Today I had lunch with the Archbishop of Canterbury for the first time.
Day 50- half way through already!
Today it was good to be able to attend a lunch where the Archbishop was in conversation with a group of artists and discussed a wide range of things as he answered questions from them.
It was fascinating to hear what Rowan Williams had to say and he responded well to questions ranging from those about his home at Lambeth Palace and divisions in the Anglican church worldwide to biguns such as love, joy and the meaning and life. Lots to chew on for a Tuesday lunch break! I was almost moved to tears at one point. Oh the power of the dog collar on me....
Was a really interesting encounter and I was glad to invite myself along (thinking it'd make a good first was good motivation-I have become bolder and better at grabbing these opportunities over the last 50 days).
Rowan Williams talked about 'firsts' and made a really poignant point about how the thing is with firsts is that you can only do them once. Which may sound obvious but it rung true. He said that doing things in the spirit of the first time is just as precious.
I like this point and can see that it makes sense- rather than be so worried about whether things I do are genuine firsts, anything can be done with the spirit of 'firstness' and it is this attitude of freshness, seeing things as if the first time and experiencing them a new is just as valuable and can be applied to things everyday.
The spirit of first times and newness is perhaps the most valuable and exciting thing to learn how to adopt out of these first 50 days.
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