Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Easter Day
To Read:
They walked on, thinking of This and That, and by-and-by they came to an enchanted place on the very top of the Forest called Galleons Lap, which is sixty-something trees in a circle; and Christopher Robin knew that it was enchanted because nobody had ever been able to count whether it was sixty-three or sixty-four, not even when he tied a piece of string round each tree after he had counted it. Being enchanted, its floor was not like the floor of the Forest, gorse and bracken and heather, but close-set grass, quiet and smooth and green. It was the only place in the Forest where you could sit down carelessly, without getting up again almost at once and looking for somewhere else. Sitting there they could see the whole world spread out until it reached the sky, and whatever there was all the world over was with them in Galleons Lap…..
Then, suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world with his chin in his hands, called out “Pooh!”
“Yes?” said Pooh.
“When I’m – when – Pooh!”
“Yes, Christopher Robin?”
“I’m not going to do Nothing any more.”
“Never again?”
“Well, not so much. They don’t let you.” Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent again.
“Yes, Christopher Robin?” said Pooh helpfully.
“Pooh, when I’m – you know – when I’m not doing Nothing, will you come up here sometimes?”
“Just Me?”
“Yes, Pooh.”
“Will you be here too?”
“Yes, Pooh, I will be really. I promise I will be, Pooh.”
“That’s good,” said Pooh.
“Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me, ever. Not even when I’m a hundred.”
Pooh thought for a little.
“How old shall I be then?”
“Ninety-nine.”
Pooh nodded.
“I promise,” he said.
Still with his eyes on the world Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh’s paw.
“Pooh,” said Christopher Robin earnestly, “if I – if I’m not quite -” he stopped and tried again – “Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won’t you?”
“Understand what?”
“Oh, nothing.” He laughed and jumped to his feet. “Come on!”
“Where?” said Pooh.
“Anywhere,” said Christopher Robin.
So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.
(The House at Pooh Corner – In Which Christopher Robin & Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place)
From the Scriptures:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
(Matthew 28v19-20)
To Reflect:
“Pooh, when I’m – you know – when I’m not doing Nothing, will you come up here sometimes?”
“Just Me?”
“Yes, Pooh.”
“Will you be here too?”
“Yes, Pooh, I will be really. I promise I will be, Pooh.”
At the end of our journey I want to mention two other stories. Christopher Robin, unlike Peter Pan, knows that he has to grow up and learn to do nothing less often. Like Bilbo Bagginshowever, he knows that ‘The road goes ever on’ and if we are careful to remember each other we will meet again on the journey.
Our Beloved in leaving us does not leave us desolate but leaves reminders of his presence. Perhaps not in an enchanted place but in ordinary things. In bread and wine, in the fellowship of fellow pilgrims, in the service of those who bear the image of God – from which no one is excluded.
We may not, as hoped the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, stay in the 100 Aker Wood forever but we are called to go in search of our Beloved amongst the sick and the imprisoned, the hungry and the thirsty, the stranger and the naked. He is indeed ‘with us always’ but not always in a familiar form. May you know a deep joy as you go out to seek Him.
To Pray:
Great Spirit, Great Spirit, my Grandfather,
all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike.
With tenderness have these come up out of the ground.
Look upon these faces of children without number
and with children in their arms,
that they may face the winds
and walk the good road
to the day of quiet.
(Black Elk)
To Do:
1) In the next month go to an additional service of communion and ‘remember Him’ as you eat the bread and drink the wine.
2) At your leisure read both ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’. There are many stories that we have not shared together which will bring us closer to our Beloved.
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
Suffolk Vicar 