Last day at the church and full time employment
And today is the beginning of the rest of my life. My last day of full time employment was yesterday and very appropriate that it was the 4th of July and Independence day. Lots of saying goodbye to people and taking photographs with people I'd see most days for the past 10 years. Was it emotional? well yes, it felt great to be moving on!
There were a couple of very unusual synchronicities yesterday. As the place was locking up, I was in the courtyard chatting to the Muslim security guard who is from Pakistan about the recent events in Iraq and Syria. I specifically said to him that I thought some of my ideas would strongly appeal to younger generation Muslims and Jews living in that region in the future. Moments later a couple with their young daughter who had earlier been in the church garden we're leaving and I said a friendly goodbye to them all. The man who I'd never seen before in my life replied farewell and also said that he hoped my research is going well. This surprised me very much and I asked him how he knew about my work. Apparently a friend of his called Rhona, who I don't know and can't place, saw me at a public talk and recommended me to him and that he was subscribed to me on youtube(I've only got about a very few 1000+ subscribers). He gave me his card, I'd run out of mine. Afterwards I said to the security guard words to the effect how great and amazing it was that the last member of the public that I would greet in my job also happened to know about and appreciate what I do. This was actually the very first and only time that this ever happened. Anyway, later on I inspected the guy's card and of all places he was based in Tel Aviv Israel.
More strange happenings as I drove home. After tying up loose ends and taking a whole load of photographs of various places in and around the church for when I'm feeling sentimental in the future, it was late past 9:30pm, getting dark and starting to rain when I set off in my car. It had been a very hot day and the rain felt pleasant. As I got out of central London and passed the busy intersection outside Camden tube station a few miles from my house and slowed at the light I saw a sight which literally stunned me. A slightly hunch backed, homeless looking person, wearing far too many layers of clothes for the warm weather, was waiting to cross the road. It was the schizophrenic bag lady who ten years ago, in the early hours of the night before I started my very first day working at the church, gave me an old book called 'Wai-Wai' which is my name written twice. I was coming out of a shop and she was sitting on the pavement outside and asked me if I wanted to buy her book. I said the title of the book was my name and so she gave it to me. It was about a tribe of Indians living in Brazil called the wai-wai. In 2008 I was working at a memorial service for an Iranian born lady who was heavily into Sufism(Mystical Islam) at the church, and during it while reading the order of service I discovered she was the recently deceased widow of the guy who wrote the wai-wai book, an English explorer called Nicholas Guppy. And now on the day I finished my job of ten years I happen to encounter the homeless bag lady again. Though I'd seen her a few times in the intervening 10 years, I'd not done so for a least 3 or 4 years. The timing of this sighting seemed to me very uncanny. I'd already made in my mind a connection with the book and the soccer tournament currently happening in Brazil but didn't think much of it. But as I reflected on the strange lady with the strange book, there was an amazing sense of closure and a strong sense that life really is scripted. I am as a sleep walker, treading a path that was has already been laid down for me by providence. One chapter ends and another one begins...
There were a couple of very unusual synchronicities yesterday. As the place was locking up, I was in the courtyard chatting to the Muslim security guard who is from Pakistan about the recent events in Iraq and Syria. I specifically said to him that I thought some of my ideas would strongly appeal to younger generation Muslims and Jews living in that region in the future. Moments later a couple with their young daughter who had earlier been in the church garden we're leaving and I said a friendly goodbye to them all. The man who I'd never seen before in my life replied farewell and also said that he hoped my research is going well. This surprised me very much and I asked him how he knew about my work. Apparently a friend of his called Rhona, who I don't know and can't place, saw me at a public talk and recommended me to him and that he was subscribed to me on youtube(I've only got about a very few 1000+ subscribers). He gave me his card, I'd run out of mine. Afterwards I said to the security guard words to the effect how great and amazing it was that the last member of the public that I would greet in my job also happened to know about and appreciate what I do. This was actually the very first and only time that this ever happened. Anyway, later on I inspected the guy's card and of all places he was based in Tel Aviv Israel.
More strange happenings as I drove home. After tying up loose ends and taking a whole load of photographs of various places in and around the church for when I'm feeling sentimental in the future, it was late past 9:30pm, getting dark and starting to rain when I set off in my car. It had been a very hot day and the rain felt pleasant. As I got out of central London and passed the busy intersection outside Camden tube station a few miles from my house and slowed at the light I saw a sight which literally stunned me. A slightly hunch backed, homeless looking person, wearing far too many layers of clothes for the warm weather, was waiting to cross the road. It was the schizophrenic bag lady who ten years ago, in the early hours of the night before I started my very first day working at the church, gave me an old book called 'Wai-Wai' which is my name written twice. I was coming out of a shop and she was sitting on the pavement outside and asked me if I wanted to buy her book. I said the title of the book was my name and so she gave it to me. It was about a tribe of Indians living in Brazil called the wai-wai. In 2008 I was working at a memorial service for an Iranian born lady who was heavily into Sufism(Mystical Islam) at the church, and during it while reading the order of service I discovered she was the recently deceased widow of the guy who wrote the wai-wai book, an English explorer called Nicholas Guppy. And now on the day I finished my job of ten years I happen to encounter the homeless bag lady again. Though I'd seen her a few times in the intervening 10 years, I'd not done so for a least 3 or 4 years. The timing of this sighting seemed to me very uncanny. I'd already made in my mind a connection with the book and the soccer tournament currently happening in Brazil but didn't think much of it. But as I reflected on the strange lady with the strange book, there was an amazing sense of closure and a strong sense that life really is scripted. I am as a sleep walker, treading a path that was has already been laid down for me by providence. One chapter ends and another one begins...
posted by Unknown @ 9:30 AM
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