Having now spent almost twenty four hours in my adopted home country I am now compelled to say a quick hello to all my friends here on this tiny island in the Arabian Gulf and a fond farewell to friends and family on the distant shores of England, my home across the seas.
What a fantastic five weeks Xavi and I enjoyed with you all. From the moment we stepped off the plane we were treated royally by my wonderful parents. Thanks Mum and Dad for always meeting us at the airport and squeezing in all my ridiculously huge cases and bags! I really don't know what I would do if I ever had to catch the train like other people.
For almost our whole trip the sun was shining and our mood certainly wasn't in any way diminished when the rains did come. At last, after twelve years of living in the desert, I had learnt to love and appreciate the rain as the bringer of life, a welcome gift from God.
I enjoyed every moment of my stay in the green fields of home. That doesn't mean to to say that I boarded the plane with a heavy heart. On the contrary. I am actually more excited to return to the land of sun and sand than I have been for many years. That is in no way a reflection on my time in the UK or because I don't feel a pang of sadness at leaving behind my family. I do, I do. I love you all so much and I know that my still insensitive ways can be hurtful and I apologise profusely. The past few weeks has been very special and I will treasure the time we have spent together.
Last Sunday I said goodbye to my brother, my amazing brother, Greg and his wife Kate. I love you guys and I wish I could spend more time with you. I'm sorry I seem uncommunicative Greg, I wish you could come and stay with me so that we can know each other better because we only ever have a short time when we meet up in the UK. I'm so excited that I'm going to be an Auntie and I know we are going to have so much fun with our kids together.
Last Sunday I said goodbye to my brother, my amazing brother, Greg and his wife Kate. I love you guys and I wish I could spend more time with you. I'm sorry I seem uncommunicative Greg, I wish you could come and stay with me so that we can know each other better because we only ever have a short time when we meet up in the UK. I'm so excited that I'm going to be an Auntie and I know we are going to have so much fun with our kids together.
Whilst we were saying our farewells at the airport my dear Dad said how he wished I didn't have to go and I replied with the now seemingly dim witted response of "why's that Dad?". God has changed me in so many amazing ways but I remain a work in progress and I still grapple constantly with my insensitive side. Tactless is probably an understatement, but I do console myself with the happy fact that at least I have the right emotions now even if I fail to express them. At least I'm almost normal, I laugh to myself. At least I do miss people now. Since giving birth to my beautiful son Xavier, and now, combined with my ever strengthening relationship with God, I have started to experience real, genuine and powerful emotions. I'm almost a human. Well maybe that's stretching it....
I remember a few years ago when a friend of mine was crying her eyes out because her mother had just returned home to UK after an extended visit here. At the time I had absolutely no concept of what she was feeling, I didn't understand what it was like to miss someone. Of course I loved my family but I just didn't know how to let myself feel anything. The only emotion I was any good at expressing was anger and frustration.
I can't explain what made me like that. I think it was more of the absence of a relationship with God in my life rather than a particular incident. That empty void which should have been filled with God's love became full of a mixed up mess of fear and anger woven together by a clever web of deceit that hid the gaping hole from sight.
Anyway, let's get back on track. I always used to say to myself that anyone who still had friends who'd known them for more than ten years couldn't be all bad. It definitely made me feel less of a social reject as I had friends that I've now known for over twenty eight years. Wow, think of that! Some people actually thought I was okay way back then and stayed in contact with me all this time.
This was a great summer for spending time with one of my oldest and dearest school friend's Roz Brooks, as she was then known. We met at Dover Grammar School for Girls in 1986 when we were eleven years old and became firm friends towards the end of our first year. We both shared a love of adventure and, if I'm to be honest, both enjoyed walking the fine line between being brilliant students and terrible trouble makers always on the look out for a good laugh, often at the expense of our poor unsuspecting teachers.
So it was with mixed emotions that I bid my friend farewell this year. Xavier got on so well with her two children, Sam and Ella. In fact Xavi and Ella were quite the handsome couple as they strode off down the Folkestone Coastal Path and I had this little pang of sadness about what great friends they would become and how lovely it would be to have a close friend with children of a similar age to Xavi. But off I went back to Bahrain bidding my friends and family much more than a fond farewell.
