{"id":1813,"date":"2013-09-30T21:39:10","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T20:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/?p=1813"},"modified":"2013-10-03T12:04:19","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T11:04:19","slug":"a-place-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/?p=1813","title":{"rendered":"a place to be"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u201cEveryone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfilment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.\u201d<\/em>
\n \u2015 Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning<\/em><\/p>\n

As she turned the corner, the strength and bitterness of the wind and bright autumn sun caught Lizzie off guard.\u00a0 She gasped, catching her breath, and thought that sunglasses might have been an idea!<\/i>\u00a0 Then she could have pretended to be Audrey Hepburn, wearing black with kitten heels a la 1960s, sunglasses, and looking terrifically chic in a Holly Golightly A girl can’t read that sort of thing without her lipstick<\/em> fashion.\u00a0 Imagine.\u00a0 Reality check! Here she was, a non-hat wearer, about to put what she could only describe as a tea cosy on her head. But it wasn’t just any\u00a0tea cosy.\u00a0 It was\u00a0a luxuriously soft cashmere\u00a0in charcoal grey tea cosy that had been a gift from Maggie last Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0Kate and the girls said she suited it.\u00a0\u00a0It shows off your\u00a0pretty face\u00a0and sparkly eyes\u00a0Lizzie and it’s very modern!<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh wheesht!\u00a0 Thank God it didn\u2019t have a pompom.\u00a0 She hated hats.\u00a0 And she wasn’t Audrey Hepburn.\u00a0 And there was no Cary Grant in this particular scenario.<\/p>\n

Her still slim\u00a0figure walked with purpose and she caught some appraising glances as the heels of her flat boots\u00a0clicked rhythmically on the concrete.\u00a0\u00a0A\u00a0reliable sound.\u00a0 A fascinating memory of a grandmother\u00a0clock, tick ticking\u00a0its way through silences in between\u00a0bowls of the best homemade soup and apple pie ever, Scrabble, card games and snoozing on Sunday afternoons, all burst forth from her memory banks.\u00a0 Life at\u00a0at her grandparents.\u00a0 Where on earth had that come from<\/em>? Lizzie made her way towards The Priory, footsteps slowing, lingering, desperate for a distraction.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t ready.\u00a0 It wasn’t time. Not yet.\u00a0 A\u00a0shop window to look in.\u00a0 People passed and still she stared.\u00a0 Not\u00a0seeing but thinking.\u00a0 Wondering.\u00a0 Moments passed.\u00a0 Not yet.\u00a0 She suddenly felt tense and anxious.\u00a0 Her mouth felt dry and her heart began to beat faster\u00a0as an avalanche of memories invaded her consciousness.<\/p>\n

What if this was a bad idea?\u00a0 What if it had changed?\u00a0 What if it wasn\u2019t magical anymore?\u00a0 What if it doesn\u2019t mean the same?\u00a0 What if it was all imagined?\u00a0 What if the memories are too strong now?\u00a0 Why the \u2018what ifs\u2019 now, Lizzie?<\/p>\n

From nowhere, or somewhere, she remembered her last conversation with Alice.<\/p>\n

Thin places.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0was a well worn path.<\/p>\n

It was where she and Kate had met almost fifty years ago.
\nIt was where she encountered Ralph and his brother for the first time.
\nIt was where she would make decisions that would alter her life forever.
\nIt was where she sought sanctuary, mercy, healing and grace.
\nIt was where the boundary between heaven and earth was especially thin.
\nIt was where she knew, for certain, that God was.\u00a0 Waiting.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t\u00a0busy but for a few\u00a0people on retreats\u00a0following the path of St Cuthbert. Lizzie breathed in the sea air and walked through the gate.\u00a0 From the beginning the stories of Cuthbert’s charm and generosity to the poor, his gifts of healing and insight, his selflessness and life of austerity, intrigued Lizzie. There was a real sense of the monk and hermit to be found in this place and, not for the first time, Lizzie felt a connection to his yearning for solitude.<\/p>\n

Peace and calm embraced her like a blanket, or the way an old friend would.\u00a0 The Priory ruins protected her from the wind and at once she was drenched in glorious sunshine.\u00a0\u00a0Just like before.<\/p>\n

She felt right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cEveryone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfilment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.\u201d \u2015 Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning As she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[21,145],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2zQgS-tf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1813"}],"version-history":[{"count":107,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1922,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions\/1922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}