And we’re coming to the end of our 7.5 year stay in Prestonpans - & another beginning in a new home: The Old Schoolhouse.
There are lots of endings and beginnings all overlapping each other at the moment. Lydia’s last night at Prestonpans Guides was yesterday; she’ll join Cowdenbeath Guides in August, after a last camp with her current pack at Dalguise (2 days after we move 😳 maybe I should get her to pack now...).
There are classes and courses and groups all finishing up for the summer - amidst torrential rain and flood warnings, of course. And I’m both impatient to be in our new house, and sad to leave our current one and all the people and places and plants I love.
Eve was born in this bedroom, 3 weeks after we moved in. Lucy was born in the living room - Matthew caught her as the midwives hadn’t arrived yet - 3.5 years ago. And now Astrid has joined us. So we’ve doubled our children since moving to East Lothian 😊
Here Matthew changed careers and studied to be a Counsellor; and I trained as a Bi-Aura Therapist (energy healer) and a Therapeutic Guided Imagery Facilitator.
And the home educators of East Lothian! We will miss them - so many lovely, happy memories. I know we’ll still see many at Home Ed events in Edinburgh, so I’m glad it’s not a final goodbye.
And the beaches of East Lothian! I will miss them. And the castles and cliffs and hills and hillforts and stories (& storytellers). Maybe we’ll follow the next part of King Loth’s daughter's journey after he threw her off Traprain Law for being pregnant out of wedlock, then cast her adrift in a coracle. She went to Fife too - & was cared for. It’s a promising story 😊
And another beginning: I’ve begun the packing...
And Matt’s on night shift all week so we are all supposed to be quiet - not smash plates or slide down stairs in boxes (of course, I’m just giving random examples, those things never happen here, especially not when dad’s sleeping ... 😂).
And I’m beginning to get fit again after being out of commission for a year due to pregnancy & newborn.
And I’m speaking at church this Sunday for the first time in over a year & am really looking forward to it - I’ve missed the joy of studying for & preparing a talk, guided by the Spirit 😍 It feels like another kind of re-beginning.
And, finding inspiration in our prophet’s talk in April I’ll be talking about how we can have new beginnings every day:
‘The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo. The prefix meta- means “change.” The suffix -noeo is related to Greek words that mean “mind,” “knowledge,” “spirit,” and “breath.”
‘Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to “repent,” He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.
Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance.’ (Russell M Nelson, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/36nelson?lang=eng )
And another ending - when we move we’ll be leaving the Edinburgh Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, & moving into the Dundee Stake. I’ve been in Edinburgh Stake since coming to Scotland in 1994 to study Ecology at Stirling University. Before that I had only been a member of the church for 2 years, so it feels like I’ve always been in Edinburgh Stake - & there are sooo many memories twined around my heart from the experiences I’ve shared with people in this Stake. 🥰
From cottage evenings in Sauchie, family home evenings in Bridge of Allan & Stirling, ironing & meals in Alloa, Young Women’s Camps & youth conferences, temple trips, barbecues, picnics, hikes, service projects, dances, ceilidhs, to baby showers, baby blessings, baptisms, & weddings (including our own!) - all with people we love 💕. And callings to serve with so many wonderful people.
I’ll miss you, Edinburgh Stake. It’ll be hard to leave you. In September it will be 25 years since I came to Scotland (where I’ve stayed, apart from a few months in Borneo and an 18 month mission to Greece & Cyprus).
So here’s to beginnings and endings and tides and flow - may all change bring the very best outcomes for us all, and may we weather it well. ☺️
