note to self.......

do you ever know all is not ok but you cant put your finger on what's different......well that was how i was feeling late this afternoon....i normally finish work at 5:30pm and today i couldnt understand why it had gone so quiet and why everyone around me seemed to be going home extra early....i kept checking my mobile phone which was my watch as well today as i forgot my wrist one..... and it said 4:30pm.....so i got on with some work and busied myself for a while longer...all the while thinking...it is such the ghost town here this afternoon.....then my phone rings and stuart asks 'are you home yet'...to which i reply 'no, dont be silly its only 5pm'........stuart laughs not sure if i am serious or not and says.....alison what time is it.....annoyed at being asked such a silly question..i look at the little clock near my desk and ..say 6.10pm......penny drops.....ahhhhhhhhhh.........my mobile phone hadn't changed automatically from the time change the other day and here i am wasting my time away at work when i should be home eating my tea.......no wonder the day felt never ending.........i hung up andnot wanting to waste any more precious time and swiftly made my way to the car............feeling like quite the sad girl.....note to self......update clock on phone asap...........

favourite things *4

it's been a while..but here is one of my all time favourite things......this thing takes me straight back to my childhood every time and is as comforting as a hot drink on a cold day or putting your socks on after they have heated up on the radiator..........here it is........

i love to listen to the call of the wood pigeon in the early morning....and just to bless me i often have one sitting on my chimney top on sunny mornings and his call echos down into the living room........:-)



listen out for him..........

forever being changed.....

i have been reminded afresh over the last few days.....how much my life has changed since i first met Jesus and began following Him...........it is so easy to be lulled into a sense of not going anywhere or that nothing is changing in our lives fast enough.............we need to be reminded to look back and see how far He has brought us.........as i remember back to the day i gave my life to Him 15 years ago i am amazed at who i have become.....from a broken mess full of anger and hurt ........ to one filled with joy, peace and purpose..........i would be nothing without HIm and i am grateful that He will complete the good work He started all those years ago...............i heard someone say 'i am not were i want to be yet...but thank goodness i am not were i once was'......

take a moment today to look back and see how far He has brought you.......................its a marathon not a sprint.........

pinatas and helium balloons..................

today was my little nieces 2nd birthday party....i think it has been quite some time since i consumed so much sugar....and i must admit on occasion being a little more hyper than the kids......maybe it was the intake of helium from stray balloons that did it ..i'm not sure....... when the kids struggled to break open the pinatas to release the goodies...the grown ups were very quick to step up and give it their best shot....at one point launching it free into the sky missing my mums head by a whisker......i on the other hand used my two year old niece as my cover story saying she needed help to hit it as she was to little to reach.......i think that on the inside we are all little kids waiting for a moment to drop our grown up guard and take our best shot at the pinatas...eat jelly....and make our voices like mickey mouse with the thanks of left over balloons............happy birthday lovely becca.......sleep well....x

we choose peace................

our wee country has been shaken this last couple of days with the shooting of two soldiers and one policeman and others seriously injured.....a flashback into the past of what used to be sadly common place...years later ..standing out starkly on front pages of newspapers....today i had a lady come into my workplace...who was shaken and in tears...as the motorway was closed due to further scares..and she could not get home.......she said through tears....i dont have the strength to go through this again...meaning the mindless hateful shedding of innocent blood on this land..........i said to her.....we as a people cannot be silent.....we need to join our voices and proclaim aloud...that we refuse to go backwards ...we refuse to walk the old path of violence...we choose peace and we refuse to settle for anything less..................she dried her eyes and said....yes you are right.........
as the church we need to be heard and seen in these days more than ever.....leading the way of peace......we do not have the time to be complacent.....expecting someone else to fix it.........

soar in the storms...................

i have been so bad at blogging this last few weeks.......as i feel that there is so much going on i dont know where to start...so sometimes instead of just choosing one thing..i do nothing........i am in the throws of diving into a new job at the moment.....and still living in a building site...after the flood..........so much is happening in the world of ally........in the midst of all this excitement i am always learning more about myself and being stretched in my walk with God.....having so much in my life changing all at once..is always fertile land for God do do some refining....and my goodness...He is making good use of this time..................one thing God has been speaking to me about this week in the midst of all that is going on ........is to be like the eagle and learn to soar in the storm......Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher