[originally posted March 17]
Sabbatical/Study Leave week one...
A few weeks ago a sabbatical veteran gave me some advice... "If you're spending most of your sabbatical 'on site', as soon as possible after it starts go completely away just for a few days. It makes a break with your previous pace of life and gets other people used to your not being available."
So... c/o some generous friends, I've just got back from spending a few days in their cottage in a little village called Ravenstonedale, about where the Yorkshire Dales blur into the Lake District. No internet connection, no mobile signal. Nice to have 48 hours with no phone calls, emails or callers to get me started into what is intended to be a different pattern for the next six months. Quite a contrast coming just after PeaceWeek etc. Not that I'm shutting myself off entirely, by the way, but space has to be made for the other stuff lined up for this S/SL, including of course some rest.
While away I walked (through wind, rain and MUD!!) to an amazing Victorian Railway viaduct, now disused but restored about 15 years ago by the Northern Viaduct Trust.
While wandering around an unbidden thought popped into my head. (I've known this to be God speaking in the past - though this time it could be a blip from a mind affected by damp and 90 minutes walking). Just like the viaduct links two sides of a valley, so I have been placed between two cultures or groups - local community and local church. And, like the viaduct, mostly disused(!), However, it is important to stay there as a potential crossing point. Does that make any sense??!! The comparison should not be pushed any further thankyou (jokes about age and restoration etc..!)
Sabbatical/Study Leave week one...
A few weeks ago a sabbatical veteran gave me some advice... "If you're spending most of your sabbatical 'on site', as soon as possible after it starts go completely away just for a few days. It makes a break with your previous pace of life and gets other people used to your not being available."
So... c/o some generous friends, I've just got back from spending a few days in their cottage in a little village called Ravenstonedale, about where the Yorkshire Dales blur into the Lake District. No internet connection, no mobile signal. Nice to have 48 hours with no phone calls, emails or callers to get me started into what is intended to be a different pattern for the next six months. Quite a contrast coming just after PeaceWeek etc. Not that I'm shutting myself off entirely, by the way, but space has to be made for the other stuff lined up for this S/SL, including of course some rest.
While away I walked (through wind, rain and MUD!!) to an amazing Victorian Railway viaduct, now disused but restored about 15 years ago by the Northern Viaduct Trust.
While wandering around an unbidden thought popped into my head. (I've known this to be God speaking in the past - though this time it could be a blip from a mind affected by damp and 90 minutes walking). Just like the viaduct links two sides of a valley, so I have been placed between two cultures or groups - local community and local church. And, like the viaduct, mostly disused(!), However, it is important to stay there as a potential crossing point. Does that make any sense??!! The comparison should not be pushed any further thankyou (jokes about age and restoration etc..!)
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