Not just plodding on
Two
or three years ago I spent a couple of days with a group of old
friends in the Lake District. Remarkably enough, it didn’t rain all
the time. Not every day.
So
one morning we went for a walk. Not a long trek, just a stroll round
Rydall Water, taking the route above the north shore of the lake. The
track wasn’t very steep, but rough enough with its ups and downs,
stones and boulders, muddy puddles and slippery stretches. So we had
to keep our eyes on where we were putting our feet. And of course we
were busy talking, catching up as old friends do. Nineteen to the
dozen.
As
we walked and talked we realised that we needed to stop from time to
time, stop to look around us. Stop, so that instead of focusing on
the ground under our feet - we could pay attention to our
surroundings. It would have been so easy to have done the whole walk
and not noticed the view at all.
We
needed to stop in order to ‘stand and stare’. Give our attention
to the beauty all around us. But we also needed to lift our eyes
beyond the things up close, so we could take in the bigger picture
and the longer view. To look above and beyond the trees, to the hills
and the distant mountains. To look back to where we’ve come from
and forwards to where we are going.
Which
is perhaps something we could all do more often: lift our eyes from
the immediate problems under our feet, from the business of life, in
order to see the bigger picture and take in the longer view. To look
back to where we’ve come from and forwards to where we’re going. And maybe discover that God has been there all along.
Perhaps
that’s what holidays are for.
Love
Lorna
Rector
of Branston with Nocton and Potterhanworth
