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  • Walking a Mile in their shoes

    Walking a Mile in their shoes

    One Sunday morning at church back in February an announcement was made about the church’s Lent focus/activity. It was to support Oasis Community Housing. I have written a bit about this here. There was an opportunity to support their work by signing up for their Lent challenge to Walk a Mile in their Shoes. It seemed like something that was made for me. Walking after all is my ‘thing’ and I needed to focus on preparing for my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I thought about it and a mile a day was not going to be long enough to make much a difference to my fitness to walk the 800km (500 miles) to complete it. In the end I decided on at least 7km (4.5 miles) a day. This while essentially abitrary is the distance to Aldi at Wrekenton and back using my preferred route through Windy Nook and Whitehills nature parks.

    Whilst most walks were local, around the nature parks and trips to Aldi and Lidl I did mix it up with longer walks, (up to 29km) carrrying a loaded backpack. The weather has been very variable from snow and ice to heavy rain, from fog and cloud to bright spring sunshine. There were times when it was an effort to get up and go out for my walk but the discipline of commitment won every time.

    Fundraising ended up being a more difficult challenge than the walking, certainly to start with. I hate asking people for money. It was part of the challenge so I ended up setting up a JustGiving page and with some trepidation picked the suggested fund raising goal of £160. I really didn’t know whether I would reach that target and I didn’t like the idea of asking. But people are so generous and I have ended up raising £175! I also resurrected my Facebook Account and have posted the details of each days walk together with the picture of the daily reflection. I could have posted them on here, maybe I will too, but I wanted them to be more public for those who gave or might give.

    Just doing a quick total – over Lent I walked about 425km! I have walked half a Camino! I am not sure if it will make the real thing any easier but I do think my fitness is improving. I am conscious however that I feel I am still meandering in the foothills of peak fitness.

  • A Memorable Visit

    A Memorable Visit

    After a few weeks of emails I had the opportunity to visit three of their projects and to meet some staff. My hosts were David Smith the CEO and Phil Conn the Director of Chaplaincy. I arrived at the Basis Drop In in Gateshead and I immediately felt like this was a good place. People were smiling!

    I was taken upstairs to the office and was struck by how large an operation this was. There was far more people there than I was expecting. I see this as a good thing, the more workers the more help can be offered. I then had an intial chat and a quick tour of the facilities at Basiswith David and Phil and shared some of the, albeit limited, memories of the early days setting up Aquila Housing Association back in the 80s. It still felt weird being seen as a person of significance.

    We then went to the Naomi project and met with one of the workers there. Once again I was so impressed with the dedication and professionalism of the staff. After a short time it was off again to visit Elizabeth House.

    Thoughts from my visit
    The size and professionalism of the organisation.
    The commitment and dedication of the staff
    A sense that individual service users are treated as real ‘whole’ people not as statistics
    Care is centred around people – not just passing them to other agencies
    A sense that God is there though not in an overt way.

  • Oasis Community Housing and me

    Oasis Community Housing and me

    Who would have thought! Out of the blue re-discovering something I hadn’t thought about in years. I am conscious recently of re-connecting with my past more than I have done for many years but this has turned out to be something special.

    Several weeks ago their was an anouncement about a suggested lent activity this year. It was to Walk a Mile in their Shoes. I read the leaflet and then chatted to the person who made the announcement. It suddenly hit me that this was the current incarnation of what started out many years ago as Aquila Housing Association. I am sure I could have worked it out otherwise, but Aquila has drifted out of memory when I moved away and had only briefly impinged on my consciousness since then.

    I think it was only when I started looking at their website that I fully appreciated how God could take something small and make something so big. My involvement was as a committee member. I’ve forgotten a lot of the details but I remember some things.

    Thinking back – it was when I was unemployed I began looking at empty properties around Gateshead and dreaming of how they could be used for people to live in. There was never ever any realistic chance of anything happening but I was aware of the need. Then friends at church shared an idea they had had to start a housing association for homeless young people. I was happy to help and until I moved away I was a shareholder and committee member. One thing I do remember is being part of a sponsored walk down the Derwent Railway Path from Rowlands Gill to Swalwell to raise funds to pay for the registration.

    It it strange to read about these young people almost 40 years ago who saw a need and got together to do something about it and realise that I was one of them. I don’t think I did anything very special but God used my contribution to make something much bigger than I could have imagined.

  • From Sadness to Hope

    From Sadness to Hope

    Whilst walking through Whitehills Nature Park to Springwell I saw, in the distance, what I initially thought was some fly tipping by the side of the path. It was only when I got closer I realised what it was. It was a memorial to Tomasz Oleszak tragically killed last October. I remembered reading about it when I was in Jersey, but had not thought about it much since. The main memorial on one side and a bench opposite complete with a pair of angel’s wings.

    When I’m walking I rarely stop to look at memorials but this was one I could not pass by. I stood and prayed for Tomasz and his family. Oddly for me prayer seemed a natural response, how things have changed for me over the past few months.

