Summer holidays are creeping up on us now. Schools and universities will be closing for their long breaks. So, is this a delight or apprehension? I don’t think there is any doubt that our emotions can run to either or both. It can depend on the age of the young person, whether childcare is needed and the cost and problems that can come with that, the personality of the person and the interests of them. That is looking at it from a parents view but what about the view of adults without children. Peace and quiet is no longer guaranteed. Places are busier and sometimes full of children running around. But on the other hand, as parents or not, it is lovely to see others running and excited about life. Nothing is straightforward. There is a flip side to every coin. Seeing someone else’s point of view isn’t always easy and can cause words and actions to be used that are not helpful. We often read of very aggressive arguments between neighbours over some very trivial disagreement that has spiralled out of control over words said or sometimes not said but imagined. A teenage girl I know was excluded from school for fighting with a boy. He was her boyfriend, but someone had told her he was going to finish with her. He hadn’t told her, so she went a hit. He did finish with her then! Maybe he was going to, or maybe not, but she will probably never know. We all jump to conclusions at times. We can even cloak it as intuition to make it more acceptable. The book of Proverbs in the Bible is a wonderful store of sayings relating to everyday life. Some of them are really quite funny and it obviously has one relating to this situation. “Don’t jump to conclusions—there may be a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw. In the heat of an argument, don’t betray confidences; Word is sure to get around, and no one will trust you.” Pretty sound advice to try and achieve, but like most things must be worked at. It doesn’t come naturally to lots of us.
This month’s book is The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley. It shows that people’s lives are rarely the same on the inside as they appear on the outside.
God Bless
Maureen Kendall