I also say goodbye to all of my new friends from Folkestone Life Church and Detling Celebration who became part of mine and Xavi's life in such a short space of time. I'll see you all next year for sure so just make sure you don't forget me, it wasn't all a dream you know!
So, from goodbye to hello, from farewell to assalaam alaiykum.
I am more than happy to be coming back to this island that has been my adopted country for more than twelve years. I always yearned to be in a desert place and Bahrain is like the desert that you can put in your pocket. In fact, if they build on any more of it you might not need a very big pocket!
But seriously, the experiences I've had here, the people I've met, worked with, lived with, cried with and laughed with have all helped to shape my life and it is with joy that I return and shout HELLO from the highest mountain. Not that Bahrain's only mountain, Jebel Al Dukhan, meaning "Smoke Mountain", is all that high at a mere 134m. Still, it holds many memories for me as I rode my horse under the eye of it's imposing presence in the years before my son was born.
So hello Bahrain.
Hello Zurika and Devlin, thanks for picking me up! Hello Mary and Anjani, Boosha and Pussy Cat Shobs. Hello my lovely Woody. Hello house!!
What awaits me this year within your sandy plains and under your clear blue skies? I know that God has great plans to use me mightily in His Name and I greet you all in the knowledge that I go forward in faith alone. I am with you all because this is where God has called me to be. My route back here was one of uncertainty but God made a way for me, and as I prayed for favour with immigration at both Heathrow and Bahrain airports I made it through in record time with very few questions asked. Praise God.
Hello Rivers of Joy, I love you all and I'm so happy to be back amongst you! It's going to be an awesome year ahead and I look forward to meeting all the new friends that will be joining us that we don't even know yet. Perhaps it's you and you don't even know yet. It's amazing to think that some people that read this blog don't know me. Well I want to know you. Hello, I'm Lydia, great to meet you! If you're in Bahrain write to me, I want to know you! We want to know you!
Hello to all my friends at the British School of Bahrain and those who've recently moved on to other schools or other countries. I wish you all well and hope you will keep in touch. Hello to all my friends working at other schools around Bahrain, St Christopher's School, Al Hekma School, Al Raja School, Nadeen School and countless others.
Hello Twin Palms Riding Centre and all my awesome horsey friends. I missed you all and look forward to lots of exciting shows, hacks, lessons and maybe some endurance this year!
Hello to all my musical friends, singers, actors, dancers and musicians extraodinaire. You help to make Bahrain the vibrant and lively place that sets it apart and gives it a cultural heartbeat. This year will be the coming together of many musicians, artists and enthusiasts and I look forward to meeting with you all soon to share in a love of the inspiration that is creation.
And a final hello to those who are closest to me. You know who you are. I love you all and I am so happy to be back amongst you.
Dear Lord,
I thank you for friendship and for fellowship. I thank you for your gift of perfect love so freely given that I might know how to love you, my Lord, my God, and to love my neighbour as I love myself.
I pray for those friends and family who I have left behind many miles away. May my love for them stretch across the seas just as your love encircles me wherever I am on the face of the globe. I ask for your protection over them and pray that they will be covered by the precious blood of Jesus and that where they do not know you Lord, you will wash away their sins and make them as white as snow.
I thank you for the free gift of your grace and give you all the honour and all the glory for setting my feet upon the rock of my Salvation which lies within the perfect sacrifice on the cross of Christ Jesus.
In whose Holy Name I pray,
Amen.
I can't explain what made me like that. I think it was more of the absence of a relationship with God in my life rather than a particular incident. That empty void which should have been filled with God's love became full of a mixed up mess of fear and anger woven together by a clever web of deceit that hid the gaping hole from sight.
Anyway, let's get back on track. I always used to say to myself that anyone who still had friends who'd known them for more than ten years couldn't be all bad. It definitely made me feel less of a social reject as I had friends that I've now known for over twenty eight years. Wow, think of that! Some people actually thought I was okay way back then and stayed in contact with me all this time.
