Post Jubilee Celebration Thoughts

We know some of the world was looking on 
and sending us up,
(I've seen some of the comments from a show in the U.S.!)
but as we like to laugh at ourselves too,
 hopefully this meant you were enjoying it with us
as we Brits of all colours and creeds
 got together and partied in celebration of 
the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

It has to be said that here on Shakespeare's sceptred isle 
we are used to never letting the weather dampen our spirits, 
but these were extreme conditions
 even for a British June.

Sorry to jar your nerve endings with a snap of hubby and I,
but this is the only photo I have of

 the somewhat soggy celebrations at our Jubilee street party.
It comes courtesy of my neighbour Janet,
 who had the sense to take her camera when I did not!

 The strange wincing expression on my face
 is due to the fact that while I was smiling into the camera

 a giant drip of cold water which had been gathering 
on the awning above my head  reached it's optimum 
and shot down the gap between my collar and
 my bare neck.

Never mind that we had been standing in a growing mini stream

as the rain poured down the gentle slope 
we had set up party on.

Never mind that the wind had increased it's gusts 

so that every once in a while 
the roofs of our various awnings got lifted

 and large water-shoots crashed down between the gaps.

We had fun anyway. 

There was a barbie, communal singing, games a-plenty,
 karaoke, young and old mingling to chat and laugh,
 eating and drinking as we did so.

We got to know a little of folks 
we never even knew lived in our street.

Connections were made that surprised us.

A lady who lives just around the corner from me,

 and whose face I cannot remember having seen before,
 was able to tell me about a career move

 an old friend of mine has just made,

whilst a neighbour from a few doors up
 found somebody living opposite us is sister
 to the best friend of her schoolgirl days.

 I could go on and on...

Suffice it to say that the queen's wish that 
celebrating the Jubilee 
would bring communities together
 reached even this corner of Coventry

Most wonderful perhaps
 was the great amount of work put in by one young family

 who had been spotted out at night
 clearing the party space of weeds and gravel, 

and who had been out early
 gathering chairs and awnings from neighbours

 to enable us to huddle together out of the rain.

At party time they handled the hot food, kept the music going,

 and gathered us for the games they had prepared.

The world may look like a rocky place

 but it's remarkable
 how much good there often is 
close to home

 that we just
 haven't seen yet.

There may still be the shot of water down the neck 
just as you smile,

but to adapt the old saying,

KEEP CALM, KEEP SMILING,
 AND CARRY ON!

BE BLESSED