    I walked on in sadness, reflecting on the evil which cut his young life short and the devastation it must have brought to his family.

    It was a short time later when I saw some graffiti on an old bridge. It just said HOPE and it lifted my mood.

    Even in the midst of sadness and evil – there is hope.

  • Spreas one – Springwell to East Boldon

    Spreas one – Springwell to East Boldon

    Date Walked – Wednesday 25th January 2023

    Route Description

    I think before I started this was I had it in my head that it wasn’t going to be the most scenic or exciting walk I had done. I suppose it was more about ticking off another Slow Ways route review. As it happens it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

    Springwell is quite a familiar place now I have done several local walks. I walked down the hill reminding myself as I looked back how the countryside was still close. As I walked past a bus stop I noted that for much of today I was following part of the route of the 56 bus. I remembered the day I had caught the bus near home and travelled all the way to Sunderland. I still had some memories of where I was walking.

    I crossed the bridge over the A194 and passed an attractive cemetery and the church. So far so good I thought. Despite being an urban environment there always seems to be plenty of trees.

    I walked on through Usworth then towards Sulgrave

    I then turned onto the flattest stretch through open countryside and the Nissan factory. I did notice the construction site on my left. It will be a new factory for car batteries, the electric vehicle kind. Despie walking along the foot/cycle path there was plenty of mud around from the site and noise from the contant traffic.

    I left the traffic and went over a footbridge over the A19 and walked through the streets of Hylton Castle via a Greggs. I took a few minutes for a bite to eat and a drink as I sat on a bench outside the Castle.

    I needed that rest because the route took me up an almost verticle muddy track, Maybe a slight exageration but it was steep and my walking poles were worth their weight in gold at this point.

    Once I got to the top I was rewarded with some fine views, Penshaw Monument in the distance and the Nissan Factory in the foreground.

    It was then through more housing before I was finally walking through countryside. Walking in January is bracing and also muddy underfoot. The last kilometre or so beside and across fields wre very sticky.

    Once I was at East Boldon Metro Station, my destination for this walk I discovered I had walked a total of 18.65km. I had walked a few extra kilometres because I started at home. I decided I had walked far enough for the day.

  • A Bus Stop on my Pilgrim Journey

    A Bus Stop on my Pilgrim Journey

    Over the last few weeks my church has been advertising an Alpha Course which begins this week. On the face of it a good thing and for most people a positive step towards a deeper faith in God. I however have a complicated past and my decision whether or not to take part has resulted in a lot of soul searching. Today was an especially difficult day. This is my way of making sense of how I feel.

    I look on my life as a pilgrimage, a journey. I look back on my childhood and teens growing up in my local church with great fondness. I had a conversion experience when I was sixteen and after several years ended up pioneering a pentecostal church. My faith meant that I knew my place with God and I had a settled world view. However it all ended in disaster and I was left with no faith, no church, no God. That faith I had which was all encompassing had somehow disappeared like thick fog burning off on a hot day.

    I then began a gradual process of accepting myself and discovered a real contentment. I The God I had known was no longer there but in many ways I didn’t miss Him or at least I was not aware of it.

    Last year that changed and I believe God reached out to me and set me walking on my pilgrim journey.

    For whatever reason I have set my sights on walking the Camino Frances, this year, approximately 500 miles across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostella. Over the past few months I have watched hundreds of YouTube videos about this. I have picked up on several discussions about how the thousands of pilgrims each year make that journey. Some walk all the way, some cycle, some will get buses part of the way. I suppose there are as many ways of making that pilgrimage as there are people. For me walking is my thing and carrying all I need on my back is part of that too.

    In the context of my current decision I likened the part of my pilgrim journey those years ago when I was firm in my evangelical faith as me getting on a bus. I know this is a bit weird but this is just me trying to make sense of the very real fear and anxiety which overwhelmed me this morning. This is not an perfect picture and it will I am sure, fall apart if I trying to fit everything into it. I mean that in getting on the bus I was sharing my experience with others going to the same place. It implies a commitment to go together with shared values. I got on this evangelical bus and it was great. I even ended up driving! But then I crashed and life as I had known it ended.

    I was trying to work out this week why the idea of participating in an online course with people I am coming to know and trust, who have my best interests at heart was causing me such anxiety. I have come to the conclusion that it’s because it felt like getting on a bus again. What it was doing was triggering my memories of my last spiritual bus jouney and the crash.

    So here I am at a bus stop with a choice to continue walking or to get on that bus. For now, I am content that my pilgrimage is a walking one. I can go at a pace I am comfortable with, and a route that is being revealed to me.

  • Retirement Projects

    Retirement Projects

    I’ll say it loud and clear – as of now retirement is the best thing that ever happened to me. I am having the time of my life! I had spent quite a lot of time before it happened thinking about what I would do. I was going to do it anyway but you can’t help it when you get asked the question on a not infrequent basis, What are you going to do when you retire?

