From the Rector

Dear Everybody, hello again.

As I sit at my desk, I look out at a hole in the sky-line where there was once a tree.  The man from Breckland Conservation had told me that I couldn’t cut the tree down because the ivy in which it was covered was good protection for the birds.

But it was the ivy that did it in.  At one point in the recent gales I was looking at it and thought: “That tree is bending a lot.” Then: “How is that tree going to get upright again?” Then: “Oh, it’s not going to” as slowly and gracefully it lowered itself to the ground.

Some actions which we do with the best intentions have consequences we don’t intend or desire.  I expect that there are many times when you were trying to do the right thing, and it was taken wrongly.  The tree was a good idea in one way, but the windage from the ivy was too much for it.

And, like the majority of fallen trees, once an action has been done, we cannot recall it, we cannot take it back.  There are moments that we wish we could have over again.  And that’s not just from unintended consequences, but also because we’ve been inattentive, careless or unkind.  Trouble is, life is not a computer game, and although we have many chances, we can’t wind back time and try again. Senior politicians can’t undo what they did at fifteen.  I think that the number of TV programmes about time-travel are linked to this feeling of “if only”.  Living in the ‘now’ can be hard.

Saying sorry and forgiveness happen when we know that something cannot be taken back.  We can’t change the past.  But we can work on changing ourselves, so that next time, we act differently.  In Lent, Christians think of how they can, with God’s help, become people who react more responsibly and lovingly.  But for all of us, whatever our faith, our past doesn’t stop us changing for the better.

God bless you.                      David Head