My holiday

I have had an "interesting" holiday this year. We went to Cornwall, not least, to offer support to a community that was hit appalling by the winter storms last year, and to prove that it was still open and as beautiful as always.

We had, however, a few problems. We had 5 of us and our dog - the dog seemed to survive unscathed this year, which is a change from some years. All the rest of us were struck by an unpleasant gut bug, one at a time, although I did survive until we returned home. One member of the party managed to be ill 3 times. We lost - and found - one phone, missed one train, exploded one computer tablet.

On the plus side, some of us at least visited St Mawes and Pendennis castles, which are fascinating historical places, with a history reaching right up to the 1950s. We visited the Eden project (again), and it is wonderful to see how it has grown and developed, and it is still a fascinating place.

We went to the most southerly cafe in Britain, and saw a steampunk, all-female version of Dracula at the amazing Minack theatre, which is both - and for the same reasons - the most ridiculous and most superb location for a theatre.

The question is, which of these is the right perspective on our holiday? As a natural pessimist, I tend to look at the bad side, except this time, I don't. I view it as an enjoyable holiday, with a few problems.

Now I would admit that, when I had my head down a toilet bowl expelling what was left in my guts shortly after I had been pooping water down there, I was not looking at things in a positive light. At that point, it was pretty rubbish. But that was not the whole picture - the negative aspects don't rule out the positives. Of course, the positives don't negate the negatives either - the holiday was a good one, but with problems.

So often, especially within religious groups, we like to look at the good or the bad, rather more exclusively. There is a tendency to see world events in a negative light, even when that is not the only way to see them. there is a tendency to see spiritual matters in a positive light, even when that is not the only way to see them.

But everything is both good and bad. nothing is simple black and white. It was not a relaxing holiday, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to write. But to focus on the negatives is to miss the wonder of the place we were in. As so often, to focus on the downsides is to miss the wonder, to miss the real delights of the situation.

So as a person that finds it very easy to see the negative, the downside, I was surprised at my own experience in seeing it positively. But it made me think how easily we see the negative - especially religious people. There is a tendency to see the ideal, the image we are given of perfection, as "acceptable", and anything that falls short of this as "unacceptable", or at least "in need of redemption" (a subtle phrase that indicates "unacceptable, but I quite like it").

The truth, as I see it, is that nothing is perfect, but similarly nothing is without redeeming features. The world we live in is broken, damaged, imperfect, but we have to live in it, see the good, and work for more good. We need to see where God is working in the world. So it was a good holiday. We saw some of the beautiful Cornish sights, we chilled and relaxed. I make a choice to focus on that, because that was also true.

Holiday in Yorkshire

The second part of our holiday was in Yorkshire.

 The first two here are from Riveaux Abbey, one of the most important Cistercian monasteries in Europe, and is very well preserved.

 Then I went to Fountains Abbey - even more intact, and also a stunning piece of architecture. It was also a very important abbey, and you still get some sense of what it might have been like. In both of these abbeys, you can get some sense of the work that was done to build them - the care and attention to detail in the carving - all done, with hand tools, chisels and hammers.

I have been asked why, given my thoughts and comments about the church, why I have visited 3 monasteries in the summer. None of them, I should point out, have any special place for me - Lindisfarne is closer to my spiritual heart. But they are all places that have a long-term spiritual depth, places that people have met with God in over centuries. That is not something that I would even want to ignore.

But it also shows me - especially with the Yorkshire abbeys - that the systems and structures we build and expect will last for centuries can be destroyed so easily. I am sure that some of the monks involved in these abbeys felt that when Henry dissolved them, the church was coming to an end. It didn't, of course. And today, the real church - Gods people - will survive if the Church of England collapses, the Baptist church disseminates, and the Catholic church withdraws - that is, if the current church structures fail - Gods church and work will continue. The church of the 22nd century may look nothing like the church of the 21st. But that is not to say it will not be valid and successful.

Holiday in Scotland

We have recently returned from a holiday in Scotland, on the West coast, which is a wonderful part of the country, although a fantastically long way from all sorts of other places. I have included in this blog some of the pictures.

Being in that part of the country, you cannot ignore the local geography, with hills all around - including Ben Nevis, the tallest point in the UK, which just goes to show how flat we really are – and water – lochs, the sea, as well as the many islands that make up that part of the country.

What struck me is that the islands are rally just hills that happen to start too low, and the sea has covered their bases. The difference between a hill and an island, is just where it starts. Sometimes, in life, it seems that we are cut off from everyone else, stuck on our own island. And yet, in truth, we are on a mountain top. It is just that this mountain may be a little more difficult to reach.

Enough deep thought - pictures are what you want. These are evening pictures from the apartment - 10:00 or later.

 There is something fantastic about being somewhere that does not really get dark.

And the sunsets from where we were looked fantastic.

We visited Staffa and saw penguins, as well as Iona and saw the abbey

We had a good time - I will post a few more from Yorkshire later.