Hello lovely people. Welcome to this week’s edition of Coffee in the Back Room. How are you all doing? Enjoying the warmer weather, I hope, as here in England we’re finally being gifted something which looks a little more like summer. Many months ago I wrote about my compulsion for collecting natural trinkets whenever I’m out on walks. This gorgeous feather is a recent find, spotted by Leo the other day and given to me because he knew I’d find it precious. Back at the start of the year, on very bad days, during dog walks I’d spend ten minutes sitting on a log in the woods near my house. I’ve been walking in these woods since forever, as I grew up near them and played there when I was a kid. At one time, I used to walk my children to school through these woods, so they’ve been a daily geographical feature of my life. Until this year I’d never sat so still before and that’s probably why I’d never encountered a blue tit. I started to notice whole groups of them, cute little balls of fluffy blue and yellow feathers zooming from tree to tree. I took to going to that same spot every day to watch them, and tried to (unsuccessfully!) take video footage of them pottering about in the blackberry bushes and hawthorn trees. As the weather grew warmer, I stopped noticing them. Maybe the foliage became too dense to see? I don’t know, since clearly I am no ornithologist. But I found their presence an unexpected and precious gift from God, during an otherwise bleak and distressing time. I’ve talked a little about trauma therapy, and one of the things I’ve been working on is something called worry time. The idea is that instead of ruminating hopelessly and obsessively about the trauma all day long, you choose one time in the day to deliberately talk and reflect on it. Since the weather warmed up, that time for me is my evening walk with Leo and Mr Bozzle. The other night I was feeling very upset and angry, and just so hopeless, and that was when Leo found this feather. I’ve never found a blue tit feather before. I took it as a timely reminder from God that he values me deeply, even when some people don’t. There is no worry time in the presence of God.
Now: On with the newsletter!