FLOWERS NOT WASTING THEIR SWEETNESS ON THE DESERT AIR

For years now I've been sending my long-suffering children (all adult) a nightly collective email.

Events and encounters amusing and embarrassing, brilliant ideas and appeals to their better nature, several short paragraphs usually, all leading to the particular brilliant idea which inspired the venture.

That in turn was inspired by a few verses in the Divine Office which cut me to the quick:


Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which  I command you this day shall be upon your heart;and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6: 4-7).


I realised how far I’d fallen short of this ideal I'd fallen and thought, I know, I'll send them a line or two every night from whatever it is I'm currently reading – which apart from the daily rag (The Dominion Post) is exclusively what’s called 'spiritual reading' (such a rebarbative description for such utterly absorbing material. Once upon a time I devoured literary fiction, but no more. A friend who's HOD Speech and Drama at leading 'gels' ’ school says I don't know what I'm missing but I do, and that's exactly why I'm not missing it).

I suspect my kids skip the bit in italics at the end of my nightly message, and read only the come-on.

So not wanting to have my flowers wasting their sweetness on the desert air I thought, I know! I can post my nightly ‘holy thought’ on my blog.

So now you’re in for it.