When Lois and I married – nearly four years ago – we both felt quite strongly that we had been brought together for something more than just our own joy. We have been so wonderfully blessed over these four years: with companionship, fun, the love of both our families; with friends; with a home and all its comforts; with good health and with opportunities to encounter beauty, goodness and wonder.
And, along with all this, a developing dream: a dream of something we could build together; of a place of beauty, stillness and peace in the midst of all the busy-ness of life; a safe, sacred space where we, together with others in community, could offer hospitality of heart and hearth to anyone who might be looking for a little breathing space.
And now we are here – at Breathing Space, on the outskirts of Coventry; a little haven of stillness. A place that we are making our home, as we unpack boxes and shuffle furniture around. A place where others can come and share the beauty, retreat from the pressures of everyday life, and, perhaps, encounter something of the Divine.
As I gaze out at the garden, with its profusion of shape and colour, even at this time in the grey damp of December, let alone with the sharp, frosty, sun-lit mornings we had when we first arrived, I am filled with gratitude and wonder. Watching the birds flit around the garden, or rise to the tops of the trees, my spirit, too, soars and I feel blessed.