Day 6

We were greeted by Catherine at Acton House last night. What an absolute joy to see her in person again. Catherine and Pete have born various titles with the Northumbria Community over the years, but whatever their role, being with them just feels like home.

Catherine gave us the quick once around of changes since we were last here in 2016. We saw the storied Story tree, and got the rundown on new endeavors undertaken by the Acton landlords (no more cattle: Alpacas!) and we paused in the Lean-to Chapel for a moment. There, Catherine displayed her giftedness as a shepherd as she lit a candle for each of our daughters and their husbands, and prayed for them.

We had the whole place to ourselves after that (which was a bit surreal) but we’ve been placed in a cozy room above the offices with a view of the alpaca paddocks (THAT’S fun to say). Brenda did her magical un-packing job and everything is in it’s place for the foreseeable.

This morning dawned crystal clear and cold once again. The number of daffodils blooming is approaching lewd. We have a couple of old style upholstered chairs in front of our window, and I chose one to plop into after my shower and begin my morning routine. I’ve been following this regimen since November: take a 2 minute cold shower. Get coffee and sit down in my spot. Breathing exercises. Yawning exercise to wake up mirror neurons. A tapping exercise to engage my parasympathetic nervous system and relax (turns out the effectiveness of this is a little controversial…but it seems to help me). Then I engage in praying through some joy memories. Sometimes I add an additional breathing exercise, and then I’ll I recite the Sermon on the Mount. I don’t get to every component every day (while traveling, it’s been hard) but I think I found my spot to do this at Nether Springs. And the water is plenty cold!

While Brenda did her morning thing, I went down to the dining room and got some breakfast that the team were so kind to leave out for us.

I spent a little time writing and thought that, even with the house empty, we could still say Morning Office. Brenda joined me and we began to settle in when Sarah Hay popped in. She was in the office briefly and had the same thought. It was lovely to see her again, if only briefly, and what a privilege to pray The Office in the Nether Springs chapel again.

Brenda and I saddled up and walked into Felton. About a 2 mile trek. We retraced the last bit of our pilgrimage 7 years ago, but this time the broad beans and wheat are only inches high, where as in August of 2016 they stood to our waists.

Felton was very familiar, but there have been changes. A brand new housing estate borders the walking path, for example. Like so many other things, there is a close parallel to circumstances in the US, but it’s just different enough. These were all detached, 2 story homes arranged in a density similar to that in Marysville. No yard to speak of. But they are of course brick; 1 car garage and I would estimate that the average square footage is less than 1500.

Lunch at the Running Fox and a brief peek over the bridge at the Coquet River and we returned home. A quick trip into Alnwick for a few essentials (had to perform a proper merge back onto the A1 for the for the first time in “The Benz”…YEAH, BABY!) and I’m going to wander over to the Chapel now to say a solitary Compline.

Whoever you are…you’re being prayed for.

It’s very good to be here. And all the better to be here with Brenda.