And so it is...

As well as being the first line in the excellent Damien Rice's 'Blowers Daughter', it's also an apt phrase for the next few weeks in my life. It's a blustery Sunday afternoon in Hove, the clouds are racing across the blue sky and in the distance the sun is sparkling on the dancing waves. Pathetic fallacy never seemed so real (for the ill informed amongst you pathetic fallacy is a literary device, oft used by Dickens and Hardy, of having the weather in the story reflect the general mood of the story. Now you know why it's always raining in Dickens and Hardy's work...)

And so it is that I come to wrap up the term just gone, place my clothes and stuff in bags and head off around the country for three weeks. There is a long to do list on my desk which clearly explains the need to procrastinate here before I run around like a headless chicken for the evening.

First up is the annual pilgrimage to Skegness.

A place I've been almost every year at this time for the last 12 years. Oh dear. Word Alive is calling me again. And more importantly the beach at Skegness is calling, a beach I've ranted and raved at God on, made silly decisions about my future on, run along, had deep chats on and generally enjoyed encountering God on. It's become a ritual in my life. A routine which reminds me of where I have come from and who is going with me when I leave. So many transforming times have happened in Skegness, a fact I find deliciously ironic. Preparing for Word Alive has changed over the years. In the early times, when a mere youth, I would at this point be compiling compilation tapes for the car. These were works of painstaking care. I always aimed to ensure that there would be enough parent friendly songs for them to get played in the car, but also with songs I loved thrown in. Now I'm just plonking songs on the ipod, and thinking through what I can put on seminar handouts to make them interesting. How weirdly times change. Still, it's good to return to places of deep memory.

Talking of which, the next stop on the journey is my favorite of all places.



The Lakes are welcoming me back. And soon I'll be back in my world; peace the order of the day, friends to climb mountains with, valleys to gawp at in wonder and a general feeling of being small and loved to be enjoyed. Rest of the best kind. From there I head to Guildford for family times over Easter and then off to the Yorkshire Dales with work mates. *sigh*.

I think I'm ready to go. Much as I love routine, the view from my window and talking about God as a job, I'm also looking forward to seeing lots of old friends, getting some rest for my soul and walking around with a stupid grin on my face because the maker of the world knows me and knows that I am his.