Beautiful sun today and a light snowfall just to remind us that winter has not yet left us behind. Snow into April is pretty common. Repotted the orchids and they are looking good. Still flowering and a couple of them are ten years old and more.
Today not a lot going on just catching up on a few things. Exercises all done and need to do the solitaire puzzles.
The most important day in the Christian Church year, Easter Sunday, the day that fulfilled God's Promise that His Son would rise again from death. But God, His Son and the Holy Spirit are the Trinity that is so much a part of the Christian Church. It is the Miracle around which the Disciples of Christ elevated to Apostles found the will and strength to create the Christian Church which has existed through more than 2000 years of Homo sapiens existence. When one goes to St Paul Outside the Wall in Rome and gazes upon the pictures of the Popes that are all around the walls on the inside, one gets this sense of continuity although there were times when the Church was fractured but always came back together and stronger. Although the Anglican Church (Church of England) was long ago excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, yet they continue in dialogue even to this day. Will they ever be one again? I have no idea really but the roots of the Church of England lie in the Celtic Christian Church first noted in the historical records at the Council of Arles in 314 with three British Bishops attending. The council called by Constantine following the Edict of Milan (313) when Christianity became a legal religion. Earlier information on the Christian Celtic Churches in the British Isles is mostly folklore handed down by word of mouth generation after generation. My grandfather greatly believed that Joseph of Arimathea brought Christianity to England not long after the Resurrection of Our Lord and when we were at Glastonbury the stories that my grandfather told to me were once again brought to my attention and I was amazed at how the story that I had learned as a child was once again in pretty much the same words learned by me at that visit. The art of passing information through families in those ancient times and even up into the latter part of the 1800s was very efficient.
Although the Anglican Church was long ago excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope remains in my mind and heart the head of the Christian Church on Earth. What God has wrought can not be put asunder - the Pope, to my mind, will always be the head of the Christian Church on Earth.
It was in the Tomb that Joseph of Arimathea had built for himself that Jesus was buried. Joseph was a wealthy Jew who regularly visited Cornwall to purchase tin. It is said that Joseph (said to be the uncle of Mary the mother of Jesus Christ) brought Christianity to Britain having been sent there by St Philip (Apostle and Disciples of Jesus Christ). He was also said to have brought the Holy Grail to England and hid it in a well at Glastonbury (the Chalice Well). All of this I learned as a child and as we wandered about on our tour the feeling of being on Holy Ground was very much in my mind to be honest. This trip, like my pilgrimage to Rome in 2001, was a fulfillment of a childhood desire to go and be there including my grandfather's home town of Upper Clatford which I also went to as well as the Church of All Saints also in Upper Clatford. Standing beside the font felt like a trip home to where my grandfather was baptized.
Once I had done all of these things and the first two trips I made to Europe concluded that dream I must admit to losing the desire to continue going back but my husband found his wings across the ocean on that first trip to England with me and from then on it was he who led the way for all those trips later. Interesting really in retrospect.
Church a little later and a few things to do first. Prayers for the World as always; may peace come to our world. Prayers for Artemis II as they continue their path to the moon.
The Easter weekend continues and it is Holy Saturday although when I was a child we called it Black Saturday. The Second World War perhaps gave more thought to calling it Black Saturday. It was a day of contemplation in silence mostly but we know the answer that on Sunday just 24 hours away we would celebrate as Christians have for two thousand years and more the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But on Saturday it is always a day of contemplation of waiting holding onto that promise that Jesus made that He would rise again from death's grip because it was God's promise. Life changed between those two days more than two thousand years ago for a group of people in the Holy Land as they took on the mantle of Jesus Christ and built His Church still active around the world all these centuries later (our new Pope has given us his words of wisdom on this blessed weekend and there will be more tomorrow). Throughout my life though we have changed here and there accepting God's new commandments which will lead us to that peaceful uplifted plain where all are free and we are at peace taking care of this beautiful world and helping it to heal so that all the children's children's children can run on the soft sandy beaches and swim in the fresh or sea water just as we did as children.
Yesterday was a busy day in some ways but also a quiet day; I did attend the Good Friday Service at my Church on YouTube. The music was, as always, quite beautiful. The symbolism unchanged and yet modern to my eyes and our minds are all moving forward to Easter slowly but surely coming in less than 24 hours now. My Anglicanism does not change very much through this 80 years; its consistency is its strength. This Church, my Church, which goes back into the deep deep past of the British Isles with its roots in the Celtic Churches of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Thank you God for being with us all these thousands and thousands of years. The dawn of DNA and all those testers show me that my roots are very very deep in the British Isles but we are all Homo sapiens.
Next week I shall return to my work and complete the extraction of the matches. I need to have a look for Hinxman and its derivatives in my records and will set some time aside for that quest. I did not do a lot on Hinxman but did do some. It is a name that enters the Blake family way back in the early 1600s with the marriage of Elenor Blake to Joseph Hinxman at St Marys Andover.
