Distance and closeness

I just spoke to my best friend Tracy for the first time in over a year... probably close to a year and a half. That's shocking and yet the very fact that I can still call her my best friend after all that time is quite astounding. For us, it isn't just time but it's distance, which got me to thinking about how you can still be close to someone and know them so well even though you are apart.

Present situation excluded (this is not some soppy love dirge), it's amazing that the teenage friends can still be so open and honest and understand each other almost completely despite such a breach. That made me think that perhaps it's not a breach, that there's never been division. Although this verse was originally written about lovers, the sentiment could still ring true of trans-Atlantic, cross-Pacific (whichever way round you want to go) friendships...

"Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must goe, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate"

John Donne has such a way with words.

Yes, friendships have seasons, I'm glad to have learnt that of late, but I believe there are some that endure time and space and distance for a reason. Tracy and I find ourselves in the same spot (only not), the same pickle, I could say. Incredibly, I honestly think we've had the same conversation at least three times in our life before. Only I could hear a marked difference in my own voice - by the grace of God I have hope for the future. It's time for us to change. Perhaps the reason for the endurance is because she needs me to introduce her to the One for her to fix her eyes one; the One who can break the cycle...

"Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child;
burts into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labour;
becuase more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.

"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their deslate cities.

"Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame.
Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your womanhood.

For your Maker is your husband - the LORD Almighty is his name - the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.
The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit - a wife who married young only to be rejected," says your God.

"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.

Isaiah 54 v1-8

Yo!

Yo! I'm back. Ready for action. Ready to rock, ready to roll. Just so you know... I'm back.

Lots to tell, but that can wait. Read between the lines - maybe that will be easier. Yeah, between the lines - that's the way forward...

Grass

My 'pod' at work is about as close to the British Isles as I'm likely to get anytime soon. There's me, Scottish Stuart and the very Welsh Donna (I just wish I knew how to type in her accent!) Just across the way is Richard, recently arrived from Northern Ireland, so I feel very much at home in the pale skinned island in the middle of the office. Anyhow, we got to talking and, perhaps because I was involved in the conversation, we got onto the topic of chocolate and how it is different over here.

There's no mistaking the fact that Dairy Milk tastes different (although, of course, by now my taste is tuned to the NZ version) - I always thought that was a result of it being made to a more heat-friendly recipe. But no! Our Donna has been to the southern most Cadbury factory in the world - not Bournville, but Dunedin - where she learned that it's not the milk content in the chocolate that's different but the grass content in the milk that's different!

Now I think that's incredible. Because New Zealand cows chew cud from greener pastures, the flavour of untouched grass filters through to my favourite slab of yumminess!

I always knew chocolate was healthy! ; )

MySpace sucks!

Yes, that's my first comment: MySpace sucks!

As much as I hate to say it, BlogSpot feels like home... those long hard website training days have stood me in good stead... We'll see how creative I can get in future!