The branch of an almond tree

Jeremiah 1:11-19

What do I see? Not the branch of an almond tree.

Today I see my ordinary everyday life, nothing extraordinary. A few cars and lorries passing by the window, the sun warming the grass, the melting frost, twigs bulging with budding foliage, the cliff with last year's brambles, there is nothing unusual or special today. Just life.

I do not see the gentle man at the monastery where I go to buy beer and jams made at a neighbouring abbey. I am told the beer is good. I know the bramble jam, the rhubarb and apricot is good and the apricot is the best I have ever tasted. I do not see Bob Felice but I remember his comments about laundry frozen on the washing line- frozen washing gives me a kick too.

The cliff is not at the coast, we do not have an ocean for a garden but the sedimentary rocks of Ittre resemble those of the Pembrokeshire coast. Those rocks which are battered daily by the mighty Atlantic. We have spent many hours as a family walking the beaches and cliff paths, marveling at creation.

I see golden forsythia, everyone except me has a forsythia bush. I wonder if Lee Jackson still has the one which I gave him?

A small amount of scree transports me to the majestic hills of the English Lake District and the mighty Rocky Mountains.

Sometimes a fence will remind me of a barrier between God and I but today nothing special, just the ordinary things bringing to mind the extra ordinary life that God gives us.