Rainy Day Talk

The rain poured down and the wind beat around the church this morning. I was waiting for Justin, the local promoter who organises the live music events in the church, or did before March. Don and Carol arrived. I've never had anything really approaching a spiritual conversation with Don and Carol any time in the last ten years, and they aren't the most regular attenders on Sundays in normal times. I thought they'd come to do the cleaning and then remembered we haven't had a standard cleaning rota for ages, as Corona-cleaning takes precedence over common-or-garden dusting and polishing. But they were there to sit and meditate for 15 minutes or so as they don't feel confident attending corporate worship yet. 

I wondered what Justin really wanted from me, as his concerts won't be able to start again for ages - not until we can let people in on a 1m-distancing basis, as only then will he stand any chance of breaking even. But I think he just wanted to explain his thinking. To me - to anyone, perhaps.

There was no room at the café over the road so I made to go home but noticed that Joy was sitting outside with her son, so said hello. She and husband Tim are both lawyers - they don't make it to church very often but both children were baptised with us. She's near-desperate to get back to the office, at least for a couple of days a week - working from home all the time is much too unsettled. Tim is working for the properties department of a local authority elsewhere in Surrey and is often working until 1am. 'We sometimes see each other at weekends', she smiled, collected her coffee from Astrid at the hatch, and they went off into the rain.