Â鶹ԼÅÄ

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good morning.

Tomorrow I am going away for my best friend Chris’ 30th Birthday. I’ve always loved birthdays. From a young age they feel like an excuse to celebrate life, and especially as a child the idea of eating far too many sweets and hanging out with your friends was always one I looked forward to. The last birthday party I went to was Darren’s 50th. The twist was that I had never met Darren before. He and his wife and kids had seen me performing in Edinburgh in 2019 and thought it might be a nice addition to proceedings to have some poetry performed throughout the day.

It was only as the guests arrived and I realised I knew nobody and they all knew each other, that as much as Darren might vouch for me, his guests probably wouldn’t have listed a spontaneous 45 minute poetry reading as something they hoped might occur on the day they were seeing each other in person for the first time in months.

Sure enough when the performance came those in the front rows seemed engaged enough while those at the back continued their conversations, and at one point I was upstaged by a barking dog. When Darren suggested I could do another late-night set at 10pm after his friend has finished their fire-dancing routine I thought the moment had probably passed, but also said yes because of birthday rules.

It just so happened at this moment that the sun had gone down and a hush descended on the previously boisterous crowd. Rather than the pre-planned party pieces I had in mind I ended up reading mostly gentle love poems and this particular group of 50-100 strangers ended up being the most intimate performance I had had all year. This moment was only surpassed when the rest of the evening was spent with guests coming up to me and telling me their own love stories of how they had met their partners, because I had been vulnerable enough to share mine with them.

God of surprises, I pray you will stay with us as we step out of our comfort zones. May we be reminded that there is so much we do have in common with those we deem ‘strangers’, and as we re-enter social situations for the first time in so long, may you give us the courage to make those connections.

Amen.