Rachel Sparg, Emerge: Father And son
The Eight O’Clock
News October 2017
Every Step of the Way My Fitbit was with me every step of the way and is now either ecstatic or completely in shock! The best day clocked up 35,916 steps or 24.4kms. Walking and sometimes climbing up on the cliffs of the Portuguese west coast and the Sintra hills was both challenging and exhilarating—a microcosm of life in a way. The Fitbit measured my steps, recorded the kilometres, tracked my heart rate and equated my climbs to the equivalent flights of stairs. However, it was unable to record why my heartbeat soared at the sight of the waves of the Atlantic crashing on to Guincho beach, my standing on the Cabo da Rocha’s cliffs, bowing my head in front of the entombed Vasco da Gama in the Belem monastery, stumbling on a chapel hidden in the Sintra woods and bending to enter the tiny cells in the ancient Convento dos Capuchos. It couldn’t record my thoughts as I gazed out south over the Atlantic, thinking home is straight down there and how I thought of the ancient explorers setting out into the unknown. At the Cabo da Roca, the Cape which forms the westernmost point of mainland Portugal and indeed continental Europe, I could see why Luis de Camoes wrote: ‘Aqui, onde a terra se acaba e o mar comeca… here , where the land ends and the sea begins’. It was called the Promontorium Magnum by the Romans and for centuries before the age of exploration, it was thought of as the edge of the world. Two days before I was to stand on this promontory, while sipping a complementary port on the enclosed verandah of my hotel room, I saw the Cape in the distance and felt somewhat daunted at how I was going to reach it. More cliff-climbing and traversing of the mountainous woods was in store… but at this moment it appeared symbolic to me, a marker of the edge of something, a October 2017 Eight O’Clock News
8 am Service, Christ Church, Kenilworth
beginning and an end. The wind was wild and the waves huge but it was so exciting to watch the windsurfers on this beach at Guincho, one of the most renowned surfing beaches—for the experienced and not the faint-hearted. I was glad to be heading down to dinner where I could view the magnificent ocean, granite cliffs and crying sea birds in comfort through the panoramic dining-room windows. My Fitbit, of course was a-nice-to-have, a wonderful record of what we achieved each day… but more essential was the walking pole… this I could not have done without. A ‘rod and staff’, I thought, steadying me on the cliffs, helping me to plant my feet in the right places and a comforting leaning place when exhausted. After five days of walking when I packed away my pole, it felt for a while that something was missing. I needed it in my hand, it secured me. So here the analogy… I would be bereft in this life if I didn’t have the blessed assurance that every step I take, in His steps I plant my own. The Lord stands with me at the high points and the low ones; He is there at the pinnacles of achievement and the depths of despair. He is there keeping me safe from the crashing waves in life, the perilous cliffs and the dark woods… yet, He measures my joy too and guides me to the places that He knows are best for me. My shepherd guides me with the rod, fends off my enemies and encourages me along the safe paths. He knows my heart. - Cheryl Anderson