The Language of Love

There’s a foreign language I’ve been yearning to learn.  I thought I would have to go back to school, yet again, and sit and listen to some aloof and quite learned professor in a classroom painted supposedly mellow yellow.  He would dispassionately teach ah, yet, one more class of bored disinterested students.  And, me, I would doggedly pay attention trying to understand and interpret what in the world he was saying and work hard at making sense of what clearly was gibberish of one kind or another.  But, somehow I knew that this course I hoped for was non-existent, that even money could not buy what I longed to experience.  What I wanted would fill up my senses and even the deepest parts of my being, the parts that are so deep, they are like endless black pits of emptiness filled with sad and lonely despair.  The language I wanted to learn is called the language of love.

Jesus talks about this kind of love.  It’s the kind of love that the destitute woman, a widow, gave when she put in her two small copper coins.  It’s love that says, “I want you to have everything I have because I love you so much, I give it all to you.”  Once I felt that way.  I was so young and innocent.  (I hadn’t yet learned that it is culturally only out of abundance that we are supposed to give.)  But, oh, when the heart is so pulled, so drawn, so overflowing with joy, with compassion, with devotion that it cannot help but give, is not that true love?

Jesus talks about that kind of love when he says to his Dad, “not my will, but yours be done.”  He tried to show us how much he loves us then; He gave his all in every way that he possibly could on the cross that day, in humiliation, in degradation, in despair.  He did it because He loves us and He wanted to show us.  He knew what it would cost, just like the widow did, but He didn’t care, he just said, “I love you, Dad, that much and I love them that much, so it doesn’t matter, I’ll do it anyway.”  Love won that day 2000 years ago!

And today, Jesus still shows us his love; He constantly tries to prove to us that He’s here; He’s present, and He’s talking to us about it every day, possibly every moment.  But, we miss it.  We’re too busy worrying about children, retirement funds, our constant working…and our playing.  We don’t get it that God is very much interacting with us in our goings and our comings.  He’s as close as we can open our eyes to see.

Perhaps the classroom is not within the walls of that dismal school or hidden the scholar’s words.  Maybe I can learn this language of love by looking and listening as I move about my own little world.  Maybe my teacher isn’t arrogant, aloof or disinterested at all.  I think, instead, He is very interested, generous, kind and benevolent just thinking of ways to surprise and overwhelm and teach me the things I long to know.

When I listen and look for Him, I’m startled at his nearness.  He’s everywhere saying, “Here, I made this for you,” or “I’m here, watch this,” or “Look, come over here.”   Even as I write, I glance at the tulips sitting before me.  They are so delightfully delicate, a gift given by a dear friend, who was also a gift from God when I needed one.  The flowers make me smile as their little pink and white faces reach toward the light, expressions of joy and laughter, reminding me that spring is coming, on this dreary, rainy day!

Thank you, God, for your gifts of love.  I am inspired by my new friend, Ann, who is in pursuit of a list of 1000 of these gifts.  Today I’m looking for them, to know and experience and see the reality of LOVE and it’s perfect language of peace, joy and happiness.  Journal beside me, ready to note and solidify that I did see and I did experience this interaction between God and man.  It’s those moments that God teaches me is his language of love; it’s a language, though foreign, I’m beginning to hear and see and understand.  Maybe one day I’ll even speak it, but for now I am content…to see, to hear, to listen, to know Immanuel, God is with us. Peace.

Start:  Cold Ashton

Finish:  Bath

Mileage:  11 miles

It was with great lament and sadness that I went to bed last night knowing that today would be the last day of our trek 105 miles south from Chipping Camden winding our way all the way down to Bath.  Standing on top of some of the magnificent pasturelands of the hills of the English countryside, gazing in all directions to see nothing but beauty…no roads, no cars, no people, no buildings…only silence and stillness, majestic and tranquil, deafeningly quiet but for the sounds of nature…has been like standing in the cathedral of all time and eternity itself.  I giggled out loud when Roger one day laughingly declared, “The hills are alive with the sound of music!”  It was true.  You could almost hear the grasses growing, the millions of buds opening on all of the huge old trees, hundreds of purple and blue and yellow wildflowers opening up, and birds happily twittering away as they came to life with spring and the anticipation of life to come.  Often times hours would pass by with the only sound coming from the stepping of our boots or the wind passing by or the baaing of mama sheep in search of their lambs.  Yesterday and, of course, even more so today has brought constant reminders that the remote regions are being left behind as we encounter more road crossings and traffic and noise, buildings and shops.  It’s a nice way, though, to slowly re-enter the 21st Century…just easing into it…one step at a time.

