It’s a Jolly Holiday….

Tigh Mor in The Trossachs -
one of the places we stayed and
where Nicola and I
honeymooned in 1997

Of course to complete that line you would have to add “with Mary”.  It is a song from the film Mary Poppins where Julie Andrews plays Mary and Dick Van Dyke plays Bert who amazes everyone with his Cockney accent, not least when he sings that song.

Well I have just returned from over three weeks of holiday during my Sabbatical Leave.  It wasn’t with Mary, but it was with my beautiful wife Nicola and my handsome son Lisle.  We managed to cover a lot of ground during that time.  Mapping it geographically wetravelled from Portland in Dorset and then stayed (for various lengths of time) at Walsall, Keswick, Dumfries, East Kilbride, The Trossachs, Blackpool, Luton and home again.

Beautiful Nicola near Tigh Mor, The Trossachs

We went to the Keswick Convention, stayed in the same place where we had our honeymoon in The Trosssachs, went to Blackpool Tower and Pleasure Beach and then used Luton as a base to visit London.   It was indeed a jolly holiday.

I am so grateful that my own parents always made a point of ensuring that our family had an annual holiday when we were young.  I have many happy memories of those times.  Within our own family we have always tried to make it a priority to have holiday time together and I hope and pray that these will have made many important memories for us.

There is something special about being out of one’s normal situation and routine.  Different sights and a different rhythm can seem so helpful in seeing things more clearly.  I suppose it is that standing back to get a different perspective.

Loch Ness Monster seen
in a sweet shop

Son Lisle as we cruise Loch Lomond

Being away for so long has meant that I haven’t been able to post in my blog so regularly.  I will try to break this holiday period down into one or two specific areas but for the moment I leave us with this thought – “How might we stand back from the usual routine to see what God is saying and doing or to hear the voice of God calling us afresh?”