Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

We have just spent the most delightful long weekend at the cottage in Cornwall. I say "The Cottage" as though it belongs to us, when that is in no way true. It's just that I'm used to the fact that it generally no longer requires explanation when I tell most people that we're going there; it needs no introduction after so many wonderful, sunset-enveloped, woodfire-burning, cornish food-centred weekends spent there with our fabulous surrogate sisters, Amy and Helen! We always come away feeling so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend time chilling out there and soaking up the gorgeous local coastline and cuisine (whatever the season), let alone to be so spoiled and looked after by such precious friends.

I think my guestbook entry for the stay sums it up nicely so if you can squint enough to read it, enjoy. And FYI, I don't really think the wheat-free thing is silly, I just felt silly being wheat-free in Cornwall. If that makes any sense! ;)

You'll see I refer to a coast guard's tower in the third page - more on that in another blog post, another day. It refers to my ongoing desire for healing from M.E (Tenuous link? Perhaps!) and something really wonderful dawned on me that day as I collapsed on the bench on halfway along a cliff path in Boscastle, after the others had carried me up it! Watch this space (or the space above this post actually, where the new post will appear soon!) for me to make more sense of what I've just said.... I know it's just waffle right now! Suffice it to say, we defied the apparent limitations of the Boscastle cliff walk and in doing so, opened my eyes and mind to new possibilities... A wonderful weekend had by all.

King of Treats

Last Sunday in church, God gave me a really beautiful, simple reminder of the way He cares about every detail of our lives. He showed me again that not only does He care about and provide for our needs, but He also gives thought to our desires and our hopes and even just the little things in life which make us smile. This most recent reminder of that truth came through a lovely lady in our church, named Olga. We've never had a proper. in-depth conversation, Olga and I, but at the end of the service on Sunday, she came up to me and gently handed me a small, beautifully wrapped parcel. When I asked her what it was, she looked at me, smiled and said, "I don't know."

She went on to explain that while she was visiting her son out in Tenerife recently, he gave her this parcel and told her that she was either to keep it for herself or give it to someone in her church; she chose the latter option, despite still not knowing what was inside. I didn't know what to say so I just sat down and unwrapped the lovely pretty paper, and found inside it a gorgeous silver cross necklace. It's so beautiful and I was honestly blown away.

I used to have a really lovely cross necklace which was incredibly similar to this new one, but as time had passed, it had become old, faded and just a bit grim to be honest (!) so I stopped wearing it a while back. I had been really wanting to get a new one, but knew it was not a priority at the moment as money is tight. It's not an essential and I had just put it at the back of my mind on that shelf we all have, marked, "When we next have some extra money" :)

When I saw this beautiful necklace, I was so touched and quite emotional firstly at Olga and her son's kindness in first buying it and then giving it away, and secondly at the fact that I felt God really blessed me through their kindness with something I didn't need but something which I absolutely love and wouldn't have bought myself. He's so good like that - He's the King of Treats and going the extra mile and it's so important I remember that in amidst the tougher times and the challenges He allows us. Thank you God for my new necklace and thank you Olga and your son for delivering it to me in your generosity. It made my week!

Truth

"If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones.You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again." Isaiah 58:10-12 (The Message)