So, our last day we went to bed with threats of rain in the forecast.  And, yes,  it had rained all night. Even though it wasn’t raining when we left, it was windy and very overcast.  So, all the rain gear we had hauled in our backpacks for the past eight days, we put on at last.  Dreading the rain, we still couldn’t help but wonder if we could really trek for any length of time if it was really raining.  The signs of what happens during the rains were obvious – soil turns to mush…muddy, rivets of water and the hillsides turn to slick slides.  So rain pants, three layers under our raincoats, and covers for our backpacks off we trudged…only mildly disappointed that even though it was cloudy all day, it only rained for about 15 minutes!  Everyone keeps telling us how fortunate we’ve been with the weather … it’s been absolutely gorgeous…even though we started with knit caps and scarves, by the end we had on only t-shirts.  Our final hike down to Bath was the easiest day of all…pretty much downhill…and not to mention the anticipation of the finish line.  How exciting to wind through the city, through neighborhoods, historic sitings of the famous Royal Crescent built in the 1700’s, or passing by Jane Austen’s house, or the high society “condos” of the Circus on down to walk right by the Roman Baths which were built over the hot springs in 60-70 AD!  And, then there it was:  the majestic architectural masterpiece, Bath Abbey.  We raced toward it, excited to touch the doors of the finish line itself and grabbed each other with big hugs and shouts of “Well done!”.   Roger and I hugged each other and a couple of the friends we had made along the way.  Truly, as I was reminded, it isn’t about reaching our long distance walk destination, but only one more extremely exciting adventure during our journey.

Thanks for joining us along the way.  We’ve loved every minute of being here and hope you have enjoyed being with us.
God bless you and may all of your dreams be a great adventure in your journey as well.

Today was the first day we had to put on our rain gear…but it only rained for about 15 minutes!

always searching for the acorn…

easy hiking for Day 9, but still gorgeous views…all the way to the Severn River and Bristol off to the right.

…as the day wore on, the sun came out and most of the rain gear came off…

our first view of Weston, a section of Bath, our final destination…it’s all downhill from here on!

gorgeous blossoming trees greet us as we enter the city…

our first sighting of the Abbey, the end of the road!

Finally reaching the front doors of Bath Abbey!

…and it’s VICTORY!!!  We did it…and still can’t believe it…a real dream come true!

….some of the friends we made along the way…

inside the abbey…

… and the day after…

… oh yeah!  Reluctant to give up my new way of life, Margaret and Gilly and I headed for the hills and did one last hike….only 6 miles…we were home way before lunchtime …

Start:  Little Sodbury

Finish:  Cold Ashton

Mileage:  11 miles

After traipsing through the forest and down the hill, we landed in a small hamlet where we accosted two village women who were more than happy to take our picture with the Cotswold sign.  They were not only willing to play photographer for us, but told us all about their town, their little church and what’s what in the neighboring communities.

We really have met so many interesting people along the way, lots of them long distance walkers.  It’s a fairly common practice in the British Isles.  For example, we’ve met two sets of people who do a long walk each year.  The Sisters who we met earlier in the week have done one every year for sixteen years, the longest walk being TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY miles!!

Typically if you have started the walk on the same day as anyone else walking the distance of the entire trail, you will meet up with them once or twice somewhere along the path during the day.  This happened with us with the Californian couple, the Sisters and two women who are close friends who hike together.  After awhile and enough chance meetings either on the trail or at a pub, you get to know them a little more each time.

For example, the two women friends were fascinating.  Margaret is Scotch and Gilly is English but lives in Scotland near Margaret.  They walk a full day every Friday and in the meantime walk a few times a week.  When they say walk every Friday, they are talking walking 10 – 18 miles in the Scottish highlands in snow or rain or wind.  Now, get this:  Gilly hiked to the top of Kilimanjaro 13 years ago as part of a fundraiser!!!!  (look out WW4W  participants!)  She admits she probably couldn’t do it today and even has to stretch before and after walking . . .  now that she’s 77!!!!  Margaret is 75 and had knee surgery last year so they regrettably had to put off doing the Cotswold Way for six months!

