Hello Everyone,
These are challenging times. We all need to support each other and get through it the best we can. There was never a better time to say Love You Forever. You cannot give anyone a hug. Many are losing elderly relatives who are in care homes. Sadly, they passed over alone leaving relatives distraught. I am continuing to keep busy and writing my lockdown log. Our first three weeks of lockdown in the UK have come to an end but we continue for an indefinite period. Your guess as to how long is as good as mine. This week I wish you all well and would like to share with you my log for Easter Sunday.
Day
20, EASTER SUNDAY
Good morning and a Happy Easter to one and all.
Right now I’m in front of the box. Where else would I be? I’m watching the Pope’s Urbi Et Orbi, his Easter message to the world. This year he is not standing on the balcony but inside with only his staff around him and practising social distancing. I have a candle burning and still hold on to the hope and positivity of which the Pope talks. He talks of the new world, a changed world, normality will be different after this pandemic. He mentions the apocalyptic challenges. Is he, too, thinking of the end of time, as I am? I recall standing on the road in a Jerusalem years ago looking across at the tombs in front of the city wall. It is believed that when the end of the world comes, the dead will rise and it would begin on that spot outside the Holy City. How close is it? This is certainly a message with a difference.
Now, I’m watching an unusual Easter church service from Bangor Cathedral. A service of readings and hymns, a compilation from previous services. This is deffo the most unusual Easter Day I have ever experienced. One thing about this peculiar time is that I seem to be roaming down memory lane far more than usual. Today, I recall fifty years ago. Yes, half a century when I was just nineteen, a young student at a teacher training college. I had a month’s holiday from college and hopped on the train to the south coast where I’d taken a temporary three week post as a waitress in a hotel. I remember the Easter Bonnet parade at Battle, near Hastings. It is not possible to acquire such work even when it’s possible to work these days.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has posted his Easter message from the kitchen at Lambeth Palace. He, like the Pope, states that the world will never be the same again. I’m now trying to imagine the Archbishop cooking in his kitchen wearing his clerical attire including mitre scrambling eggs. My mind is clearly capable of working overtime.
The news is really depressing. Someone has just stated that statistics or whatever are now indicating that the UK may well have more deaths from this pandemic than any other country in Europe. I hope the next bulletin doesn’t say more than USA or we really are in the proverbial.
Songs of Praise time and from Birmingham but recorded before lockdown.
Back later.
Well, another programme which took me down memory lane. Not sure if it’s this pandemic or my age. This Easter they used an Easter hymn from last year sung at St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem. I was privileged to receive communion in that cathedral from the Bishop of Jerusalem in 1975 on my first pilgrimage to the Holy City. Guess I’ve reached that age (soixante neuf I refused to be 69 and the latter options sounds younger and nicer) of being grateful and thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had and taken in my life. They say you regret the things you didn’t do. Well, I don’t remember them only what I did do. Anyway, I digress. I know I’m good at that but back to communion in Jerusalem. That made me think of all of my excursions to the Holy City and my memories. There’s one that stands out. Not the Wailing Wall, the Mosques, gates, market, Gethsemane, or the Via Dolorosa but the Holocaust Museum on Mount Zion.
It was my third visit out there and as a tour leader. I had a Jewish guide who didn’t really want to go in. “Oh fine”, I said, “I’ll take them in.”. Well, I didn’t really understand until I came out. A museum is a museum or is it? This one was an horrendous experience but one I feel everyone should experience. I truly understood why Paul, the guide didn’t want to visit. The whole place was in dimmed light with masses of pictures of the camps. There were the mass graves of scores of unidentified, naked, extremely thin bodies. One could only imagine the stench. Then, pics of humans screaming as gas poured out of the showers. Pics of the gold and belongings taken from the victims who believed they were being given the luxury of a shower. The lampshades which the Nazis had had made from human skin. What could be worse than any of that? The pics of the humans shabbily dressed, starving and thin with haunting faces, or more specifically, the eyes of those poor humans. The eyes were piercing yet hollow and distant. The eyes spoke of the hopelessness and fear they were enduring. Where was God? Why were they suffering? Yes, eyes are the window to the soul and they can speak volumes and be far more meaning than a dictionary of vocabulary. I remember bringing that party out of there. We all stood by a wall, speechless, somber, sickened, sad. It was not really a holiday experience yet no one complained or regretted witnessing it.
It’s not to the same degree yet but it is a fear that I’ve see in people’s eyes when I have been out in the last weeks since lockdown. They can wear masks as protection but the eyes are talking in shops and on the streets. It is fear and a hopelessness because this Covid 19 is out of our control. It is among us and knocking us down like skittles in a bowling alley. That is why we need to remain positive and optimistic. We cannot allow our fear to control us.
The figures are not good. The UK death toll is now over 10,000 and we’ve leapt up to 6 in the league table.
I am trying to look forward to projects I had planned for this year which have been put on hold. My Antonio will come again, eventually I will savour one of his ice creams again. I will be able to drive to the coast, put a message in a bottle and throw it in the sea. The libraries, theatres and cinemas will open again. Shops will become hives of activity. Life will go on but it will be different. Next year we will look back at this unusual Easter and while remembering those we’ve lost we will be praising ourselves for the way we got through it. To use one of my favourite phrases through all dark days, the glass is always half full.
Our Queen has given an unprecedented Easter message online. This evening I tuned in online to a beautiful concert from Andrea Bocelli in Milan.
