Vicars letter

February 2019

Click for the Vicars letter from January 2019

Quiet month the time to work on your wish

It always strikes me that February is a bit of a quiet month. Christmas and the New Year celebrations are well behind us. The Tax Return has been completed ... at the last minute. (Remember that promise you made yourself this time last year to do it much earlier next year? What happened to that well-intentioned plan?) We’ve got used to being back to work or back to school. So it’s a quiet time for you ... unless:
- You’re getting married soon. Or,
- You’re celebrating a big birthday (Helen) or a special anniversary soon. Or,
- You’re involved in the village pantomime. (Lines learnt; costume sorted; now the performances and ‘the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd’) Or,
- You’re organising the Canterbury Choristers concert (Saturday 9 February), or the Cranbrook Choral Society community concert for the Hospice in the Weald (Saturday 23 February); or he many other events happening locally this month. Or,
- You’re planning for all the Lent and Easter services and events. (There I go again, “looking forward” - remember the message last month?) Or,
- You’re trying to come up with a Brexit plan that your party will agree with, Parliament will agree with, the British people will agree with and ‘Brussels’ will agree with. (Good luck with that one.)

At least, with all that going on in a quiet month, we’ve got pancakes to look forward to on Shrove Tuesday. (There I go again, looking forward!) But wait. Easter is late this year (Sunday 21 April); so Ash Wednesday is late. Which means pancake day is late, too; it’s not until Tuesday 5 March - oh no! But the good news is: February is a short month. Only 28 days - 28 days of a quiet month, and we’ll all still feel very busy.

Now the problem with all that is this: do you remember those New Year resolutions you made? Or do you remember those plans you had for 2019; the exciting or important thing you wanted to make sure happened in your life this year? By the time you read this, we’ll be one twelfth of the way through. By the time we get to the end of February - only another 28 days - we’ll be one sixth of the way through the year. Have you started to action that exciting or important thing for 2019 yet? No? Then you’d better make a start, because in 28 days’ time we’ll be over 16% of the way through the year; and before you know it, it will be Easter, then summer. Then, just like your promise to yourself last year to do your Tax Return earlier, the year will run away with you and with it your dream for the year will disappear too.

February is actually a (relatively) quiet month, so use it to start work on your wish, your dream, your plan for 2019. In the words of Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard: “Make it so.”

Revd. David Commander
Rector

Benefice of Benenden and Sandhurst

T: 01580 240658 E: david@dc-uk.co.uk