![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Feels like progress...?
Feb. 6th, 2024 09:26 pmSometime last year I started two groups, one at work and the other for church. Coincidentally, both met today!
At work, my 'self-help for project support group' had the most positive meeting we've had so far. It wasn't just a whinge-fest, two people said they'd look at my templates and share theirs, and we have a joint task to do. I got the ball rolling but I'm the founding member, so it's only fair. A group like that REALLY needs an activity to get round.
For the prayer group, this evening's reading was from Paul's second letter to Timothy. He talks about some legal case that was brought against him and how everyone else deserted him, but God gave him the words to speak and he was saved from the lion's mouth. I just assumed he was speaking figuratively until one of the other people on the call said something about 'the arena' and I thought, 'Of course! It's probably literal...'. I've become quite a fan of Paul's letters, particularly the ends - because he really can't bear to finish them. I have this sense of him going, 'OK, that's finished. Oh, shit! I forgot to mention...' about 5 times :D And then he was asking Timothy to collect his cloak from someone and to get to him before the winter. How long had he been missing his cloak? It's kind of mind-blowing that we can read his words and they speak to us from 2000 years ago but they're still fresh, still so human.
Then I came right up to date with 'Born from the same stranger'. Two half-siblings from a group of 21 finally tracked down their donor - and his children from his marriage, making their group 23. And counting. But there were other people who are still searching for their donor and any half-siblings. You hear stories of 'I found x relatives' - but it absolutely depends on those other people submitting their DNA. I agreed to join a study for the NHS because I'd get the testing done for free but I haven't received my kit, yet :( I'm really interested in what it might reveal. My husband has zero interest. :D
So, it's been a day of connections - people I can meet in person, people from the past, people I'll never know meeting each other.
At work, my 'self-help for project support group' had the most positive meeting we've had so far. It wasn't just a whinge-fest, two people said they'd look at my templates and share theirs, and we have a joint task to do. I got the ball rolling but I'm the founding member, so it's only fair. A group like that REALLY needs an activity to get round.
For the prayer group, this evening's reading was from Paul's second letter to Timothy. He talks about some legal case that was brought against him and how everyone else deserted him, but God gave him the words to speak and he was saved from the lion's mouth. I just assumed he was speaking figuratively until one of the other people on the call said something about 'the arena' and I thought, 'Of course! It's probably literal...'. I've become quite a fan of Paul's letters, particularly the ends - because he really can't bear to finish them. I have this sense of him going, 'OK, that's finished. Oh, shit! I forgot to mention...' about 5 times :D And then he was asking Timothy to collect his cloak from someone and to get to him before the winter. How long had he been missing his cloak? It's kind of mind-blowing that we can read his words and they speak to us from 2000 years ago but they're still fresh, still so human.
Then I came right up to date with 'Born from the same stranger'. Two half-siblings from a group of 21 finally tracked down their donor - and his children from his marriage, making their group 23. And counting. But there were other people who are still searching for their donor and any half-siblings. You hear stories of 'I found x relatives' - but it absolutely depends on those other people submitting their DNA. I agreed to join a study for the NHS because I'd get the testing done for free but I haven't received my kit, yet :( I'm really interested in what it might reveal. My husband has zero interest. :D
So, it's been a day of connections - people I can meet in person, people from the past, people I'll never know meeting each other.
