Au revoir not adieu

Today will be the last of my attempts at a daily blog as I now go on leave and sabbatical.  Because of the current situation plans have had to be changed. This will be true for most of us. When this happens we really have two basic choices; we can moan about our bad luck or we can make the most of it.  Sometimes when we have to change what we do then new opportunities arise.  Having to stay at home has meant I have spent more time looking out of the window noticing the birds in our garden, the blackbird is a regular visitor to the back steps. Having to use multimedia more, I have worked out how to record a video of myself and convert one type of file to another, not to mention discovering zoom and the like. Even in difficult times we can not just make the best of things but also find better things to do.

So what will I be doing? Much of the time will be used to do some study on the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.  As I cannot travel physically anywhere I have decided to travel instead through reading the books of George Orwell. So I will start "Down and Out in Paris and London" , then travel over to Burma in "Burmese Days". After travelling "The Road to Wigan Pier" I will take in the sun in Spain paying my "Homage to Catalonia". On the journey I will try to read as many of the other books as possible 1984 being a must.

As this blogging session ends I would like to thank my friend John Shaw for his suggestion to do some type of video for Sundays and all the help he has given to make it happen, it would not have without him. Also to Lindsay my wife for photos and ideas for what to include.

It is not adieu because I intend to do a weekly update each Friday of what I have been doing on sabbatical. So if you are interested do please have a look.

Thank you for following in these weeks since the lockdown was announced. I hope you have enjoyed it and found it helpful. We have made it to Easter and we can now take that hope of Easter with us as we journey on.

I leave you with the prayer that Reinhold Niebuhr is perhaps best known for:

God give us grace to accept with serenity things that cannot be changed,

courage to change the things that should be changed,

and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.