today has an unbelievable variety of things in it.
Paperwork looks accusingly at me from the desk - so I'll clear that. What is it? Cheques to go to parishes from undertakers, publicity things fro stuff happening around parishes various, leters to individuals - I do get frustrated by the people who think that I have nothing better to do than helpe them research their family histories.
Then there are household tasks to complete - some mine, some things that the children ought tobe helping with.
Teeneagers come and go - so interruptions are relatively frequent.
And then under it all is the knowledge that one parishioner is dying, and I will need to go and see him later today Bank Holiday or no Bank Holiday. I don't resent it - being with him is a huge privilege.
There is a lovely prayer in one book that goes
O God, who brought us to birth and in whose arms we die...
I love the sense of the whole of our lives being held by God. Rod asks me last night what I think about dying, and I tell him I don't mind the idea, and he says that Christians often say that to him. But it is true - I don't mind the idea of death, because I think I have come from God - he was there holding me before I was born - and I will go to God - so there is this extraordinary sense that I sometimes have when I am with people who are dying that the process is not dissimilar to birth.
So death may be part of today's life..