A lot got done this past couple of weeks - nice to have the new drapes and the old blinds gone. Much easier to handle (they all wash in the washing machine). Anything that cuts down on the work load in a good way is a bonus. Contemplating moving but it will be a while before that happens I suspect. Not a rush but will be nice to just have the one floor (and the basement). This house is actually small enough but feels large because it has two floors and a basement and every nook and cranny of the building is used for rooms (a good engineering feat for sure and we have enjoyed our 48 years here). I never wanted to move; I did not have close family here and the desire to have more entertainment area just never appealed to me and eventually Edward lost his desire to have a bigger house in favour of his garden that he loved.
Prayers continuing for my eldest sister; I will send a letter every Sunday that her husband can read to her if he wishes. Life has become much smaller for her and we certainly just circled the wagons when Edward was no longer able to be part of anything larger than family. Once we were seven siblings and now we are four siblings and that is how life flows; I remember my grandmother saying that as she too was one of seven siblings although two of them (twin boys died as infants) were so little when they left that family and the next to pass away was her mother when she was eleven and her father when she was fourteen. The five of them were quickly gathered up and taken to the Marston Green Cottages at Soho (Birmingham, Warwickshire, England) where they lived a short time and slowly sent to Canada between 1905 and 1908 (although by then she was 20 and paid her own way coming with one of the groups to Halifax where she took over the care of her second youngest sister) and they all traveled to London, Ontario where her (until then) unknown half-sister lived and she had consented to take the youngest child into her home. The others all adults by the standards of the time found jobs and a new life. My second oldest aunt was the first of the five to pass away in her mid 60s (a blue baby at birth who survived all those years) and grandma said once there were seven and now we are four but she too passed away twelve years later followed by the only brother (second eldest) who had survived the First World War in France living to be 84 years of age, followed by the third eldest sister who passed away three years later. My mother was worried about her last aunt, the youngest, and so we (Edward, our one year old and myself) traveled to visit with her in that same year (1975). She was very like my grandmother (the eldest and the youngest in that family) and she was fine and loved it that we had brought our nearly year old daughter as she had had three sons and no daughters and was living on her own at that time. She too said once we were seven and now there is just me left. She lived another ten years but her son came and took her home to be with him which was wonderful and her letters told me of her happy life with her grand daughter (I have corresponded with her). What stories they sometimes would tell me of their life and one day perhaps I will write a book about the Buller family of Bermondsey, Surrey and Birmingham, Warwickshire. But as a child I never thought about being old and that we would become a smaller and smaller group this set of seven siblings. Life is a continuous happening and it is an amazing gift of God to Homo sapiens that we need to appreciate and care for and help bring us to that uplifted plain of peace. Where all can live in peace and the children can sleep without fear.
Another day for the trip around the moon and Jeffrey Hansen spoke this morning from the space capsule along with the rest of the crew. Canada's astronaut in Space; how marvelous that is.
Tea all drank and must do my solitaire puzzles.
This week has passed very quickly and today is Good Friday. A sad rainy day which befits this special day in Holy Week. As a child and as an adult I found this to be the day that I truly understood the loss of Jesus to the people of his time and place but what He left behind is the Christian Church and His eternal gifts to us that have passed to us down through the ages in our worship. Remembering always the two commandments which He brought to us - Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. The word love transcends the earthly meaning but perhaps it captures it perfectly - respect, consideration and dedication to peace so that all who dwell in this earth can have peace.
Yesterday was a food shopping day and all completed with three stops in all. We are ready for Easter Weekend. Sweet and sour chicken will be our dinner on Easter Sunday. Today we had pizza - a treat for a busy day along with a cabbage stir fry.
My blood test results for the Ontario Health Study came in and match last years results of my annual medical exactly actually. That works in my favour as consistency at my age is a good thing. My yearly checkup will be soon actually. The year has passed very quickly. I am pleased to be in the Ontario Health Study. When I saw the writeup I thought what a perfect idea given the number of people who are over 70 years of age now in Ontario - a great study group for sure. This opportunity was created by the Baby Boomers following the Second World War and commenced with the beginning of 1946. I was actually part of a very small group born after the war ended and before the Baby Boomers. We were labelled the quiet generation and we have proceeded through life ahead of the Baby Boomers but watching this enormous group behind us as they altered life for all of us by their huge numbers - their effect on the system measurable.
The Good Friday Service will be on YouTube at 12 noon today and always memories of Good Friday Services past flash through my mind. But perhaps most in my mind is my first Good Friday Service at my Anglican Church after the Church Secretary hired to replace me (I was a volunteer secretary) at Edward's United Church. I did feel it was somewhat inappropriate for me to attend my Church during this time of volunteerism so did not but after I was replaced I went to the early service regularly for a number of years until we started going to Dominion Chalmers in the latter part of the mid 1990s. Although I went thinking it would be good for Edward (and it was the minister took a few minutes every week and chatted with him which was very meaningful for Edward) since his brother had just passed away and his mother was not well and they were all of his birth family that he had known all of his life; the sermons of this very knowledgeable United Church Minister on the early Christian Fathers of the Church were absolutely excellent. It was a perfect United Church for me for sure very like the one that my Uncle (and his wife my Aunt) and Grandmother attended in my home town. I felt very much at home in that Church although when that minister retired a few years later (we were actually just going to go for a few weeks during this special set of sermons) we moved on to my Church (Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican) Ottawa) as Edward wanted to thank me for attending his United Church for the nearly twenty years that I had gone with him there. That did surprise me actually although Edward still returned to the local United Church for special services and the Ladies Group there prepared lunches for his Gene-O-Rama days that he organized through the years.
