1 March - Day 5 - If we hadn't done this...

Today - I completely understood why everyone has said, Why didn’t you just do 30 days'?’ The picture probably says it all (apart from the bitter cold and damp that seemed to seep through everything!)

But - enough of moaning. In many ways, the weather provided the perfect backdrop for listening to more of The Salt Path and thinking about why I am doing this. If you haven’t read Raynor Winn’s book, it is described as, ‘an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.’ As someone who has spent many a day in sun or torrential rain, walking the south coast path, it has an added significance. It also focuses my mind on the loss, grief and despair that many of St Wilfrid’s clients have felt or feel and why the sense of community the Centre provides is in so many ways much more than a building. The support you give builds the community and strengthens the resilience.

So, as I think about the journey home later and see the fog and drizzle that remains outside, I’ll leave you with a significant quotation from the book and the hope of sunshine tomorrow,

“If we hadn’t done this there’d always have been things we wouldn't have known, a part of ourselves we wouldn't have found, resilience we didn't know we had.”