    The first thing was my back garden. When I became a widower in 2019 I decided I wanted to remodel it with the idea of growing vegetables. I had tried on and off with odd vegetable plant and a couple of fruit bushes but it wasn’t focussed and they disappeared under the undergrowth surrounding the weed sown lawn. I now had the freedom to do something radical and began. Apart from getting outside and back to nature I wanted to eat more veg, in particular, I wanted to eat more interesting veg and also to have a supply of fresh herbs. This was my big thing even before I retired and was helped no end by the first lockdown.

    Family History was a thing I had thought about doing for ages about but never got around to. It was going to be saved until retirement but during lockdown my son started doing some so I got drawn into it. It is massivley time consuming which when you are retired is a good thing.

    A late entry in the list is Classical Music. I inherited a substantial amount of Classical Music CDs when my friend died last year complete with his HiFi system. I now have many, many hours of listening to come.

    Walking however was and is the ‘main event’. Local walking, Nordic Walking, long distance walking. This now includes camping and backpacking. I have always known it to be the best way I can sort out my thoughts and am more aware of it’s benefit to my mental health. I have been reading books about it too.

    I have met several people who have spoken of their experience of retirement. One in particular springs to mind who I met while walking in Windy Nook Nature Park. He told me how he got bored after retiring and went back to work part time. He never mentioned any financial reason. The thought of returning to employment fills me with horror.

  • Art Appreciation

    Art Appreciation

    This started when I found my way to Windy Nook a local environmental sculpture on one of my local walks. I just love it for the views – yet I recognised from the outset that this sculpture had been altered by the addition of graffiti which at first I thought detracted from it but then I began to think added to it.

    SInce then as I walk around my locla area I am taking time to look at public art both official and unofficial and whilst I would not presume to understand I think I am coming to appreciate more and more.

    I begun to see more and more of this art.

    Does this count as art?
  • Pilgrimage

    Pilgrimage

    An unexpected change in my life occurred in 2022, Walking became intertwined with pilgrimage. I had been living quite contentedly without faith for over twenty years and I had no plans to change that. I had also made walking the major theme for my retirement. While reading around the subject and dreaming of the walks I could do I came across those who were talking about pilgrimage and that idea stayed in the back of my mind.

    The catalyst for change was the tragic illness and death of my dearest friend in April and May of 2022. During my daily visits while he was in the hospice I was there when the chaplain came to give him communion. When asked if I wanted to stay and share this with them I said yes – it was such an easy decision to make, yet one based not on rational thought but raw emotion of my heart. Thinking back now it was out of my love for John and the desire to share every significant moment I could in the time we had left. Whatever the reason was it opened up my life to faith and begun my current pilgrim journey.

    It was a few days later I think when I had a day off from visiting and I woke up early and on impulse decided to make a pilgrimage, to walk from home to Durham Cathedral. I had previously scoped out the route but hadn’t planned to do it in one go as it was further than I had typically walked. But by 6.30am I was out of the door and on my way.

    As I walked John was in my thoughts as were some words which I had noticed from that days Morning Prayer.

    In your unfailing love, O Lord, you lead the people whom you have redeemed. And by your invincible strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. You will bring them in and plant them, O Lord, in the sanctuary which your hands have established.

    It was a great walk and despite blisters I made it to the cathedral in the early afternoon. I hobbled to St Cuthbert’s shrine behind the choir and sat; I couldn’t walk any further. I began to talk to St Cuthbert all the while my rational brain was telling me not to be so stupid as even if he was there, he’d been dead thirteen hundred years.

    It was such a profound moment I realized then that somehow I had found faith again. Not the faith I had left behind but something new which just felt so right.

    The next day I told John and the chaplain all about my pilgrimage and how I had told St Cuthbert all about him. As I left the chaplain gave me a piece of paper with these these words ..

    Lord of every pilgrim heart,
    bless our journeys on these roads
     we never planned to take,
    but through your surprising wisdom
     discovered we were on

  • My Journey Resumes

    My Journey Resumes

    I am just remembering now that one of my favourite books as a child was a Sunday School Prize, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan – I am not sure why. I loved the idea of the pilgrim’s journey his adventures and his eventual arrival. I don’t think I was ever concerned with the spiritual significance of his journey in a very deep way but there was definitely something about it which attracted me.

    I can think of two pilgrimages I remember from the days of my youth. The first was the pilgrimage(s) on Jersey to St Helier’s Hermitage. I can remember walking across the causeway wearing cassock and surplice.

    Not me but it gives the idea

    I can remember too while I was living in London in 1973/4 going on a pilgrimage from Guildford to Chichester to the shrine of St Richard. I can’t remeber much about it apart from walking across the Downs and sleeping on the floor of a church hall.

    Who would have thought that so many years later I would be walking across the sand again , but this time to Holy Island for a different saint. The featured image records that walk in thick fog. I was struck by the thought that whilst I knew my final destination I could see only a very short way ahead one or two poles and a short way behind. That was such a clear illustration of my journey.

    It has struck me recently that I am resuming a journey, a pilgrimage which I began in the days of my youth which had been on pause for so many years.