Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna

Day 7 – Wednesday after 1st Sunday of Lent

To Read:

…..no one fell under her spell more completely or willingly than me.  My work, which was in oils, was not more than five minutes’ walk away from home, so I was always home for dinner at about 12.30.  Up to this time the answer to Mum’s question as to what time I would be home that night as I left for the afternoon’s stint had been ‘Some time before midnight.’  Now things were different.  I was seen off by Anna from the top of the street, kissed wetly, promising to be back about six in the evening.  Knocking-off time usually meant a few pints in the pub on the way home and a few games of darts with Cliff and George, but not now.  When the hooter went I was off home.  I didn’t run exactly but walked very briskly.

That walk home was a pleasure;  every step was one step nearer.

The road I had to travel curved to the left in a gentle arc, and I had to walk just more than half the distance before the top of our turning came into sight, and there she was.  Come rain or shine, snow or icy wind, Anna was always there, not once did she miss this meeting, except – but that comes later.  I doubt if ever lovers met more joyously.  When she saw me coming round the bend of the road she came to meet me.

Anna’s ability to polish any situation was truly extraordinary.  She had some uncanny knack of doing the right thing at the right time to get the most out of an occasion.  I’ve always thought that children ran towards those they loved, but not Anna.  When she saw me she started to walk towards me, not too slowly, but not too quickly.  My first sight of her was too far away to distinguish her features;  she might have been any other child, but she wasn’t.  Her beautiful copper hair stood out for miles, there was no mistaking her.  

From the Scriptures:

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.  ² In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14v1-3)

To Reflect:

‘Don’t run, walk with purpose!’  The cry rings out again and again from officers to over-eager Air Cadets attending the annual camp at RAF Fairford where the Royal International Air Tattoo takes place every summer.  Sensible Health & Safety regulations dictate that a campsite packed with 800 Cadets and over 100 adult staff is full of all sorts of obstacles that will, literally, trip you up.  So running is banned and replaced with purposeful walking.

To be honest I don’t blame the cadets for wanting to get where they’re going to as quickly as possible.  They never tire of seeing yet another display by the Red Arrows and in recent years flocked around Maverick (aka Tom Cruise) who was very content to sign autographs for them.

When life has a purpose it takes on a different shape.  Fynn describes how before he met Anna going home was more of an amble via the pub, pints of beer and games of darts with him getting there about midnight.  Now he finds himself ‘not running exactly but walking very briskly’ arriving home a full six hours earlier!

What had changed about home, which was always a pleasant place for him, was that he now had a purpose to be there.  And that purpose was a person.  The relationship between Fynn and Anna was symbiotic.  Fynn provided Anna with a home and Anna gave Fynn a reason to be at home. 

We are most blessed if this side of Paradise we have a place we can call home.  For me, and I didn’t appreciate it when I was there as a student, I know I am ‘home’ whenever I am able to visit the Royal Hospital School where I spent my teenage years.  During my seven years there, as my father was serving in the Royal Navy, our family had a series of homes across the nation at different Navy Bases.  Leaving for School was for me a home-coming – until as recently as 2010 I lived there longer than I had lived anywhere else!  It is little wonder that our alumni use the hashtags #PartOfRHS and #RHSmadeMe.

For Anna and Fynn home was not a place, even though the ‘United Nations’ street with its ever-open doors was a pleasant place, but a relationship.  Look again at today’s Scripture reading.  The One Who Loves us Best on the night before Calvary does not look at the pain that lies ahead but at the followers left behind.  And seeing their pain promises a place to live, a home for the homeless, and even another Comforter to help guide them homeward.  Surely something towards which each of us can ‘walk with purpose?’

It is true that in this life we have no place to call our home and the one thing we are be certain of is that we will have trials and tribulations on the journey homeward.  But if we know the One towards whom we journey, the same One who comes towards us, we have nothing to fear.

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page  Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.  If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com

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