moment of advanced organisation I remembered to go the market today ahead of being on the cooking rota for tomorrow (top tip: Birmingham outdoor market has far fewer stalls on Wednesdays than other days of the week) In the background, even though I think it was the right decision for me not to be there this time, I was aware of and thankful for the many people of faith, including a number of friends, who were praying and protesting outside the DSEi Arms Fair in London.
Wednesday: I got on my bike straight after morning prayer today: I was off to a supervision meeting, but it was also nice to not just be sitting straight down in front of a screen first thing. As well as my existing role running the family activities, I have recently taken over as hosting coordinator at Birch so there was lots to talk about and plans to make. Although I'm aware of the many things I still have to learn, I'm excited about the possibilities to build and grow. From there I was straight into an online meeting before cycling home, having beans on toast for lunch and then settling down for what turned out to be a very productive afternoon: various jobs ticked off, a number of overdue emails sent (and some timely ones), another poetry book put into the post, and a risk assessment finally written.
Thursday: Today's morning zoom meeting was to launch the planning for pray24brum 2022, and it was good to be together, albeit virtually, with this little group of people once more. Like every year, I find myself wondering if I have the time energy and capacity to help make it happen, and, like every year, I know on the day itself I will recall why I did prioritise it just enough to say yes to continuing to be involved. Some other odds and ends and a couple of calls meant I was slightly later than planned setting off for the afternoon. When I first started working for Birch in early 2020, it was to restart the family activities for parents and children living in hostels: I think we managed three sessions before lockdown rudely interrupted. This summer we have been meeting again, but today was a significant moment as we finally returned to running the sessions in the hall we walked away from 18 months ago little knowing it would be so long before we were back. The numbers were small but the needs are significant: the heartbreak of hearing the struggles of their experiences and the joy of seeing them enjoying the space and appreciating the support go hand in hand: we overran the allotted time, and even after that there was some chatting in the hostel car park before I finally headed home. After dropping my bike back I went out almost immediately to head over to very good friends for dinner, from where I (just) made the last train home.
Friday: When I branched out on my own to set up Stories of Hope and Home, one of the needs I recognised was having someone to meet with, to talk to, to assist with processing and prioritising, to be a listening ear, a voice of wisdom, a repository for the stories I carry. Luckily, the person I asked was willing, and this morning's first activity was a cycle out to meet her. From there I went directly to try and help a young person enrol in college and watched first the hope, then the heart-break, as this highly articulate, incredibly motivated youngster was told she hadn't been in the country long enough to access the education she was so single-minded about pursuing. She wept, I managed not to. It was a day of bouncing (well biking) directly from one thing to the next, because from there it was straight into our Friday afternoon Stories group session. I did have a vague plan, but in the end we sat, we chatted, we laughed, we drank tea, we ate the most amazing cheesecake, and just like that it was 5pm. I picked up the post on my way upstairs and was touched and delighted to find myself in possession of a beautiful handwritten card from a friend.
Saturday: Popped out first thing to get some ingredients for dinner (even if the city centre isn't quite back to pre-pandemic busy-ness levels, before 10am is the only sensible time to shop on a Saturday). Even without that reasoning, I needed to be back in time to go swimming with very dear friends of mine: cue three very, very excited children and a whole lot of fun! It was then a quick turn around to be back out, on my bike, to go and meet potential new Birch hosts. Between swimming and cycling, I definitely reached this evening feeling the right kind of tired, but still enjoyed catching up on zoom with another friend and hearing all about the excitement of a first week at university.
And just like that, we reach the end of another week. Of course in between there's all the little bits and bobs which seem scarcely worthy of a mention but which actually matter quite a lot, but hopefully these edited highlights capture for posterity something of life right now.
