Hmmmn - a little linen laundering

During a memorable conversation at the Midnight Buffet during the BE, some of us were reduced to near hysteria by tales of "the worst _________ ever". At times this afternoon, I wondered if today might qualify for a "worst ever" award - but then, other aspects of the day were soooo good.

Church this morning, for example, was pure joy. A notionally "Family Communion" it suffered from the absence of children (we did run to 2, but that's actually half of our usual Sunday attendance, so was a bit dispiriting) but the rest of the congregation were nothing daunted, so I still got to play with sand, rocks and jenga bricks, we all sang "The wise man built his house upon the rock" WITH actions (no, I didn't force anyone...they really did seem to be enjoying themselves) and the children gave everyone a small rock to take home.
However there was also one of those devastating "preach to yourself" moments during my talk, when I invited reflection on those unreliable foundations we too often use in life, - money, job, friends and family etc - and realised these were pretty close to my own foundations too. Sound of awful clunks as the penny dropped! But then God turned up in force as we came to Communion, and everything was lovely, most specially a wonderful guy with learning difficulties, who radiates Christ and said something I will treasure in my "Kingdom Box" for ever and a day...

Despite this, once home I was pretty unpleasant to the nearests and dearests who tried to give me a jolly day, and gloomily realised that family celebrations can be actively painful when there are chunks of the family missing in furrin parts, whether near or far.
otoh, I laughed myself silly over a wonderful card depicting some glamourous girls of yesteryear who proclaimed
"The new gin and tonic diet was brilliant...so far they had lost 3 days"
I revisited the joys of childhood with some hugely upmarket Rose Creme chocolates (from a disenchanted lawyer I know)and felt loved and remembered by all sorts of dear people, in all corners of the globe.
I did some long overdue work in the garden,walked the dog in a thoroughly enjoyable downpour and cleared the ironing pile while watching Inspector Lynley...and, as if in reward for so much virtue, Hugger Steward phoned from Darkest Africa for the quickest but most welcome of verbal hugs.

So, I'll have to delay the "Worst Ever" award for another year...and thank you all who with so many kind thoughs and messages persauded me to snap out of it. As some of you may remember, I'm 12 - and not always in a good way!