Sue's notes to self

Having spent over half a lifetime in Guiding, I am familiar with the concept of ‘Be Prepared’, even if I don’t always remember to be so. Of course, you can’t be prepared for absolutely everything. Nobody expects the unexpected, or so they say. A pessimist tends towards the gloomy side and expects the worst. An optimist (if there are any left) will tend to expect the best. I’d like to say that I am more like the latter, but I’d be telling a fib. Then again, I am not entirely the former, I do hope for better outcomes. Maybe, being realistic, I am a realist, or even a pragmatist.

I do tend to take practical steps to be prepared though. I have been known to pack a spare toilet roll when we go on holiday, just in case they have not left us enough and we run out in the middle of the night, before the next room servicing. I have even been known to take the last fews bits of a roll and hide them, leaving only the one on the holder, so they have to leave us a spare. There’s being prepared for you – or something like that. In my handbag I carry a spare fold-up bag in case I buy anything, but that’s practical sense in this day of reusing rather than throwing away.

One of my habits of preparedness is to have at least two of everything that use a lot of in the cupboard. This is not appreciated by the other half, especially when I lose track of my stockpiles. It was not so frowned upon when we didn’t run out of toilet roll when others did. Though nowadays I buy in bulk, 48 rolls every few months from ‘Who Gives A Crap’ (other toilet rolls are available). At least with these subscription buys you can delay them if necessary.

In my younger days, as a Girl Guide, I always had a clean hankie, a piece of string, a plaster, and a ‘coin appropriate for the phone-box of the time’ in my pocket. I had a compass on my belt in case I got lost and, at specific times only, a pocket knife. 😱 Now there’s something you can’t carry around these days. I was prepared for anything, except growing up. Nothing quite prepares you for being an adult.

Later in life I learned new things to always carry around, but some of the above remain the same. The mobile phone replaces the coin, the packet of tissues replaces the hankie, and the first of these can answer for a few other things too – a map, location finder, cash, camera…. so many things. How on earth did we manage when I was young? Nowadays my ‘don’t leave home without it’ is probably phone, glasses, pack of tissues and keys. I mustn’t forget the keys! With these I can face the world.

So why am I pondering this today, on a Sunday when we are supposed to chill. The thing is my sermon (yes, you heard right) started off with contemplating the vast number of crepis capillaris (smooth hawksbeard) in our churchyard. I was thinking about abundance and extravagant generosity among other things, and they were to illustrate the wonder of nature that produces so much – without our help, just insects to pollinate and wind to spread the seeds – and in such beauty, variety and regularity. Shame we have to interfere! The trouble started on Saturday when we heard the lawnmowers in the north churchyard and realised that my sermon illustration was now no more. However, I was prepared (sort of) because I knew where there were some, in our garden. Not the same you say, and you’d be right. If I’d been really prepared I would have asked for a patch of them to be left. Okay, so I had to think on my feet – I was not prepared – nobody expects the lawnmowers to be out after a very, very wet day.

So now, in future, I will make sure that my sermon illustrations cannot disappear overnight, just as I don’t let toilet rolls disappear over night. I will … Be Prepared.

16th July 2023