Two lessons and guilt

28 August 2011

There I was lay in bed reading Writer's Forum when in one article the writer mentioned that he had been envious of another one because of the time they had to write so much.  That reminded me of when an old friend Ron Barton had told me he was envious of me because I had the time to sit and read and study the Bible as much as I did.  This was when I was an active member of the local Baptist Church here in Dorktown.  It was also during the time of Mad Maggie and I was also one of the millions who were unemployed and couldn't find a job anywhere.  Anyway ...

There I was down in the dumps over yet another fruitless day of search for a job and Ron came out with his comment after I told him what I had been doing all day.  That was the first time anyone had told me that they envied me for anything.  I was rather shocked by it to be honest.  I was always envious of Ron and his job at Massey Ferguson, they tractor manufacturer.  Eventually I came to see his comment as a postive in that it taught me that even when we seem to have a lot of time on our hands, we can always turn that time to some good in some way.  So thanks Ron, you did me a favour that day. 

Sadly Ron won't read this seeing as he died some time ago.  So here's lesson number two for today, if you owe a 'thank you', do it now, not when it's too late to do any good!  

   

Here in Dorktown we have cloudy and sunny patches right now.  Jan is ready to go off to church again and I shall start packing ready for a few days away to Blackpool starting Tuesday.  Tomorrow the kids go off to Mapplethorpe.  Well, we'll take them to Newark and then their new owners will take them from there.  We feel a bit ambiguous about it though.  We'll be pleased they are gone because we can't look after them properly now but we will also miss them and will feel guilty about them being given up.  Deep down we know we are the best for them and for us, but the guilt is still there.