I've never been so many days without posting since I started writing this blog.
There's a good reason for that: I've been occupied by moving. Having lived all my life in my parents' house (and, at my age, having begun to struggle to find excuses for why I do) it's been both exciting and daunting to set up a home. I have to say that it feels the right thing to do.
Actually moving all my possessions took longer than I expected, and the task wasn't made any easier by the uncomprehending sorrow at the other end. However, although it took a full week to do, for reasons of space, organisation, and lack of time in the evenings that were filled by people wanting to talk to me, finally last night I managed to sleep in my own bed in my own place.
Not that I slept all that well, I have to say, but that's only to be expected initially.
Now I have quite a lot of work ahead, as in most of the rooms I can barely see the floor for piles and boxes of assorted things that need a proper place to go. Large amounts of books, for one thing. I'm a bit torn how to prioritise. I would like to set up the bookcases, but then I would like to get some music playing for while I work ... and I can't afford to leave the kitchen for long because I need to eat, and come to that I will have to go shopping again for the things I couldn't get last time. And the office stuff is important, too, because the sooner I get going on alternative work, the safer I'll be if things change.
For today, I go to work as usual, and nobody has said that I'll have to stop, so for the immediate future I still have my previous income.
One of the many people who came to tell me I was making a big mistake leaving the brethren said that I'd get very bored living on my own. Just at the moment, I can't see it.
3 comments:
It all sounds very practical and commendable. It's great that it all feels right even though difficult
Ah moving ... one of the most stressful of times and for you with so much meaning attached to it, understandable that your sleep was not so good. The mess on the floor those endless boxes ... mmm perhaps the music first?
When I first moved out of my parents’ house in circumstances like yours, the unaccustomed peace was sheer bliss. No more campaigns of persuasion.
If people wanted to see me, we only met when and where and if I chose. I could show them the door any time. That represented a major gain of autonomy.
I developed some standard responses to their standard slogans.
“You will never be happy in the World,” they said.
-- “The Brethren are just as much in the World as anyone else. They are just in a particularly benighted bit of it.”
“You know that separation from evil is the only right position for a believer,” they said.
-- “Yes, I firmly believe in separation from evil. But what the Brethren practise is separation from anyone who disagrees with them. They don’t practise separation from evil.”
“How can you say that we don’t practise separation from evil,” they said.
And that, of course, was an invitation to explain to them some of their own errors. Some of them even conceded that their leaders were fallible. I suppose that was progress of a sort.
In the absence of a house present…
Coq au vin for one
Ingredients
Two or three chicken drumsticks
One dessertspoonful of olive oil
One dessertspoonful of Plain flour
Two rashers of bacon
Bouquet garni
One small clove of garlic crushed and finely chopped
One beef cube
One third bottle Australian red wine, preferably Shiraz
Method:
Chop the bacon into bite sized pieces, then fry and set aside
Sauté the chicken until golden brown
Sprinkle the chicken with plain flour and mix until a roux is formed, no flecks of white flour are left
Add the wine, beef cube, bouquet garni, garlic and bacon
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 45 minutes or until the chicken falls easily from the bone
Serve with steamed rice and a green salad
Double ingredients to serve two, etc
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