May 30 and 31st

Day 30
Still at Sheldon but rang home to discover Bev had hurt her back. So decided to leave for home after lunch a day early. I felt that my time there was complete and that the extra hours would not have added anything significant. I also wanted to be home to give Bev help.

Journey was uneventful. Stopped at Sedgemoor for a drink and a nap. Arrived home about 7.00 to find Bev walking very gingerly. She had done a lot in the garden and around the house and had just flipped the lid of the kitchen bin when her back went into a spasm. This is not the first time it has happened.

Day 31
Took Bev to doctor who prescribed anti inflammatory drugs and painkillers. We had a good day and got washing done and things sorted. As the day went on Bev's back improved and she had a much better night, PTL.

May 26 to 29

Day 26

“ One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can only collect a few; and they are more beautiful if they are few. My life at home, I begin to realise, lacks this quality of significance, and therefore of beauty, because there is so little empty space. The space is scribbled on; the time has been filled. There are so few empty pages in my engagement pad, or empty hours in the day, or empty rooms in my life in which to stand alone and find myself. Too many activities, and people and things.” from Gift from the sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Day 27

Psalm 131 “My heart is not proud” “I have calmed myself and quietened my ambitions”

1 Sam 16:7 “The Lord looks at the heart”

Matt:23:26 – 28 “Whitewashed tombs”

Today has been very wet. Heard rain in the night and it has rained on and off all day, at times very heavy. The birds on the feeder are so bedraggled! A Great Spotted Woodpecker has been to the feeder several times and appears to be taking food away, presumably to feed its young. The Nuthatch is a regular as are Sparrows, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Green Finches and Chaffinches which feed under the feeder catching the fallen bits.

Day 28

Psalm 143:8 Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.

Isaiah 55: 2,3 Why...labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, that you may live.

John 16:32 each to your own home....

After lunch listened to cricket and had a doze. England close to winning Test but decided to go for a walk. A Gentle Stroll around the lanes. Basically it was down the drive to the Doddiscombsleigh road and keep turning left. It was on roads all the way which was good as we had had a lot of rain. Some cars on first stretch then almost nothing. Beautiful weather, sun very warm and everything luxuriating after yesterday's downpour. Some quite sharp hills both up and down so a bit puffed at times. Had a chat to some cows and greeted various birds and flowers. Came back to railway bridge and almost lengthened walk to take in Teign river and railway but thought it might be showery so walked straight back into Sheldon. Probably walked about 3 miles. Felt better for it.

Straight back to radio and Test over, England victorious inflicting their heaviest defeat on WIs for the 79 years they have been playing (an Innings and 280 runs) Test cricket. It still seems remarkable to me as I have all too clear recollections of the great Windies teams of the 70s and 80s with their ferocious fast bowlers, Holding, Marshall, Garner et al and the opening bats, Haynes and Greenidge who always put on 100 for the first wicket, Sir Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd who could destroy our bowling attack accumulating massive scores in the process. How things have changed; well we must enjoy the good times; pity we could not put on this sort of display against Australia. To be fair our current team bowled a lot of rubbish this test but still somehow came out on top!

Day 29

Wanted to buy a paper to read about the cricket and reckoned that Christow was the best place to get one locally. Decided on the spur of the moment to get the bus in and walk back. Bus from Teign House pub at 9.16 so suddenly busy. Shave, wash and quick breakfast before heading down drive; took the long way rather than cut across railway. Just got to pub as bus came along. Caught it and we then travelled to Bridford and back past Teign House again so maybe I could have caught it then! Anyway on to Christow and got out at village car park. Walked into village and looked around the Church. It was unlocked and very quaint. It soon became apparent that the Pellew family had played a great part in the church's history. There was a memorial to Admiral Sir Edward Pellew who had “served with Nelson and later successfully bombarded Algiers upon the refusal of the Bey to abolish Christian slavery” according to the Church History. The history book is amusing and informative both about the organist and the organ. In 1952 the Organ Blower resigned! The book notes “after 3 years of discussion an electric blower was installed”!

On leaving the church after prayer I walked through the village stopping at the Post Office to buy a card and a stamp. The young Post Master does not know whether the Office will remain open under Government plans or not. The loss of the PO would make a huge difference to the villagers. An old gent in front of me was clearly getting out his pension or weekly allowance and one wonders how he would manage if the Office closed. Then on to the village shop where I bought a paper. The person on the till knew the locals by name.

