Exploring and writing

Thursday 13th October 2011
       The dozen of us participating in this retreat have greatly enjoyed hearing our tutor's stories, stories full of humour and insight which enabled us to discern divine love at work in the world where it might be overlooked, stories that peeped between the gaps in the Bible narratives, stories that offered a chance of unexpected intimacy with God.   Now it's our turn.  How am I going to manage to use my imagination without my customary mind-clearing activity?  Since my horse isn't here, I'll have to go for a long walk.



March Burn near Riding Mill

   I had considerable difficulty following what I believed to be a public footpath. There was a lot of scrambling up and down through dense undergrowth and finding myself the wrong side of barbed wire fences.  Obscure signage didn't help.

Which way?

Eventually in desperation I scrambled uphill from the burn and climbed over a barbed wire fence!

 Through a few fields and over a few stiles, I found myself in what I think may have been Hollister Forest where I hoped in vain to see red squirrels.  However, I did see two large birds soaring silently up from the tree canopy before giving some distinctive calls which enabled someone later to identify them for me as buzzards.  After quite a lot of wandering on the wrong paths, I ended up going in the right direction and suddenly finding it quite easy to follow the route that would take me home.

How could I have missed this clear track?

Now it was downhill to find a way through a farm to a tarmac lane

My destination, Shepherds Dene, in the very centre of this picture

Nothing else impeded me progress apart from a friendly cat weaving to and fro ahead of me to compel me to accept its company.

 

One day perhaps I will put up the story that I wrote on returning from this walk.