Anyone who knows my former college tutor, Revd Brian Howden will know what Brianing is - the innocent delight that accompanies the discovery of connections, especially between people.
The last couple of weeks have had a couple of Brianing moments...
In Bodfari, a tiny Welsh hamlet, is a pub to which all walkers retire for tea/dinner (according to where they went to school!) - cos there isn't anywhere else. So how's this for a coincidence worthy of Brian? As I sat in said pub, minding my own business, someone came over to me and said 'excuse me, I know this sounds daft, but are you a minister and did you train in Manchester?' Imagine how blessed that pub was to have a Methodist minister (walking Offa's south) and a Baptist minister (walking it north) who had indeed overlapped in their time in Manchester dining at the same time!
In Manchester I got chatting to a minister I've never met before, who asked where my church was. Oh, you'll never have heard of it, I said, its in Leicestershire. She probed further - and it turned out her sister teaches at the school where we meet for worship (and they are not from the local area originally).
As I type I can picture Brian smiling in delight as the interconnectedness of all humanity is once more illustrated. Sure there are all the six degrees of separation myths (evidently based on something an American church minister once did) but it is always quite special to discover the world is smaller than I think, and 'Brianing' remains, as ever, a special moment.
Three weeks ago, my friend Jean and I at the start (end?) of Offa's Dyke at Sedbury Cliffs in the Bristol Channel. It's an odd kind of start/end to a walk because you have to walk through some very muddy fields and up a steep bank in order to get to the stone and officially start (or end) your walk. Then you have to back track to the road as you set off for Prestatyn (starting) or to Sedbury/Chepstow (ending). Seems a bit like life sometimes- you have to go backwards in order to go forwards. Perhaps I should have read the sign for how much to-ing and fro-ing I'd be doing in the following weeks!
This sign appears on the gates at either end of Disgwylfa Hill, one of the many we climbed up, over, round and down in the two weeks of walking. I combines gentle humour with some thought provoking ideas: a reminder that we don't actually own the earth and we should respect it.
St Mary's, Newchurch, is an old Anglican church with no loos and no running water, but who gave grasped something of Matthew 25. The church is open all the time for walkers and visitors to help themselves to tea, coffee, soft drinks and biscuits. Someone makes sure there is fresh water, someone supplies the milk, someone washes the cups... and it's all given for FREE.
We had a lot of fun along the way, but there were moments when it was plain old fashioned slog, and times when it hurt (a sprained ankle apiece and some 200m+ steep climbs to boot, have their impact!). Yet, each time we finally topped a hill/mountain the pain was forgotten as we enjoyed the views. But if you are reading this, and know Jean, beware her saying 'it goes up to start with' as this probably prefaces a 300m continuous steep climb with almost no footholds in the grass!
So, to end, here I am looking out over miles and miles of countryside towards the sea, towards jouney's end at Prestatyn - which of course is but the beginning of another journey, more adventures, laughter, pain, highs and lows.
Many thanks to