Another lady we met was from Australia.  She hikes routinely the Blue Mountains there and was doing the Cotswold Way for her EIGHTIETH birthday.  And, here’s the funny part:  she said that compared to her usual hikes it felt like she was just “pottering” (dawdling) all day here in the Cotswolds.  A thirty year old couple staying at the same place was upstairs practically passed out doing the Cotswold Way because of all the hiking up and down the hills!

Now, for us, we feel like we prepared kinda sorta well.  A better preparation, though, would have been to hike Bishop’s Peak, followed by Dinosaur Ridge at least once a week and then do Johnson Ranch with the extension for a couple of mid-day walks during the week.  All things considered, we are shocked that we aren’t sore or suffering!  Instead, we feel great so maybe our preparations did enough good after all…that or there’s lots of grace to do what we love doing!

Finally, we were able to get a picture with the Cotswold Way “acorn” sign!

churches, churches, churches….

countryside…lower and lower as we get closer to Bath

we even had to cross a “freeway”…

the buzz of bees has been replaced by the present or  even in the distance hum of cars now…

dandelions are growing everywhere!!!

….and, of course, the wild garlic is still flourishing in every wood we pass through.

Day 7

Start:  Wotten-under-Edge

Stop:  Little Sodbury

Mileage:  12 miles, plus a few extra jaunts up and down a couple of hills!

Today we descended off the last hilltop of the escarpment itself.  Immediately the countryside started looking very different.  Instead of steep ascents with long, long vistas while we roamed around up top and then steep descents into a quaint little village, now we are walking through gentle rolling hills and patchworks of fields, each with a border of high shrubs.  There’s still the occasional forest that we still get to wander through, each one literally carpeted with bluebells, cowslips, and primroses and the air is alive with the pungency of the thousands of wild garlic blooming.  Dorky though it sounds, I almost have to laugh…because it’s actually true…the birds are singing, the bees are humming, the flowers are blooming and there’s hardly a cloud in the sky!

Rick of google map fame deserted us a couple of days ago, but I still will always feel indebted as he really helped us out on the one day we needed him in particular.  Since then, we have tried to pay close attention to our map, read the very wordy trail guide and not lose our way.  Alas, it seems part of the whole experience is to have to retrace our steps at least once a day and find the usually in plain sight acorn marker pointing us along the Cotswold Way or make slight adjustments when there is   no marker at all.

So far the only casualties of our trek have been one very sore little toe.  All things considered, we feel very fortunate, indeed!  My toe survives the day wrapped in various clear things and orange things and wrapped securely finally in white tape.  Since the beginning of our adventure we have experienced every kind of weather but rain.  We started off in long johns, knit hats and gloves… along with four layers of clothing!  Today it was so hot we were down to short sleeved t-shirts and wished we had some shorts to put on!  Tomorrow promises to be even warmer and then Wednesday there is the expecation of rain.  We are rather excited at the prospect as we have been carrying our rain gear for the past 8 days and would love to have the chance to use it!

If you can even imagine, after giving me the #1 item on my bucket list, Roger’s marriage question for the day was, “Now that you’ve done the Cotswold Way (or are doing it), what’s next on your list?”  For me, this long distance walk has been everything I could ever have hoped or dreamed, so really, what else is there?  Thankfully, it’s Roger’s turn next year to choose something off his list, so I’ve a while to think before declaring my next #1 thing.

I’d love to hear if you have a “bucket list,” and if so, what’s on it.  Maybe I’ll get some good ideas!  While we were at my favorite place we’ve stayed so far, I noticed some East African trinkets lying around.  I asked Pam, our hostess, if she had ever been to Africa.  She very excitedly asked me if I had ever heard of a bucket list.  Then, she went onto tell me that she had always wanted to go to Kenya and go on safari, so a few years ago she took her grown son and off they went for 14 days out into the wilds of Africa.  I’ve come to be a strong believer in making such a list.  There is so much to see, so much to do that I’d surely hate for life to pass me by without doing the things I’d really love to do.  Roger and I have certain things on our list that we’d like to do with or for our kids, each other and places we’d like to go or things we’d like to experience.  You wouldn’t believe all of the things on our lists that have actually happened.  It’s been amazing!  If you’ve got your list, I’d love for you to share it; if you haven’t got one, I encourage you to think about it.  Who knows what might actually happen.

