The Singing Nun

Most glorious and holy God,
whose servant Hildegard, strong in the faith,
was caught up in the vision of your heavenly courts:
by the breath of your Spirit
open our eyes to glimpse your glory
and our lips to sing your praises with all the angels;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The packing has started. Yesterday, 15 boxes of books plus a goodly pile of coats were stowed away. And that was OK. Has to be done. In God we trust etc. Then I had a very old fashioned experience at the doctors. I went in to drop off my repeat prescription form for the wee happy pills and to book an appointment with my GP. Said GP was standing in the office phoning looked up and told the receptionist: "Don't bother with that; I'll see Mr Penman NOW." Cor! I walked into my surgery and saw my own doctor within 10 minutes. When did that last happen?. He wanted to update me on the referral on Aspergers diagnosis. He/we has been sent from community Psychiatric to psychology to Regional Autism team only to be sent back to Psychiatric. Each section said "We don't do that referral". One not terribly happy/impressed German medic! Ratty letter has been sent and we await results!

And what of Hildegard, singing nun and German feminist? "Caught up in the vision..by the breath of the Spirit": it's wonderful when that happens, when we are enthused and inspired by a vision of something greater and more lovely than grey reality. The bother is we can fall into the trap of always looking for the next vision and perennially looking out on the world saying "If only..". If only I had a man/woman, if only I had a better job, if only the Church was less homophobic/more friendly to minoriites etc, etc, etc. The Dorothy syndrome, always thinking it's blissful over the rainbow rather than back in Kansas with Aunt Em. The trick is to be visionary with your feet planted firmly on the ground rather than with the plates of meat planted firmly in the air. And boy, am I bad at that!

Which reminds me: I need some shaving cream!