Generosity and Gratitude

Having enjoyed a few days in Derbyshire, yesterday we drove to our Airbnb in Yorkshire, described as a ‘delightful rustic stay with a little luxury’.

At a family meal last night Lauren, who’s from Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, explained that Ballycastle is famous for yellowman, dulse, and the Lammas Fair. I hadn’t heard of any of them.

Apparently yellowman (yellaman) is a very sweet toffee-honeycomb-candy; dulse is an nutritious seaweed that tastes like bacon.

The Lammas Fair has been held in Ballycastle on the last weekend in August since the seventeenth century with music, festivities, and huge celebrations. Next weekend Lauren’s going home to enjoy it.

Old Testament Jews had their ‘Feast of First Fruits’… Old English villagers thanked their gods, celebrating the beginning of harvest… Lammas comes from an old English word meaning ‘loaf mass’… Loaves, baked from the first of the wheat harvest, would be blessed at church.

Lammas is a feast of gratitude for God’s generosity.

Later today we shall witness Hester and Chris’ marriage, celebrating love, given and received, generously, gratefully.

The traditional wedding vows ‘…to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part…’ are about the most generous giving of one person to another.

The traditional wedding reading: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered… is about love that keeps on giving generously.

It’s good to be grateful for what we have – Christmas presents, a new car, the summer holiday, our loving family… for small things – the rain drop, warm toast, a child’s laughter, clean socks…

This morning I’m musing on the phrase in the prayer of St Francis ‘it is in giving that we receive’, and the gratitude that starts, not with our getting or receiving, but with our generous giving.