Then walked back to Sheldon along the lanes. Quite a few cars about but a lovely day. Saw a large brown hairy caterpillar.

Read the paper and had a cup of coffee. Skies clouding over a bit but this afternoon I intend to walk around the reservoir.

Readings

Psalm 23: 1 – 3 Green pastures, quiet waters, he leads me

Micah 7: 14 – 15 Shepherd your people...which lives by itself in a forest in fertile pasture-lands

John 12: 43 they loved human glory more than the glory of God

This afternoon drove to the Reservoirs high in the hills above Christow. Walked around Trenchford Reservoir. Parked in Tottiford Reservoir car park although this was just by Trenchford. Walked about 2 miles probably. Not as far as it looked on the map. It was a lovely walk and reminded me of Canada in places without the sense of remoteness. The water level seemed quite low considering it is only May and the main holiday season is still to come. It could be that other sources higher up are released into it as needed. Reservoir holds 200,000,000 gallons of water when full and serves Torbay.

Day 25

A travelling day!

Left home a little later than intended – about 10.45 so travelled straight to Exeter rather than having the luxury of a coffee stop along the way. Being a Bank Holiday weekend there was a lot of traffic on the M5 despite the poor weather forecast; lots of caravans and motor homes and quite few VW vans probably going to Newquay. A few short slow sections mostly by junctions but nothing to hold us up for long.

Stopped for Lunch with Peter and Brenda. Had a good time catching up with the news. Then on to Sheldon via Tesco to buy a few essentials I forgot to bring. Sheldon was bathed in late afternoon sun when I arrived, as peaceful and lovely as ever. Jan answered the bell and booked me in. I am in Thomas's Lodge the one nearest the lane at the north end of the Linhay.

Made a cup of tea, unloaded the car and just sat reading the paper and watching TV for a bit before getting supper and unpacking. Spoke to Bev on the phone and watched a film on DVD “Sahara”. It passed the time and was quite enjoyable if completely ridiculous involving the discovery of an American Civil War Battleship in a dried up river bed in Nigeria, this story woven alongside a pollution story involving a recycling factory harnessing sun power but polluting the watercourses at the same time. This was going to lead to rapid death to the world's oceans and an “end to life as we know it”! So you get the general drift; wont tell you the end as it will spoil it for you!!

A reasonable nights sleep followed.

This link takes you to the Sheldon website.

http://www.sheldon.uk.com/index.htm

The Quiet Garden Day 24

Today I have been to The Quiet Garden at Ashton under Hill. David and Jane are friends of mine whom I met first when they lived in Birlingham and opened a Quiet Garden there. It was for me a place of sanctuary and spiritual rest and refreshment during my years at Fernhill Heath and as Missioner within Worcestershire. David and Jane moved a couple of years ago to Ashton and are now opening a quiet garden there.

The Quiet Garden movement is just 15 years old and defines its vision as

To initiate and resource
a network of local opportunities,
mainly in private homes and gardens
for prayer, silence, reflection
and the appreciation of beauty;
for learning about Christian life and spirituality;
and for experiencing creativity and healing
in the context of God's love.

Today's afternoon meditation focussed on busyness and the fact that busyness is a choice rather than an adjunct of modern life. This is a challenging thought and I feel deep down is so true. Yet how often do I equate busyness with achievement - if I havent been busy then I must have been wasting time! Even on this sabbatical someone warned me - "Dont waste it!" So I am trying to be busy sabbaticaling and consequently becoming frustrated.

Tomorrow I am off to the Society of Mary and Martha in Devon and am NOT going to be busy.

Will let you know how I get on! In the meantime if you are interested in the Quiet Garden movement here is a link to the UK site and an American site with lots of meditations etc.

http://www.quietgarden.co.uk/
http://www.restandbethankful.org/index.php?page=home

The next day at Ashton under Hill (which unfortunately I shall miss) is on 28th June if you are interested make a comment and I will email details on my return.

When I dance on rainbows... Days 22 and 23

I continue to read around the Human Givens and have nearly finished Dreaming Reality: How dreaming keeps us sane or can drive us mad; the authors are Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell. I cannot explain it all here but one interesting thing I came across a few days ago was about metaphor; I quote:-

Metaphorical communication is an intrinsic part of the way we understand and share our experiences and the metaphorical expression we find in dreams is actually more widespread in waking life than is generally realised. A sudden burst of song, for example, is often a metaphorical expression of how a person is feeling about a certain matter.