Right now, I’m watching tv “The Good Karma Hospital” having finished a bottle of wine and enjoyed a nice turkey and roast dinner. Going to crack another Easter egg soon. So, sleep well my friends. Remember, in years to come you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren how you survived this Easter and this war.
Stay positive and strong until next week, all my love Lady M xxxx
Good morning and a Happy Easter to one and all.
Right now I’m in front of the box. Where else would I be? I’m watching the Pope’s Urbi Et Orbi, his Easter message to the world. This year he is not standing on the balcony but inside with only his staff around him and practising social distancing. I have a candle burning and still hold on to the hope and positivity of which the Pope talks. He talks of the new world, a changed world, normality will be different after this pandemic. He mentions the apocalyptic challenges. Is he, too, thinking of the end of time, as I am? I recall standing on the road in a Jerusalem years ago looking across at the tombs in front of the city wall. It is believed that when the end of the world comes, the dead will rise and it would begin on that spot outside the Holy City. How close is it? This is certainly a message with a difference.
Now, I’m watching an unusual Easter church service from Bangor Cathedral. A service of readings and hymns, a compilation from previous services. This is deffo the most unusual Easter Day I have ever experienced. One thing about this peculiar time is that I seem to be roaming down memory lane far more than usual. Today, I recall fifty years ago. Yes, half a century when I was just nineteen, a young student at a teacher training college. I had a month’s holiday from college and hopped on the train to the south coast where I’d taken a temporary three week post as a waitress in a hotel. I remember the Easter Bonnet parade at Battle, near Hastings. It is not possible to acquire such work even when it’s possible to work these days.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has posted his Easter message from the kitchen at Lambeth Palace. He, like the Pope, states that the world will never be the same again. I’m now trying to imagine the Archbishop cooking in his kitchen wearing his clerical attire including mitre scrambling eggs. My mind is clearly capable of working overtime.
The news is really depressing. Someone has just stated that statistics or whatever are now indicating that the UK may well have more deaths from this pandemic than any other country in Europe. I hope the next bulletin doesn’t say more than USA or we really are in the proverbial.
Songs of Praise time and from Birmingham but recorded before lockdown.
Back later.
Well, another programme which took me down memory lane. Not sure if it’s this pandemic or my age. This Easter they used an Easter hymn from last year sung at St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem. I was privileged to receive communion in that cathedral from the Bishop of Jerusalem in 1975 on my first pilgrimage to the Holy City. Guess I’ve reached that age (soixante neuf I refused to be 69 and the latter options sounds younger and nicer) of being grateful and thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had and taken in my life. They say you regret the things you didn’t do. Well, I don’t remember them only what I did do. Anyway, I digress. I know I’m good at that but back to communion in Jerusalem. That made me think of all of my excursions to the Holy City and my memories. There’s one that stands out. Not the Wailing Wall, the Mosques, gates, market, Gethsemane, or the Via Dolorosa but the Holocaust Museum on Mount Zion.
It was my third visit out there and as a tour leader. I had a Jewish guide who didn’t really want to go in. “Oh fine”, I said, “I’ll take them in.”. Well, I didn’t really understand until I came out. A museum is a museum or is it? This one was an horrendous experience but one I feel everyone should experience. I truly understood why Paul, the guide didn’t want to visit. The whole place was in dimmed light with masses of pictures of the camps. There were the mass graves of scores of unidentified, naked, extremely thin bodies. One could only imagine the stench. Then, pics of humans screaming as gas poured out of the showers. Pics of the gold and belongings taken from the victims who believed they were being given the luxury of a shower. The lampshades which the Nazis had had made from human skin. What could be worse than any of that? The pics of the humans shabbily dressed, starving and thin with haunting faces, or more specifically, the eyes of those poor humans. The eyes were piercing yet hollow and distant. The eyes spoke of the hopelessness and fear they were enduring. Where was God? Why were they suffering? Yes, eyes are the window to the soul and they can speak volumes and be far more meaning than a dictionary of vocabulary. I remember bringing that party out of there. We all stood by a wall, speechless, somber, sickened, sad. It was not really a holiday experience yet no one complained or regretted witnessing it.
It’s not to the same degree yet but it is a fear that I’ve see in people’s eyes when I have been out in the last weeks since lockdown. They can wear masks as protection but the eyes are talking in shops and on the streets. It is fear and a hopelessness because this Covid 19 is out of our control. It is among us and knocking us down like skittles in a bowling alley. That is why we need to remain positive and optimistic. We cannot allow our fear to control us.
The figures are not good. The UK death toll is now over 10,000 and we’ve leapt up to 6 in the league table.
I am trying to look forward to projects I had planned for this year which have been put on hold. My Antonio will come again, eventually I will savour one of his ice creams again. I will be able to drive to the coast, put a message in a bottle and throw it in the sea. The libraries, theatres and cinemas will open again. Shops will become hives of activity. Life will go on but it will be different. Next year we will look back at this unusual Easter and while remembering those we’ve lost we will be praising ourselves for the way we got through it. To use one of my favourite phrases through all dark days, the glass is always half full.
Our Queen has given an unprecedented Easter message online. This evening I tuned in online to a beautiful concert from Andrea Bocelli in Milan.
Right now, I’m watching tv “The Good Karma Hospital” having finished a bottle of wine and enjoyed a nice turkey and roast dinner. Going to crack another Easter egg soon. So, sleep well my friends. Remember, in years to come you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren how you survived this Easter and this war.
Stay positive and strong until next week, all my love Lady M xxxx
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