When we conceived this blog I imagined that the first post would be introductory in nature. A ‘hello’ post, unpacking our vision for this journey we are embarking on and inviting you to share in it. Instead I find myself writing a T-minus post.

This weekend, Spring in the air presented the first opportunity of 2016 to hang laundry outside to dry. What a great feeling… not because I prefer my clothes dried al fresco, but because it represents a change in the seasons. With clothes flapping on the line and the fresh smell of cut grass from my neighbours garden, winter’s cold clutch, dark mornings and grey mood was banished with the promise of radiant light, shoots of life and a much needed dose of vitamin D and happiness.

Although seasons change with some degree of fluidity, there is an underlying certainty that the next season will come and the old will go. I value what this points to in a Creator, this glimmer of hope in a world, faith and life filled with uncertainties.

That glimmer has been much needed this week. Before we even embark on this journey it seems plagued with challenge dressed as impossibly high hurdles. Usually one of us is raring to leap, dragging the other along in fatigue or protest (or both). But this week we both felt deflated, weak, incapable and frankly overwhelmed.

Venturing out into the sunshine, washing basket in hand, nature revealed its architecture, which shares the same designer as us. Whilst every storm that rages and destroys will end and calm and stillness will return, so it is in our lives too. The same design and rules govern our existence. Seasons will always change. For us we cannot be sure when, but only that this difficult season will end and the next step in our journey is waiting.