Now a few days ago I was feeling a bit low for a particular reason which I don't want to go into here. We had recently bought a CD with Ella Fitzgerald and The Inkspots singing:-

Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine
Into each heart some tears must fall
But some day the sun will shine

I found myself singing this song frequently. This could be simply a habit I have of focussing on a piece of music which is special at the time and singing it or perhaps it was a metaphor for how I was feeling and gave me a chance to express that and discharge it harmlessly. It did feel like too much rain was falling on me and yet I do have hope that some day the sun will shine which makes what happens next remarkable!

I bought a laptop at the CRE and yesterday was installing software including a PDF writer. I had to create a document and put some words down. Usually I would type gobbledegook but for some reason unknown to me I wrote the phrase

When I dance on rainbows

The more I think about it the more significant it seems, the sun shining through the rain produces the rainbow. But dancing on the rainbow is incredible because the rainbow is just refracted light. Yet I am encouraged and sense within this God is speaking to me.

I am now just past the three week mark; today I took the van for a leak to be fixed, did some reading, bought one or two things online, went shopping with Bev and did a little bit of lawn edging. Tomorrow I am going to a Quiet Garden at Ashton under Hill and calling to see how the van is on the way.

Bless you all.

Oh and if you are interested in The Inkspots follow this link where you can listen to a snippit of Into each life

http://www.emusic.com/samples/m3u/song/10861194/13349188.m3u

Days 19 - 21

We attended a wedding on Saturday. When we were first married we spent a lot of Saturdays attending our friends' weddings. That was nearly thirty years ago. Now we are attending the weddings of their children! These little ones who played with our children, whose photos we have in our albums alongside our own children, who we remember putting to bed in our spare room now they are marrying! How time flies! Being Baptists we dont do Christenings and although we do have services of Dedication they are not the big family event that Christenings often are so in my heart I wonder what the next occasion will be when we meet up?

And what is the role of the "friends of Mum and Dad" at the wedding? At every wedding breakfast along the back wall is a selection of greying men accompanied by their wives. They dont know the music at the disco, cant quite sort out who is who, and spend a lot of time either in reminiscence or in silent contemplation. We usually have to bend close to hear what we are saying to one another and cultivate an expression of benign blessing, a sort of grin, which seems to be saying "bless you all"!

I reckon our role is crucial. We represent wider society which respects the institution of marriage but understands that marriage has to be worked at and that it will survive all sorts of pressures and failings if there is a will to succeed. Without us there doing the grumpy old man bit, or making slight fools of ourselves on the dance floor the young would be left alone and that would not be right. Along that back wall is an accumulated wisdom which only decades of experience will bring.

And yes the weddings of friends' children are special. I love to see the young enjoying themselves and recall a line from a poem I read at school:

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!

God bless you Jo and Andy and give you a long and happy life, a brace of children and in thirty years time many invitations to the weddings of their friends!

Days 15 to 18

Hi folks! Had a good time at the Christian Resources Exhibition, Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher. It is a great place for networking and inspiration. It is also a good place for collecting paper for the recycling bin! I tried to be very disciplined and only visit the stands I had previously identified and by and large this worked although I did succumb to the delights of those offering fairtrade coffee, willow coffins, funeral plans and Christmas lights none of which were on my list!

As you can see from the photo I am now well resourced and have also picked up a few freebies for my friends as well!

I stayed on a campsite at Chertsey next to the River Thames. It was a beautiful place with a colony of Ring Necked Parakeets in residence. Local legend says that they escaped from the movie set of The African Queen. If you are interested in parakeets then follow this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6478911.stm.

Christian Resources is a bit like going supermarket shopping. Now everything needs to be unpacked and found a home. After I took the photo I realised some stuff was missing and found two more bags of books and my briefcase with quite a few more papers!!

The sharper eyed may have noticed a laptop computer. These were being sold by a charity which recycles them employing people in the process and making available computers either free for charities or at a much reduced price.

Today we are off to Ware to attend Joanne and Andy's wedding. Jo is the younger daughter of our friends Steve and Margaret.