Interconnectedness

Interconnectedness.
I'm not actually sure that's a real word and that I shouldn't have put a hyphen. I'm usually such a grammar pedant but I have no inclination to go and check it in the dictionary - not after my lovely walk! It seems unimportant. That's walking for you!

Today's walk took me up Minster Road, round Forge Court, back onto Minster Road and down Longboat Lane, Old Station Court, Pullman Lane, Prospect Road, Bullus Road,, Saxilby Place, Farm Road, East Road, North Road, Manor Road, St John's Road, Manor Close then back over the canal and up through the Churchyard to home.

Those of you who know that part of Stourport well will probably have worked out why I've chosen the title for this blog entry. If you're on foot, there is absolutely no need to return to Minster Road to access all of these roads, once you've gone down Longboat Lane. If you're on foot, you can avoid the busy traffic and the to-ing and fro-ing down the roads because you just slip through lanes between the roads.  It makes for a sort of secret retreat from the world; it gives the area a sort of independence and cohesion. Well, that's how it felt as I walked today.

I'm not great on North, South, East and West unless I'm inside a church building. Today, I got a bit of deja vue as I had to repeat myself around North and East roads a little, having lost my bearings, I did some of it twice! I did part of Manor Road and St John's Road twice, too; this was because my map led me to believe I could find a through road that doesn't appear to be there! The similarity to other areas of life wasn't lost on me; sometimes we need to do things at least twice to work them out. There was a foretaste of things to come, too; in order to get to new places, I will have to cover old ground again first. It's inevitable. It's that way in other areas of life, too.

I was reminded of the interconnectedness again on my way home; meeting familiar faces on the canal bank and explaining what I was doing. Yes, I'm walking. Yes, I'm getting to see my two parishes from a different perspective and to explore them properly as opposed to turning up to one house in a car but I'm also connecting with the places where the people live, meet, walk. These three women were returning from a lunch together and there on the canalbank, we re-connected in time and a particular place apparently as a random event. We are all interconnected - not just those streets off Minster Road; not just the women on the canal bank or the church folk I met on Manor Road. Not just the tired fisherman carrying his kit home, the dog walking his man (and yes I mean it that way round!), the cyclists - not just the people we see and speak to but all of us.

Japan, Lybia, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan............

The swans are building their nest on the canal bank. I had food on my table this lunchtime. I don't live in fear of war or oppression. I am blessed by fortune of birth and I am thankful. In other places, creation is groaning, wailing, suffering, dying and so much of it is human-made. So when I'm tempted to be a bit softly, softly on this whole 'penitential Lent thing' the news reminds me of why it is necessary.