I love this picture. It is my friend Deborah standing on the cliffs of Hook Head Peninsula in Ireland. It was so cold and sleeting that day, but it was such an amazing journey to this part of Ireland. We stopped at a pub for lunch and stopped at Jerepoint Abbey which you will see many pictures of on this page sooner or later. :) This day above all others was such a great day. The long car ride with Deborah out and back was a time of good long talks about painful things and of wonderful music. Derek Webb was on the ipod and two songs in particular I still remember; "Beloved" and "She Must and shall go free." I still listen to those songs and they take me back to this day. I could have stayed at this place forever. I felt such an amazing peace here. The wind was so cold and the rain soaked our coats, but at the same time with the sound of the sea gulls, and the roar of the crashing waves against the rocks and sand there was a silence that I cannot begin to explain. For the first time in months I really felt God telling me that I was going to be okay. The mess of the past year was still there and there was residual things to deal with, but for the first time in such a terribly long time I really felt God's presence resting in me.

For so long over the past few years I felt like the water just being thrown against the rocks without abandon. I felt helpless and then I realised I was helpless. That feeling was again driven home at the end of October when I had back surgery and lost my job all within two weeks. It has been good to look back at these pictures and remember the quiet in the storm. Those moments when the waves would be sucked back out to the sea by the tide and even the seagulls and wind were still in those moments.