“I’m doing alright” “I’m just getting on with things” have possibly been my most used sentences over the last couple of months, and on the whole that has been true. But then, there are moments.

Teaching Religious Studies, we look at festivals within religions. All religions have festivals, why? To remember moments, key moments that have shaped the religion. Sometimes those are the happy moments, but sometimes it’s seemingly bad moments, but still moments that have shaped the religion.

2.5 weeks ago I was ‘doing alright’ until I said the words to S ‘it’s Dads birthday today’ and the grief came over me, and kept doing so. Dad was never too fussed about his birthday, but it was still a moment, that we recognised, and this year, a reminder that he wasn’t with us to celebrate it. The Birmingham contingent met together in one of his favourite eateries and the Canterbury contingent had steak and chips in his honour, a moment.

Today, another moment, as his ashes were interred at our parish Church. It was lovely, especially as his final physical resting place, is in the place that has been has been his spiritual home for 39 years. It was lovely, but I wasn’t expecting the emotion that I felt (am feeling) as I knew it was a short, simple service with just the 5 of us (plus clergy – don’t want to offend) but it has been difficult, Whether that is because it felt like a final goodby, or because I hadn’t necessarily prepared myself as much as I had for the funeral, but it probably didn’t help with heading back to Canterbury afterwards as well – something I always struggle with, especially recently.

Moments! When something specific happens – positive, negative, happy, sad – for me this week has been full of them. Celebrating the husbands birthday, catching up with school friends, remembering mum and dads anniversary, celebrating a friend’s wedding, inferring dads ashes. That’s a lot of moments BUT it’s not all about the moments

Religious calendars have key events, but in the liturgical calendar of the Church of England the majority of the calendar is ‘ordinary time’ where we remember the teachings of Jesus, the everyday, and its green to represent a time of growth. There are going to be key moments when I will remember Dad, and those days may seem more momentous, but I also know that there will be things in the ordinary, the day to day, as that is when I experienced him the most, and where he helped me to grow.

Moments happen, but it’s the ordinary where we grow the most.