This was a great summer for spending time with one of my oldest and dearest school friend's Roz Brooks, as she was then known. We met at Dover Grammar School for Girls in 1986 when we were eleven years old and became firm friends towards the end of our first year. We both shared a love of adventure and, if I'm to be honest, both enjoyed walking the fine line between being brilliant students and terrible trouble makers always on the look out for a good laugh, often at the expense of our poor unsuspecting teachers.
So it was with mixed emotions that I bid my friend farewell this year. Xavier got on so well with her two children, Sam and Ella. In fact Xavi and Ella were quite the handsome couple as they strode off down the Folkestone Coastal Path and I had this little pang of sadness about what great friends they would become and how lovely it would be to have a close friend with children of a similar age to Xavi. But off I went back to Bahrain bidding my friends and family much more than a fond farewell.
I also say goodbye to all of my new friends from Folkestone Life Church and Detling Celebration who became part of mine and Xavi's life in such a short space of time. I'll see you all next year for sure so just make sure you don't forget me, it wasn't all a dream you know!
So, from goodbye to hello, from farewell to assalaam alaiykum.
I am more than happy to be coming back to this island that has been my adopted country for more than twelve years. I always yearned to be in a desert place and Bahrain is like the desert that you can put in your pocket. In fact, if they build on any more of it you might not need a very big pocket!
But seriously, the experiences I've had here, the people I've met, worked with, lived with, cried with and laughed with have all helped to shape my life and it is with joy that I return and shout HELLO from the highest mountain. Not that Bahrain's only mountain, Jebel Al Dukhan, meaning "Smoke Mountain", is all that high at a mere 134m. Still, it holds many memories for me as I rode my horse under the eye of it's imposing presence in the years before my son was born.
So hello Bahrain.
Hello Zurika and Devlin, thanks for picking me up! Hello Mary and Anjani, Boosha and Pussy Cat Shobs. Hello my lovely Woody. Hello house!!
What awaits me this year within your sandy plains and under your clear blue skies? I know that God has great plans to use me mightily in His Name and I greet you all in the knowledge that I go forward in faith alone. I am with you all because this is where God has called me to be. My route back here was one of uncertainty but God made a way for me, and as I prayed for favour with immigration at both Heathrow and Bahrain airports I made it through in record time with very few questions asked. Praise God.
Hello Rivers of Joy, I love you all and I'm so happy to be back amongst you! It's going to be an awesome year ahead and I look forward to meeting all the new friends that will be joining us that we don't even know yet. Perhaps it's you and you don't even know yet. It's amazing to think that some people that read this blog don't know me. Well I want to know you. Hello, I'm Lydia, great to meet you! If you're in Bahrain write to me, I want to know you! We want to know you!
Hello to all my friends at the British School of Bahrain and those who've recently moved on to other schools or other countries. I wish you all well and hope you will keep in touch. Hello to all my friends working at other schools around Bahrain, St Christopher's School, Al Hekma School, Al Raja School, Nadeen School and countless others.
Hello Twin Palms Riding Centre and all my awesome horsey friends. I missed you all and look forward to lots of exciting shows, hacks, lessons and maybe some endurance this year!
Hello to all my musical friends, singers, actors, dancers and musicians extraodinaire. You help to make Bahrain the vibrant and lively place that sets it apart and gives it a cultural heartbeat. This year will be the coming together of many musicians, artists and enthusiasts and I look forward to meeting with you all soon to share in a love of the inspiration that is creation.
And a final hello to those who are closest to me. You know who you are. I love you all and I am so happy to be back amongst you.
Dear Lord,
I thank you for friendship and for fellowship. I thank you for your gift of perfect love so freely given that I might know how to love you, my Lord, my God, and to love my neighbour as I love myself.
I pray for those friends and family who I have left behind many miles away. May my love for them stretch across the seas just as your love encircles me wherever I am on the face of the globe. I ask for your protection over them and pray that they will be covered by the precious blood of Jesus and that where they do not know you Lord, you will wash away their sins and make them as white as snow.
I thank you for the free gift of your grace and give you all the honour and all the glory for setting my feet upon the rock of my Salvation which lies within the perfect sacrifice on the cross of Christ Jesus.
In whose Holy Name I pray,
Amen.
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