It was wet and windy on Friday afternoon when we arrived at the campsite with Hannah and the tent. Hannah loves camping and wanted to camp the last night on Kintyre as it would be easier to get to the early ferry from the campsite five miles away than the from the cottage up the small winding road at Carradale.
That was until the weather turned wet and windy. However this did not, of course deter Hannah.
The camp site is near the sand dunes, a beautiful setting and a nice looking site with good facilities. We three stood in a small inward facing circle. Team Lees-Warwicker were about to pitch the tent. We looked for Hannah to lead us, each ready to respond to requests for pegs or whatever.
It took only a couple of minutes for a damp patch of grass to be transformed into a dry place to rest. I crawled inside with mattress and sleeping bag as instructed. It was cosy.
I can, even now, see the attraction of this temporary type of living arrangements. The solitude and self contained but readily portable hermitage is something even the saints would have coverted.
So often we go for permanence when we really need something more flexible and transient. Of course there maybe times in our life cycles whether individual or communal when the whole putting down roots thing seems the right response. But then we encounter different challenges, restlessness, age, decline, change maybe.
There’s a hymn I like that has the tent image as part of the faithful response to the life of faith. I don’t remember the first line or the writer but I do remember one particular memorable phrase. It rang around my head the next morning when we returned to collect the tent before getting on the early ferry from Campbeltown to Ardrossan.
‘Pull the tent pegs up again’: we did and we’re onto the next adventure.

In our coming and our going
The Peace of God