Do These Not Suffice?

 Have I mentioned how exhausting it is to do nothing?  The hours and the days kind of blend together.  It is odd that just because I cannot go outside, I am thinking we are doing nothing, yet the moments go by - full of activity.  It's just that it is activity that would not be recognized as productive.  

Dave sent me a quote today from Ralph Waldo Emerson.  It struck me particularly now when life is quite simple:

"Yesterday afternoon I went to the Cliff with Henry Thoreau.  Warm, pleasant, misty weather, which the great mountain amphitheatre seemed to drink in with gladness.  A crow's voice filled all the miles of air with sound.  A bird's voice, even a piping frog, enlivens a solitude and makes world enough for us. At night I went out into the dark and saw a glimmering star and heard a frog, and Nature seemed to say, Well do not these suffice?  Here is a new scene, a new experience.  Ponder it, Emerson, and not like the foolish world, hanker after thunders and multitudes and vast landscapes, the sea or Niagra."

Yes, there is more than enough to fill my world right now.

We had some excitement yesterday!  Dave and Deb and the two assistants drove up from Reading where they had conducted a zone conference.  They brought us a car.  It is not the same black one we had.  It is a silver one with very low mileage.

This makes it even more difficult to NOT leave the confines of the flat.  Dave stood outside below and barked.  I thought, "I have never heard a dog here....dogs don't bark in Oxford."  Then I heard Stan talking to someone from our window.  I looked out and there they were!





We had a lovely visit of maybe twenty minutes and then they were gone.  Oh my goodness.  It is so wonderful to see them.  My own little brother and his sweet wife.  This is a signal blessing - to serve with them.  

We're going to take our SkullKing game on Wednesday to teach them.  I think they will enjoy it!

Today is the Sabbath.  We don't attend church yet, even though this was the first Sunday that Oxford 1st and 2nd Wards are holding Sacrament Meeting.  Attendance is very restricted, but we wouldn't have attended yet, even if we weren't in solitary confinement.  England is spiking again in COVID numbers and so we are going to lay low for awhile (not counting the birthday trip!)

We have listened to some pod casts and tuned into Oxford First Ward's Sunday inspirational broadcast via zoom.  We have had our own personal Sacrament Meeting, with Stan officiating.  We have read our scriptures, and I have been working on FamilySearch, looking at the nearest communities where my ancestors lived.  SK is indexing.  

It is a good Sunday.  


Comments

Erin said…
That’s a beautiful quote. I remember Grandpa barking at the door when I was little. That made me smile.
September 15, 2020 at 1:32 AM
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