Sin is necessary, but all will be well and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well

Julian Of Norwich. This is to day's theme, that Sin is Necessary but that All Will Be Well.

Well, I jolly well hope so. When I have misunderstandings with Sons and Daughter, I have a nose dive into worry and self examination. If I had breast fed my infants, would they have a clearer knowledge of right and wrong? If I had not allowed 16 Year Old Son to make a bed for his best friend (youngest child of very rich parents who had every conceivable luxury) in his bedroom wardrobe at the age of 7, and said friend had come for a much looked forward to sleep over - would my little angel have a higher IQ and say What - Another Exam Mother? Just Up My Street. And did I ever, in my unguarded moments, give the impression that I don't care about manners and kindness and courtesy? (Don't mind her, that's just my mother eating her dinner from a trough on the floor. Her cursing and swearing isn't personal, please let it wash over you).

Who knows. You can only do so much as a parent, and I certainly wonder at the way my wonderful childrens' minds work and the paths they take. Their independance and thinking is very like mine but I am teetotal and very healthy. If you read a list of my likes and dislikes you may well get in your car and come round and rescue my sweeties from one of the most boring uneventful mothers you have ever come across, and you may well take said babies of mine to a pub and fill them with fatty foods sprinkled with sugar and washed down with a long slow pint of gin and tonic drunk through a straw. It is true that I am a non drinking, non smoking, non drug taking, exercise-loving vegetarian. It is true that I am an artist and terribly creative (and therefore to my kiddies a little eccentric) and it is true I don't like telly very much and I love an early night...but I am open minded, loving and full of sympathy and wonder at their dreams. I encourage independance and support their experiments in finding their feet and their mad attempts to find an identity.


And out of all this comes the quote from Julian of Norwich. Even out of context, not read as part of her spiritual writings, it is stangely comforting. I will end on it as well as begin on it. The quote means that our disagreements and bad days are necessary because in the wider perspective, we will be alright. We will manage.

"Sin is necessary, but all will be well and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well"