Showing posts with label endurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label endurance. Show all posts

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Travelling isn't Glamorous


k. so my pack weighs....almost 50pds. Kate's about 35. Here we are walking off the ferry onto the Idylic Island of Iona. The place the book of Kells was written. The heart of Celtic Christianity and it is pouring. The kids are in the trailer with the cover on. It is passed supper time and our hostel is not the advertised 500 metres, but more like 1.5 km. The last building on the island-literally.
Travelling with kids is hard. The other day we were late and waiting for a bus and the words, 'i gotta poo.' come off the lips of Sim. The choice-40minute bus ride and wet, poopy kid, or miss the bus and get home in the dark? You choose.
I think the thing this trip has taught us is not that travelling with kids is impossible, but rather are you willing to make the sacrifices to slow down, adjust your expectations, and let your kids help dictate the tempo.
We could have said,' it's too hard', but then we wouldn't have gone to Iona, to Taize, or anywhere else. I think what often the limitation is our willingness to suffer, to endure, to do everything possible to make it happen.
What is your limitation?
I was inspired by Notre Dame which took 200 years to build. What if the members of the church said, enough? Or Edinburgh Castle, 1000 years to build all of it? I have been challenged of how short, and weak my effort often is.