Count Your Blessings #28 – A Few Hours with Sue

On Saturday Sue and I had a few hours together – alone. It was fabulous. For a couple with two children (13 and 9) this is a very rare occurrence. For these few hours to be on a Saturday when we don’t have anything else that ‘must’ be done is exceptional. These occasions come so rarely that it’s a surprise when they do and the problem with surprises is that its not always clear how best to react. It’s so easy to waste a surprise.

In the morning I had been speaking at a Men’s Breakfast for church and one of the things that we were talking about was ‘Adventure’. I was determined that we weren’t going to waste this time and that we were going to have an adventure of some description or other. The problem with many adventures is that they require some planning and it’s much easier just to sit back and ‘relax’. The day was also wet and miserable, so the pressure to do nothing was even greater. And it was mid-afternoon already.

One of the joys of living in Preston is that you can get into the beautiful Lake District in less than an hour. We both wanted to take in the autumnal colours and smells. A quick check of the weather forecast on the Internet showed that there was no guarantee that the weather would get any better, but it looked hopeful.

Off we went, up to Tarn Howes. Sue loves it there, it’s a place where she finds real peace and there was no time left for a really dramatic walk anyway.

It was fabulous. The weather cleared, the colours were tremendous, the walk was just right and the coffee at the new little coffee shop on the way down was tremendous.

Spending those few hours with the lady I love was more precious than any gold or silver. I felt like a school boy taking his girlfriend out on their first date, at the same time I felt like I was in a place that I had visited a hundred times before with each visit being as precious as the times preceding.