I'm back

Sorry for the long absence we have now moved and this weekend we got a phone line and internet so normal service has been resumed!!!!

Hopefully my blogging will be better and more consistent.

What do you do when you have had a really hard year? I know I have had comments in the past about having a great life out here and I admit it is a great life, I live in a fantastic place have got great friends and feel incredibly supported. Yet it has felt a little like walking through treacle this year on so many levels.

Just got to regroup get my head together and focus on the future. The past is exactly what it is: passed! It's behind I have to learn from it but not allow it have a hold on me that would drag me down.

I have had this weird thing over the years, not just on ibiza, where I get very low in November. I can't work it out it's like a little trough I go into, anyway it's December tomorrow......

So I'm back, got lots of thoughts to blog on will try pumping them out over the next few weeks.

Step Over

Had a really lovely morning at the annual Anglican Church Retreat, the lady who was leading the retreat gave us this quote to use in one of the quiet moments we had during the day. It's by Henri Nouwen.

"Sometimes we have to "step over" our anger, our jealousy, or our feelings of rejection and move on. The temptation is to get stuck in our negative emotions, poking around in them as if we belong there. Then we become the "offended one", the "forgotten one", or the "discarded one". Yes, we can get attached to these negative identities and even take morbid pleasure in them. It might be good to have a look at these dark feelings and explore where they come from, but there comes a moment to step over them, leave them behind and travel on."

Someone once said to me that "God is more interested in who we are becoming than who we have been" I agree with that.

In many ways it has also led me to agree that a lot of counseling is past focussed and negative when God is future focussed and positive. Of course people argue that you sometimes can't move into your future until you have dealt with your past, they spend forever dealing with the past in some form of counseling limbo waiting until it is dealt with before they move on. We can only truly get the desire to move on when we look to what we can become and what we are being held back from. This means future focus.

Kind Mercy

Last post wasn't helpful so I deleted it.

Thought about it and agreed with anonymous that perhaps it was too harsh and judgmental.

"...if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time." James 2: 13

I really don't mind criticism of me on this blog and actually I do have the facility to delete critical comments but I don't. I don't think I react badly to criticism but in all honesty it's my personal web log so I do have the right to get defensive and write my objections on here. Which is what I enjoy about blogging, well not all that I enjoy about blogging, but you know what I mean.

Got a crazy few weeks coming up, we are moving on the 15th November which is fantastic we have a lot of work to do around here so that we leave the farm in pristine order. I am going to be busy but will try and post some short little blogs over the next few weeks.

Still no news on our fine, but at least it has gone to appeal this could take a long time!!!!