Who cares if it's Sunday, not Friday? - Dreams and Visions meme

This week's RevGals Friday Five is a perfect way of avoiding the need to devise interesting worship and/or pack for Cornwall, so givent that this blog will be devoid even of such trivia for the coming week, I'm going to indulge...

1. Think back to the time you left High School, what were your hopes visions and dreams for your life/ for the world?
Oooh....well, my departure from school was rather overshadowed by the death of my parents, one a term before and one a month after I left,-but nonetheless, with typical adolescent self-centredness, I headed off in single-minded pursuit of my dream. I was going to Cambridge (well, yes, that did happen), where my singing career would really take off (not quite) and I'd excell musically, academically and socially. "The Glittering Prizes" meets "Salad Days", with a sprinkling of Brideshead and Trilby...and not a grain of realism!


2. Have those hopes visions and dreams changed a lot, or are some of them still alive and kicking? (share one if you can)
I guess, actually, that my poor, neglected academic brain is still something I rather hanker to cultivate. I'm clearly never going to finish my original PhD, but maybe one day some topic will land on my desk looking so irresistible for research purposes that I actually do something with it.

3. Hebrews 11:1 " Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. " Comforting, challenging or frustrating?
Comforting, until I try to explain why it is that I obstinately insist, in the teeth of all the evidence, that all shall be well...then frustrating, as I really can't make sense of that conviction, without recourse to faith.

4. If resources were unlimited, and you had free reign to pursue a vision what would it be?
Big old Victorian vicarage in a run-down area....lots of spare bedrooms which are always available for those who need them...lots of committment from the church to identifying and helping those who might need them....Space specially for single mums in trouble...playroom, babysitters, food and time...enough time to really listen and remind those girls that they and their little ones matter, and that life is there to be lived, not endured.

5. Finally with summer upon us- and not to make this too heavy- share your dream holiday....where, when and who with...
Back to India with HG and HS, to explore the whole country from north to south by train, with frequent and prolonged stops, ending up with a good long stay with some of the wonderful people I met last year, and then a week of sheer decadence in Kerala.

In the absence of funds to make 5 a reality, I'm heading off after the spir dir course tomorrow to Newquay for a rather lovely retreat...led by the amazing DH, whose praises I sing on a regular basis. I'm one of a small group, invited by a colleague whom I don't know at all well (it's happening in her house), and currently torn between delight that I'm going at all, confusion as to why I've been invited and terror because I really don't know the other participants. But there's silence all morning, DH is a genius of the first order and there's sun forecast...so I'd better stop weebling and just get on with enjoying it. Home on Friday.