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Restart and Recharge

I was recently set the challenge of restarting my blog so here we are. Restarted.

Things have changed a little since I last wrote this. Not overly much though admittedly. I am still volunteering at Corrymeela albeit in a slightly different role now. People have asked me what the heck I’m still doing here and plenty of people joke that I’m clearly incapable of leaving. Maybe that’s true and maybe it isn’t. The important thing is that I’m here because I want to be. Not because I couldn’t find anything else or that this is a stopgap but because it’s the right place for me to be right now.

Summer is here again and with that comes new faces and familiar ones. Both faces breathe new life into community and work and the sense that we’re all doing this together is recharged. It’s also a challenging time of year as our groups stay for longer periods, there are more people around and the One Year Volunteers are beginning to think about goodbyes. Lots of emotions all round.

This year though we have some pause moments built in and these have created welcome breathing spaces and days of connection. The weekend of the Twelfth was quiet at the centre and I spent some time talking to community members and playing with a nineteen month old. The connection to community that this brings was great as I remember meeting her for the first time at seven months old last year.

We were also able to join a former colleague on the last part of his journey from Kinsale down in the south of Ireland to Ballycastle, his home town. He had been walking since May with a group of different people and we were invited to share their final day of walking together. Despite the early start about ten of us went out to walk with them, finding our own reflections and connections on the rainy beach and then getting sunburnt on the home stretch. If you’re interested in finding out more about their journey check out their website and blog here.

So here we are restarted and recharged for the next few months. I’ll do my best to keep things up to date.


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Comments

  1. Andrew25 July 2014 at 22:46

    It has been over a week since you blogged...does that mean that you didn't meet the challenge, and I win a prize?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Elspa27 July 2014 at 19:39

    No prizes for you. You never set the actual challenge, just to blog, which I did :)

    ReplyDelete

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