Forgiveness lightens the heart

Not the exact wording of Ephesians  4:31-32

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Forgiveness is the meat of human kindness and takes us far in this world. Forgiving doesn't necessarily mean friendship but it does mean letting go of what is past and can not be changed.

Another beautiful day in God's world and we must make the best of it as the sun prepares itself to shine once again upon this earth that I stand upon. 

Cleaning all accomplished and back to research. I am going to do research light for a couple of weeks just to give my eyes a total rest. I always, pretty much, have to experience that tiredness for me to remember that my eyes are my limiting factor and need that special care to let them do their best. My eyes will never be 100%; they  never were. I remember the first colour television and the dreadful migraines that I had as a child. I actually used to sit in the room and not look at the television; just listen and I still do that to a certain extent. Gradually over time my eyes accepted that flashing changing colour and of course TVs have improved. But I never really was a TV watcher. I mostly watch the weather and the news but do enjoy Netflix. It has so many good movies that are just my kind of movie. Edward loved TV and could watch cooking shows by the hour those last few years. He really took to cooking and delved into all sorts of different kinds of recipes. When COVID arrived I took to sitting with him most mornings and watching because I think he was feeling the loneliness that COVID brought on for some people. He was used to being out and about every day shopping which he really loved to do (we both went; I always went with him everywhere that last ten years unless he wanted to go alone). When I look back now I am realizing that other than working on his autosomal DNA he never really did any writing except for the Ottawa Genealogists which he edited and produced; after we started to travel extensively in 2008. He collected items and put them into his tree which is now on World Connect and his website. We will maintain the website for a long period of time but the work that he did needs to be consolidated but I can not do that heavy work on his research. I do not have the background to do it although did  help to collect the information but it needs to have someone more familiar with the family than I am to work on it. Perhaps my older daughter; time will tell. 

For myself, I shall go a little slower into my next two books just as I took the Siderfin book fairly slowly (it was two years in creation). There is no rush and I have the files organized but there is a lot of transcription to do over the next couple of years but will take that slowly as well. I continue to look forward to actually fulfilling the desire of my grandfather for his Blake book of Andover and for my mother her Pincombe family book of Bishops Nympton although it will be more extensive (i.e. the North Molton family which was the first Pencombe in Devon and even a look at the possibility of Pencombe in Herefordshire being the founder of that surname) since Pincombe is a much smaller family. 

Prayers for Israel and Ukraine. Prayers for the children of Gaza. Let there be peace on earth. The other spots in the world that continue to be of concern prayers as well. Thank you to those who help to bring about peace in our world. May the UN be all that we prayed for in the beginning and be a solace to the world and a defender of the ancient rights of peoples.

I do wonder where the next Church Service will be; although I miss the Service at the Cathedral online I am finding this tour of the Churches of England in England quite wonderful on Sunday morning. Some I have visited and others it is nice to see them. The little Church in Turnworth always comes back to me as we spent perhaps an hour there, my cousin and I and our spouses. We found the grave stone for our mutual ancestor Samuel Knight and his wife Louisa Butt (2x great grandparents for both of us) who were the parents of our great grandmother Maria Jane (Knight) Blake. It was a quiet peaceful graveyard with a number of burials that form part of that Knight family tree. Samuel's brother Thomas was Parish Clerk for over thirty years in this quiet little village on the Winterbourne. One might wonder how a young woman born in Turnworth met a young man (Edward Blake) born in Upper Clatford but there were Knight relations in Upper Clatford and I suspect that Maria Jane was visiting/helping a relative when they met and they actually married at Upper Clatford rather than Turnworth. My father remembered a tall white haired man (Samuel, his great grandfather) as his family used to spend vacation time in the New Forest where his cousins lived (the Hall family - his father's eldest sister Louisa married Charles Hall) and Samuel must have been there as well as my father always associated Samuel with the New Forest. 

On to the day. Teatime and Jumping Jacks first. I have perhaps invented a new exercise that I do before the Jumping Jacks and after the Reverse Warrior that I added in. I probably am a bit of an exercise addict. I start with the Reverse Warrior (count of 30 left and right) just to loosen the spinal area and then go into a deep squat and  make circles ten times in each direction (2 repeats only) and then walk at least 100 steps before doing the now 80 Jumping Jacks. I can see my aim now is to move to a count of 50 with the Reverse Warrior and then perhaps 20 circles in each direction in the deep squat and then 100 steps and 100 jumping jacks. Followed by perhaps 30 to 50 steps and then a shoulder stand for the count of 60 and when you get up use just one hand to assist you. I repeat that again before breakfast and I am finding that the back spasms that I experience with cleaning are actually lessening. I do have arthritis in my spine as well as osteoporosis so do do that carefully but the strength training is great. The rotations in a squat position are not easy and one might want to check with a doctor/physio before starting on a very intensive exercise program first thing in the morning. I can not imagine a day without exercise and my stints with physio were very helpful at the time that I had injuries. It is tempting to just go every month to a physio and review some of my exercises but I haven't gotten back to that notion since my last exercise injury before COVID. Perhaps in time. My osteoporosis would probably benefit from ever more weight bearing exercises I haven't thought of doing! Now to enjoy my tea and Solitaire games. It is certainly interesting to have Alexa wish me Good Morning and my forename follows and then set my five minute timer. 

And an exciting event coming my way is the dogs coming to visit with me for a few days. We will have a great time.