Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Day 34 – Saturday after 5th Sunday of Lent
To Read:
Rabbit, Pooh, and Piglet are lost in the mist and keep up walking back to the same pit they hid from Tigger in.
“If I walked away from this Pit” said Rabbit, “then walked back to it, of course I should find it”
“Well, I thought perhaps you wouldn’t” said Pooh. “I just thought.”
for you.”
“Try,” said Piglet suddenly. “We’ll wait here”.
Rabbit gave a laugh to show how silly Piglet was, and walked into the mist. After he had gone a hundred yards, he turned and walked back again… and after Pooh and Piglet had waited twenty minutes for him, Pooh got up.
“I just thought,” said Pooh. “Now then, Piglet, let’s go home.”
“But, Pooh,” cried Piglet, all excited, “do you know the way?”
“No,” said Pooh. “But there are twelve pots of honey in my cupboard, and they’ve been calling to me for hours. I couldn’t hear them properly before because Rabbit would talk, but if nobody says anything except those twelve pots, I think, Piglet, I shall know where they’re coming from. Come on.”
They walked off together; and for a long time Piglet said nothing, so as not to interrupt the pots; and then suddenly he made a squeaky noise… and an oo-noise… because now he began to know where he was; but he still didn’t dare to say so out loud, in case he wasn’t. And just when he was getting so sure of himself that it didn’t matter whether the pots went on calling or not, there was a shout from in front of them, and out of the mist came Christopher Robin.
“Oh, there you are,” said Christopher Robin carelessly, trying to pretend that he hadn’t been Anxious.
“Here we are,” said Pooh.
“Where’s Rabbit?”
“I don’t know,” said Pooh.
“Oh – well, I expect Tigger will find him. He’s sort of looking for you all.”
“Well,” said Pooh, “I’ve got to go home for something, and so has Piglet, because we haven’t had it yet, and -“
“I’ll come and watch you,” said Christopher Robin.
So he went home with Pooh, and watched him for quite a long time… and all the time he was watching, Tigger was tearing round the Forest making loud yapping noises for Rabbit. And at last a very Small and Sorry Rabbit heard him. And the Small and Sorry Rabbit rushed through the mist at the noise, and it suddenly turned into Tigger; a Friendly Tigger, a Grand Tigger, a Large and Helpful Tigger, a Tigger who bounced, if he bounced at all, in just the beautiful way a Tigger ought to bounce.
“Oh, Tigger, I am glad to see you;” cried Rabbit.
(The House at Pooh Corner – In Which Tigger is Unbounced)
From the Scriptures:
He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
(1 Kings 19v11-12)
To Reflect:
“But, Pooh,” cried Piglet, all excited, “do you know the way?”
“No,” said Pooh. “But there are twelve pots of honey in my cupboard, and they’ve been calling to me for hours. I couldn’t hear them properly before because Rabbit would talk, but if nobody says anything except those twelve pots, I think, Piglet, I shall know where they’re coming from. Come on.”
Are you one of those men, (I choose my words deliberately as apparently this only applies to men…) who, when driving a car and are unsure of directions, turns the radio down so that you can see better? I confess to doing this on occasion. Which is very hard for me to do as I love having a banging tune playing whilst I’m driving. During Lent this is particularly so as I only play contemporary Christian music while driving and the world around me needs to hear as much as possible of the music of Amy Grant, Vicky Beeching, Rebecca St James, Counting Crows… (feel free to add your own favourites). Here is one of my faves:
Sometimes however, even the best tunez, can be just noise and prevent us from finding our way. So it is with Pooh and Piglet, when they learn to stop and listen without the noise of Rabbit making plans or Tigger bouncing around, they can begin to find their way home. It is an interesting twist in the story that at its end the only way Rabbit finds his way home is when he finally stops and listens for the yapping noises made by Tigger.
So it is also with us.
If we are always surrounded by noise
how will we ever hear the voice of our Beloved?
If we are always surrounded by noise
how will we ever hear the cries or our sisters and brothers in need?
If we are always surrounded by noise
how will we ever hear the call of those who have been sent to rescue us?
This is a hard task in our noisy media mad world. We may know, and have been told again and again, that our Beloved doesn’t always ‘speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,’ but instead in the ‘still small voice of calm’[1] but it is so so difficult to turn off the ‘radio’ of our lives so that we can find our way home.
However, we can’t always blame the world around us for the noise within us. Sometimes we just don’t want to listen, or more correctly we want our voice to be the only one speaking. If we do not cultivate some ‘noise-cancelling’ prayer habits we will turn the words of the young boy Samuel form ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening’ into ‘Listen God, it’s your servant who is speaking.’ (1 Samuel 3v1-10). And if we become accustomed to being the epicentre of our own noise then we will be as lost as Rabbit on a misty day in the 100 Aker Wood…
To Pray:
God, I offer myself to Thee
to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties, that victory over them
may bear witness to those I would help
of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!
(Alcoholics Anonymous)
To Do:
1) Sometime next week if you are in a car journey alone turn off the radio and SATNAV, if you are sure of your journey that is…
2) Plan to attend a Quiet Day before the end of the year. There are many available all around the world. If you are within striking distance of Felixstowe you will find a warm welcome at one of our Parish Quiet Days run at Lark Rise Retreats.
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Twitter as @SuffolkVicar, and on my public Facebook page Rev Andrew Dotchin
If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to vicar@felixparish.com
Acknowledgements:
Text from ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ by A.A. Milne copyright © The Trustees of the Pooh Properties.
Line illustrations copyright © The Estate of E.H. Shepard.
Colouring of the illustrations copyright © 1970 and 1973 The Estate of E.H. Shepard and HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Prayers are from ‘The Little Book of Prayers’ edited by David Schiller copyright © David Schiller 1996: Workman Publications.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
These Reflections, ‘Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2024
[1] Though the phrase ‘still small voice of calm’ has become part of our language the more correct translation ‘sound of sheer silence’ is even more challenging to our noisiness.
Suffolk Vicar 