Hello Dear Readers,
I hope that you are enjoying the signs of spring all around us; longer, lighter days, cheerful chirping of birds, slender snowdrops and carpets of crocuses poking their way through the sodden earth to add a splash of welcome colour to our winter landscapes.
I had thought I’d pick up my metaphorical pen again a few weeks into the New Year, but Candlemas has passed and I now find myself finally beginning to write, comfortingly full of pancakes and chocolate spread on Shrove Tuesday. This delay and reluctance on my part to begin a new year of writing is threefold. Firstly, it is simply due to an increase in the paid writing work I have, which is great and an answer to prayer but leaves less time for the writing I enjoy most, which is blogging to you. Secondly, this has been a stretching season for us as a family and I’ve been feeling battle weary and in need of some soul replenishing. Although circumstances haven’t changed the blue skies and scent of spring in the air certainly bring with them a fresh hope that seasons do change and a shift will come sometime. Finally, I’ve had a subject I’d like to explore bubbling away for some while but I’ve not been quite sure how to go about pursuing it. However, it won’t go away, so I’m going to embark on less chartered territory and see where it leads.
So what is this new subject matter about which I feel somewhat reticent to ponder aloud? Like all of us I’ve found these last few years extraordinary. I’ve had increasing niggles that we are living in quite unprecedented times; that we would never be going back to “normal” after the covid lockdowns; that life may well be getting tougher in practical ways for all of us with additional hurdles for those who want to live out a Christian faith; that we need to be preparing ourselves for some turbulent years ahead and use the relative stability we have at present to do this.
I may of course, be quite wrong in all of the above, in which case I hope what I write can just be entertaining! However, I feel I have to get it down and if I look a fool, so be it. As this is a home education blog I’ll try to write primarily from this perspective. I feel quite vulnerable sharing my thoughts on all this as it’s something I’ve held close to my heart for some years, well before the covid season, but as I said before I can’t get rid of the niggle that this is something I have to do, so do so I will.
One thing that gives me confidence to embark down this trajectory is that I’m far from alone in thinking this way. Back in 2020 I read a book recommended by one of the speakers at the Learn Free home education conference; Rod Dreyher’s “Live not by Lies”. This resonated hugely with my thinking and since then I’ve met so many intelligent, articulate and prayerful individuals who are also asking similar questions and sensing there is something more than the delicate fragrance of spring in the air.
So, for you faithful and much appreciated readers, I thank you in advance for journeying with me in my ponderings. I pray that in some small way they would be a blessing to you and thank you so much for journeying with me.
Molly x
Mothering through the seasons 