The beginning of my second week here and I've discovered the library! I've just been into the church next door where I am leading worship on Sunday to give in my readings and check my hymn numbers. Church is open today again as another huge liner is here - this time from Norway. I've only been here a week and am so relaxed and chilled out I am wondering how long it will take me to adapt to Circuit life back home again. I am sure the lovely folk down there are storing up stuff for me. I actually got some texts and messages from people attending my Circuit Meeting last night. The comments were sent in fun, but I was shocked how unsettled they made me. My life (apart from contacting people I chose to be in relationship with away from here) is here for another month and Hastings and stuff hadn't entered my brain until last night.
I continue to be deeply moved by the quality of life and community here. Shetland has not apparently had a week of weather like this for years. It is much windier today and very bracing but the sun is still shining and the sky is blue. It's interesting to eavesdrop on conversations in the hotel dining room from people who have never been here before. A very posh couple arrived on the boat yesterday. He told his wife he had put the place they wanted to go to, the most southerly point of the mainland, Sumburgh Head in the sat nav so they wouldn't get lost. I don't think he quite got there is one major road north to south! It reminded me of that great Father Ted line of Craggy Island in a storm: "they have taken the road in!"
I sat on this glorious beach on Monday until I started to burn. For a time there was just me on it, and I used the space to thank God for so much at the moment. When we find a spot like this there is a peace beyond all understanding. I love this picture of a boat on a sea that was like a lake, the stillness of space that calms our souls and lifts our spirits. I will return to this theme on Sunday in my worship in Lerwick, next door to where I am writing this as the readings are about Elijah having a meltdown in a cave and Jesus freeing Legion from mental distress. I didn't come here in a state, I was tired and ready for this wonderful gift but as I keep writing, it has given me far far more than I could ever hope for. The reading on Sunday ends with Jesus saying to Legion "go home and tell people what the Lord has done." I hope to do that with people but that is not yet apart to those of you reading these thoughts. I get to choose my favourite hymn on Sunday and it seems right to choose it in this peaceful place: which includes this verse:
"Drop thy still dews of quietness til all our strivings cease,
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess, the beauty of thy peace."
The greatest verse of any hymn ever written!
People seem to really enjoy living here and there is a depth of community together. On Monday night I had a lovely evening out at something called Shetland Showcase, a series of concerts through the summer in the local community centre. The first half each week gives children "the bairns" performing experience as they learn the fiddle together; the second half each week is a quality music act - this week the Shetland Fiddlers Society. It was really infectious fun stuff that left you smiling. I was very interested in the stories they shared about each piece they performed. All were written in a distinct community here and some on different islands. Each community would have had its own fiddle group and dancing evenings. You didn't mix with other communities as the only way to get there would be by boat. Communities here often through adversity support one another and it is very attractive....
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