Thought for the Day Tuesday, March 24

One of the first things I found myself doing at home over the weekend was mounting a dartboard bracket on the outside of the garden shed, so that my two boys, both back from University, had one more thing to keep them occupied.

If you have children at home you may also have found yourself looking for comparable ways to entertain them for the foreseeable.

My boys and I used to play darts when they were much younger but since we moved house a few years ago the board has never found a suitable wall to hang on.

As you can imagine this has often been a bone of contention during holidays and at times over the years it has felt as if my paternal responsibilities have been called into question (notice that telling passive verb in the previous sentence).

To be frank the problem was actually less to do with the board itself and more to do with the potential holes in the wall around the board that prevented me getting anything sorted.

But now everything has changed. I’m much more aware of needing to make the extra effort to accommodate the new reality.

More than that, I really want to show them that, even with my very limited DIY expertise, I’m willing to do what I can.

This is true of us all I think. It’s an innate virtue that difficult times bring out in us – like the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet in the gospels and about whom Jesus said ‘She did what she could,’ so we can, and surely must, now do what we can, whatever that may be. We owe it to each other, to families and to neighbours.

As for my boys, the long period of waiting is finally over: we have gathered a few times at the oche and, as all children eventually must, they have already humiliated their father by reminding me of how pathetic my arrows skills truly are.

Keep well,

The Chaplain