91福利社

From the Reverend Kate Bottley:

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It seems that the heatwave might finally have broken. And for me it鈥檚 not a moment too soon. With my ginger hair and pale hue, the blazing hot sun and record temperatures are no friend of mine. Although that doesn鈥檛 mean that during the last few weeks there hasn鈥檛 been fun to be had, I鈥檝e loved sitting in the sunshine at tea time, paddling in the river and resting on a wall with an ice lolly on my way home from work.

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But last Thursday the clouds gathered over Retford, there was a rumble of thunder and the heavens opened. I was up to my elbows in something and so Graham was deployed into the garden to get the washing in. Moments later I heard him shouting my name from the patio, I dashed out thinking he needed an extra hand, only to find him in just his pants dancing in the deluge, not one to be out done and much to the dismay of our two teenagers, I decided to join him, and for the five minutes that it bounced it down we raved in the rain, sambaed in the storm and generally made fools of ourselves. Even the neighbours leaned out of their windows for a better look.听 It was utterly joyous.

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There鈥檚 a saying that goes 鈥榗arpe diem鈥�, you鈥檝e probably heard it, it means seize the day, in Latin, I prefer the biblical equivalent, well I would wouldn鈥檛 I, from the Psalms, 鈥楾his is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.鈥� Not, you鈥檒l note, let鈥檚 be joyful when things are going right and according to plan, but an encouragement to try and find joy every day, seeing each 24 hours as a never to be repeated gift. I know there鈥檚 always going to be clouds and rain just over the horizon but it鈥檚 up to me to choose how I face the storm.

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And so, whatever the weather does over the next few days, and whatever life throws at us whether it鈥檚 sunshine or showers me and Mr Bottley are completely prepared to party in the precipitation, to disco in the drizzle and to tango in the torrent so much so in fact that we鈥檙e keeping our swimming cosies by the back door, just in case.

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