Going down memory lane is good for the soul I think as one sorts through one's life. The time to come is unknown but the time past is 80.5 years now and one needs to sort one's mind on occasion. I sort it best with my fingers on my keyboard as that is how I mostly speak. I am not a very communicable person in actual fact.
Amazing sometimes that I worked for so many years but I was well trained to do such things. It is the training that is placed on our children that will fit them for life. That is the task of our teachers more than anything else to teach them how to be managers along with all the tools of education that are now at their fingertips to pass on to children. They will need those skills because entry level will be AI and the skill of managing AI is what they must obtain through their education. I continue with my thought that no child should be accepted into kindergarten (including junior kindergarten) unless they speak the language in the classroom at the level of the children that are there. No teacher should have to catch up children who do not speak the language - they should be in a class where the skill of the used language is taught until they are ready to attend regular school - they waste a teacher's time. It is the responsibility of parent's to ensure that their children can communicate effectively at their age level when it is time to go to regular school.
AI becomes as effective as their managers and indeed one will not see a shrinking work force but rather a workforce which must manage an ever growing number of AI units in our lives. Children must see themselves as managers rather than as workers; AI will always need managers and as their duties increase so does the managerial level increase to ensure that all aspects of AI are controlled strictly and securely. People talking about a smaller workforce are scare mongers really and cause depression amongst our young people. The youth must continue to become as educated as they can manage so as to be that managerial level within our society that will be created by this entry level of AI into our lives. That is the way that AI can best be managed and the scare mongers need to contemplate what they are saying because they are not seeing the future as it will be where managers will have new jobs that we have never even thought about yet as this new methodology enters into the work force. If it isn't there then AI will be caught up in a very wasteful state as they will not be capable of intuitive and constructive thought but simply recall what is in their memory system (effective or ineffective) and they will not be capable of sorting and understanding the difference. One can sharpen this simply by learning but always the need for managerial level remains to keep the system efficient and prosperous especially so that AI is not caught up in a loop much like the loops of early programming in my day that cluttered up a computer program until it was located and fixed. Education is the key.
Off my soapbox and on to the day. Tea all drank and now solitaire puzzles.
I do love my routine although I can also readily change it if I need to do that; a loss of routine doesn't affect me very much. I always welcome Thursday though as it is my first day of work and today I need to do the Blake Newsletter - again it will be short as the book dominates my thoughts.
Holy Week and today is Maundy Thursday. I love all the services of this week and will watch what I can on YouTube. My sin of omission is always with me as I simply do not go to be with the Church community and at 80 that will not change. It took me a while to accept that but now I am there and it is the way that my life will flow from now on unless I happen to move and find a Church nearby and can fit myself into it.
Mostly I like my life without people that are not related to me. I can manage it very well and I am sure that I am not the only person in the world who is a hermit by choice. It isn't that I dislike people; I simply do not want to be part of that life cycle that sees one constantly with people and never really have in actual fact. The years that Edward and I spent together I found great happiness in our solitary trips to the north of Ontario and those long canoe trips in the back woods. It was fantastic and the memory remains with me. Our time with children was equally marvelous but I didn't want people around me if I could avoid it. But I did do my wifely thing and help Edward with whatever it was he wanted to do with his time (if it was practical for me). But if he wanted to go without me I let him do that and was content.
But I distract from Holy Week and the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf as a people in order that we would change how we thought way back then and accept the basic two commandments that God gave to us. Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength (Mark 12:30) and love our neighbour as ourself. Neighbour being the whole world really and that would be peace in our time. That wonderful elusive state that the world has sought for all of my life and the beginning of my life was a time of reflection on a dreadful World War that left so many of our youth dead on a battle field of one kind or another. One of my brothers (next oldest to me) was named after a young man beloved by his friends which included my parents who died in that war and there were so many others. The lists in our schools, in our churches in our government buildings of all those lost youth who gave up their young lives tossing the torch to those who were left to carry life on after the war was done. But how to reach that plain; that has been the great human desire all of these years of my life. Jesus showed us the way and God willing we will find it in a way that leads to full peace. God has always been with us through these many many centuries of life and I always feel as I search backwards in time looking for hints of my lines, I think on God and all that He has given to us - Homo sapiens as we are called. Where we go in the future is unknown but our thoughts and dreams are once again with a crew of four flying to the moon on this day. I watched as the maneuver was made to take them out of Earth orbit and on their path to the Moon.
Drinking my tea and soon the solitaire puzzles and on to the day.
