Portugal pictures

Just uploaded a bunch of pictures from our recent holiday in Portugal with my parents.

On books, genealogies, and batons

We spent last week in Portugal with my parents. It was one of those occasions when my sense of time was most fluid - three generations were together under one roof and old remembrances and new experiences were shared and equally celebrated, regardless of whose they were. The things of my childhood surrounded me, but now from a distance: I read one of our old books to Reuben with adult eyes.

We flew back to Bristol on Thursday, and drove up to Edinburgh yesterday. We're now in my parent's flat in Edinburgh; the same sense of the weight of generations is being impressed on me (and it's not just because we're in a sub-basement of Moray Place) as this is the area in which my grandparents spent a long chunk of their lives, my father grew up and I grew up as well.

This morning we read the first chapter of Matthew's gospel and had a similar feeling of 'being part of something that's been going on for a very long time' as the familiar and unwieldy names of the genealogy rolled across our lips. Again, the contrasting sense of scale as 42 generations bumped up against one dream and Joseph took a firm hold on the baton for his leg of the race.