Inside one of the many churches along the way.

pheasants all along the way…

… and I never get tired of seeing these!!!

open pasturelands often lead us up to a new wood to pass through…

every village has a church…

and most fields have … yep, sheep!

the countryside is changing…the valleys aren’t as low and the mountains aren’t as high….

every pub has a water bowl for your dog…and it seems every Englishman has his dog alongside!

wild garlic is EVERYWHERE!!!

countryside looking as far as you can see…all the way to Wales.

One cow invited us to a stand-off…needless to say, we won!

…one more thatched roof house.

…not to worry, even though we’ve left the escarpment, there’s still ups and downs…

and some of the trees are fully out now….

and yet before the day’s hike ends… another village…hence, another church.

Start:  Middle Yard

Stop:  Wotten-Under-Edge

Mileage:  15.5

(I’m a bit behind due to lack of internet, but here’s the update on Day 6).

OK, it was a very long day today but another glorious one.  Have to say when hiking straight up one hill and then following our trail along the top of the escarpment only to be led back down another steep decline  on the other side is a bit exhausting.  We have come to know that when we are standing on the top staring across the valley to another high hill, you can bet our trail is going to go straight down and straight to the top of that thing!  Hour after hour  hiking through the prettiest woodlands i’ve ever seen and the most amazingly gorgeous views, there is still that moment when we see a tiny sign hidden in the brush pointing the way to our little home for the night that relief sets in.  To take boots off, peel layers of clothing off, and be able to take a hot shower or, even better hot bath on occasion, is the long-awaited reward at the end of the day!

We’ve met fantastic people either walking headed north up to Chipping Campden where we came from or passing by others on their way South to Bath, like us.  We’ve also met some pretty interesting folks in pubs where we eat as well.  They’ve  all been very friendly and because of our USA hats, often strike up a conversation with us asking where we are from and every single one of them so far has commented on their trip(s) to the U.S.  Some of the expressions I’ve come to appreciate are:

Of course, “Mind Your Step”

Blimey! (Geesh!)

fancy (to like something)

Well done!

Cheerio!  (good-bye)

Hiya! (Hi or Hello)

dodgy (He seems a bit dodgy to me.)

Brilliant!  (Great!  Good job!)

Bangers (sausage)

Chips (french fries)

shambles – a mess

crisps – potato chips

cuppa – cup of tea

mate – friend

cheers – bye

Ta – Thanks!

sorted – figured out

a bit dodgy – shifty

the telly – tv

bloke – a man

Rubbish – trash

reckon (my particular favorite, because in the South, we reckon on jest about everythang!

And, I finally figured out what one lady was asking me…she said to me, “You’ll be content to be about here pottering, won’t you, dear?”   Come to find out she meant just being comfortable, doing what I felt like doing, maybe some laundry or continuing to shift one thing either in the suitcase or out of it.  So, here’s to you, my dear mates, hope your day is filled with things you fancy, and hat you don’t encounter any dodgy chaps, and that your day is absolutely lovely!  Cheers!

t

First hill of the day…

another stunning forest…

we see the occasional pigs being raised for the amazing “bacon”… to us it’s what we call “Canadian bacon”…

cows…all shapes and sizes!

…at the top of one hill we passed by a bunch of guys with these beautiful gliders…

Millions of ferns are just starting to unfurl their leaves…

Are you even kidding me????  Couldn’t for once our trail go AROUND the hill?????

…and right into the hamlet of Dursley in time for lunch.

We are so headed there…to the village and the mountain beyond!

…through the cows….

…and up to the Tyndale Monument…William Tyndale who translated the Bible into English…New and Old Testaments.  “Tyndale declared, “I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than the Pope himself!”

…and then finally we dropped down into Wotten-under-Edge, named because it’s literally right under the edge of the escarpment.

but not before encountering…yep, more sheep!