Why haven’t I done this before?!
I’ve had the odd day and the odd group time away, but this is the first time I’ve gone away on my own to a retreat place for 4 nights. There have been other people around doing their things (some of which have been quite odd, it must be said!), but that’s fine.
I’ve been able to be alone in solitude but not loneliness. I am resolved to do this at least once or twice a year now – yes, I know, I know – everyone in ministry is told they ought to, but I never quite believed it.
Anyway, I’ve read several books, dipped into several others, gone for long walks and fallen in love with the Somerset countryside.
Then yesterday, I really lost the plot, because I sat under a tree in the middle of a field for a couple of ours like some post-Enlightenment Romantic (pretentious, moi?) and wrote a poem. As is the way with such things, don’t necessarily assume it is autobiographical; but then you shouldn’t assume that it isn’t, either. It was a set of thoughts that simply occurred as I sat rather idyllically in the middle of a field under a tree.
So here it is, such as it is.
