January Blue

 Going to see a spiritual director has been so helpful to me so far.  I've had counselling before and this is not that - but a wide ranging conversation with God in mind and a lot of shared laughter.  Michelle Obama is also an excellent read, but the battered little blue book on the table is on loan from Kathy the director.  We talked about prayer - wanting so much to spend time with God and not having the words.  And how praying "patterns" such as the Lords prayer have been helpful in times such as the recent asthma flare when I just couldn't pray at all.  Doesn't surprise me - I am the daughter of a man who eats cornflakes for breakfast every single morning!  And each workday I start with a cup of tea before ploughing through the time sheets/delivery notes/despatch note and moving on to the days work schedule spreadsheet.  Planning, routine.  So "Time to Pray" is Anglican morning prayer lite.  I'm loving it - when I feel awake and alert, I can add my own words and thoughts but at silly O'clock in January/February darkness, I can read it aloud and make the words count with a simple intention that I am praying them.  My dear "honourary aunty" said the format left her cold but I so appreciate being able to pray longer than 5 minutes.  I remember some of the prayers from the dim and distant past when sent to church at school, when none of it made any sense.  Repetition seems good to me and I find I am actually wanting to sit and reflect.

This arrived the other day.  I am amazed how many miles I have clocked up despite having been ridiculously poorly for most of the start of January.  75 miles.  It's my last race at your pace medal this year, as I'm putting the cash I'd spend towards a walking break in the Gower in October.  More wet and windy Wales. I discovered that I average 5 miles a day at work, just walking up and down the factory, up and down the stairs to the project management office and back down to the hobbit hole which is where I work, with my whiteboard of despatch schedules and desk full of order files and men's holiday requests.  Lots of these. It's cold in the factory.
I have met a couple of the guys outside of work, in costa, in Tesco and it's so nice to see them in ordinary clothes instead of layers of fleeces, woolly hats and overalls.  I think our boss should work downstairs for a season as it cannot be right or just to have no heating and it is most definitely illegal under the factories act.