I don't usually give big shout-outs but this one is very due. I recently had a health scare with a melanoma (detected late) which meant I had to have surgery at the Royal Prince Alfred Melanoma Unit in Camperdown. Melanoma's are scary things because they are very aggressive cancers and kill a lot of people, sometimes within a few months. Understandably I was worried and nervous and planning for the worst, just in case.

But the doctors, nurses and staff at RPA are that good - compassionate, kind, efficient and skilful, that being in their hands brought much relief, as I am sure many others have found too. I cannot express my gratitude more fully which wells up inside me every time I think of them. Truly, I am grateful.

As for my faith, I have found that in throwing myself at the mercy of God, it has only redoubled my ardour. In short, I am much closer to God and for that reason alone, any suffering was well worth it. It's a shame that affliction seems such a booster to faith when we should be growing all the time.

But that, I suppose, is part of the human condition. Meanwhile, let's

Consider the lilies of the field
 
Flowers preach to us if we will hear:--
The rose saith in the dewy morn,
I am most fair;
Yet all my loveliness is born
Upon a thorn.
The poppy saith amid the corn:
Let but my scarlet head appear
And I am held in scorn;
Yet juice of subtle virtue lies
Within my cup of curious dyes.
The lilies say: Behold how we
Preach without words of purity.
The violets whisper from the shade
Which their own leaves have made:
Men scent our fragrance on the air,
Yet take no heed
Of humble lessons we would read.
 
But not alone the fairest flowers:
The merest grass
Along the roadside where we pass,
Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,
Tell of His love who sends the dew,
The rain and sunshine too,
To nourish one small seed.

Christina Rossetti