Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Day 23 – Monday after 4th Sunday of Lent

To Read:

It rained and it rained and it rained.  Piglet told himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old – three, was it, or four? – never had he seen so much rain. Days and days and days.

“If only,” he thought, as he looked out of the window, “I had been in Pooh’s house, or Christopher Robin’s house, or Rabbit’s house when it began to rain, then I should have had Company all this time, instead of being here all alone, with nothing to do except wonder when it will stop.”  And he imagined himself with Pooh, saying, “Did you ever see such rain, Pooh?” and Pooh saying, “Isn’t it awful, Piglet?” and Piglet saying, “I wonder how it is over Christopher Robin’s way,” and Pooh saying, “I should think poor old Rabbit is about flooded out by this time.”

It would have been jolly to talk like this, and really, it wasn’t much good having anything exciting like floods, if you couldn’t share them with somebody.

For it was rather exciting.  The little dry ditches in which Piglet had nosed about so often had become streams, the little streams across which he had splashed were rivers, and the river, between whose steep banks they had played so happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up so much room everywhere, that Piglet was beginning to wonder whether it would be coming into his bed soon.

“It’s a little Anxious,” he said to himself, “to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water.  Christopher Robin and Pooh could escape by Climbing Trees, and Kanga could escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by – by Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by water and I can’t do anything.

(Winnie the Pooh – In which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water)

(Matthew 8v23-25)

If I were in Piglet’s position I would be quite content.  My dream day is to be indoors in the warm looking out on a wet and rainy world.  I suppose this comes from a lifelong love of reading and being comfortable with my own company and whichever new friends I meet between the covers of a book.  Perhaps my peculiar contentment is a consequence of having the privilege of following a vocation in which every day I spend precious time talking about precious things with literally scores of precious people so I am replete with blessings and need a pause to whisper, ‘thank you’?

Others, like Piglet, are not as fortunate.  Some reading these words may feel that they are ‘little’ and unnoticed and, unless they have a gregarious sidekick such as Edward Bear, anxiety haunts them all too easily and they find themselves not just alone but lonely as well.  For Piglet and those who find their heart beats in sympathy with him, there is good news.  At the loneliest moments, at the most fear filled moments, at the times when we are despairing and in fear of perishing, our Beloved is asleep…

The storms of our life are real and intense and can instil in us all sorts of doubts and fears, yet in the middle of them God sleeps.  Knowing that all is well and everything is held in the Everlasting Arms, Jesus slumbers and is bemused that His disciples cannot imitate Him. Perhaps our Beloved’s words of rebuke to the Storm are as much to us as to the wind and the waves that immediately obey? Finding calm in the midst of storms is not easy but it is made easier when we remember that indeed we have a friend….

(Rabindranath Tagore)