I have had several conversations recently that have stood out to me for different reasons. Different people, different circumstances have all pointed up things I may need to know, to pay attention to.
Friday
I had a conversation with one friend about a relationship I was having problems with, and forgiveness came up. Later, I met up with another friend, and he was talking about a talk he'd heard recently, which was talking about forgiveness and how it needs to work. Which made a lot of sense, and was really helpful at the time. And another thing he said was about the blog - that my strongest posts were ones where I was talking about ideas, rather than what I've been up to. Which is something I've been trying to do more of since then.
Saturday
Work as usual was followed by a BBQ to celebrate a friend's birthday. Which was really nice - one of the nicest evenings I've had in quite some time. Chilling with a bunch of friends, and a lot of silliness was the order of the day. And I managed to have a long, rambling conversation with the person I am having problems with. Which is a very good sign.
Sunday
A nice relaxing afternoon, where I wrote a poem about the previous evening. Which is good - writing is always good. And in the evening, we had a speaker talking about Compassion UK at church, and I thought about my sponsored child, who I haven't been in touch with for a while now. I was chatting with a friend, and she was saying that she was the same, that she hadn't written to hers for even longer. So we both came away feeling that that was something we needed to attend to - I haven't done it yet. I also met someone new at church who was just sponsoring a child, and met up with an old friend who is a Compassion advocate; it was good to see her, to catch up for a bit, and to find out what's new in her life.
Tuesday
I went round to see a couple of friends in the evening. They live pretty near me, and they have invited me to come round often; but I don't often take them up on it - the last time I went round was just after my birthday. But it's always a nice evening when I do go round; and this was no exception. There was a lot of laughter, and we talked about poetry, which is always a good thing.
Thursday
Two conversations stood out today; one on Street Teams and one with a friend a bit later.The first one was with a guy called Darren, who started talking about basically ghost stories that had happened to him. He said sometimes he felt that someone or something was trying to get through to him, and I just felt this nudge to suggest he asked God to speak to him. He said he felt that was a good idea, that he used to pray, and he felt he should get back to it; and also that he wanted to read the Bible more, and asked if he could ask me if he had any questions about it. I agreed, as long as he doesn't expect me to have all the answers, and he said that was fine. So I look forward to hearing more about what he finds. And the other was with a friend, to discuss an idea I had to start a Christian publisher. He was very encouraging, and suggested the next step was to pray about a mission statement, so I've been doing that.
Sunday
Sunday morning was the celebration of the dedication of Adelaide Read, and led to lots of generally quite chatty and relaxing conversations - celebration is always good. And in the evening I was chatting to a couple who may want to get involved with Street Teams. Which would be good, as we may well be losing a few members over the next few months.
So, all sorts of different conversations that made me think in some way about (my) relationships. Relationships both show you something of who you are, and to a certain extent shape you too. And the fact that mine are so varied is almost certainly a good thing. And thinking about them has brought certain things to mind. For instance, that relationships work best when you are able to just be in each others' company. However, conversely, they only really grow when you make the effort to actually do things together, to spend time together; it doesn't just happen. But, most importantly, they are one of the things that make life worth living.
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