The Source

Most of the winter, I rarely have an evening at home. There's always a meeting or a visit to be attended. That eases considerably in the summer. This summer, we've had some beautiful evenings and I've taken the opprtunity to walk. There are lots of beautiful, isolated walks around the parish. The sheer majesty of the scenery surrounding me has reminded me how lucky I am to serve in such a place and has fanned the flames of a love for this place and its people that has slowly been rekindling over the past few months.
Today, in a mentoring session I also made another, perhaps basic, but nonetheless revealing and useful discovery: The reason I've experienced growth and a return to health this past wee while is because I have taken the time to attend to me. I've attended study programmes, gone on retreats, things that, previously, I dismissed as too time consuming. And so I have learned the hard way but, hopefully in good time, that time out is essential. Nurturing oneself is a necessary part of nurturing others. As I said pretty basic stuff but stuff that its taken me quite a while to get a hold on. Here's hoping that now I've grasped it I won't let it go easily.