my Patch out and about pt2

Two days in Epsom was a very different time... Just 30 minutes by train from Vauxhall , but it could be a million miles away....

I was meeting the minister I was to shadow at mid-day but arrived a hour early which gave me time to walk around find the meeting place- to get my own first impressions.... One thing I loved was the town centre, Theres were different stalls the three mornings I walked through it. A open air cafe and bread stall selling rye bread which though tempted with buying a loaf a resisted that... ( but if my house elf is reading this maybe next weekend :) ) a great place to be out and meeting the community being available in the "third spaces' what a third place in the book exiles frost puts it like this

Third spaces are the most significant places for Christian mission to occur because in a third place people are more relaxed, less guarded, more open to meaningful conversation and interaction...................It's in the third place that we let our guards down, it's here that we allow people to know us more fully. it's here that people are more willing to discuss the core issues of life, death, faith, meaning and purpose. (p.58)

Think about it how many times did Jesus end up in the market place talking with people healing restoring challenging ....this was very much the case over a lunchtime meeting....
Walking out from the station one of the first things to strike me was the freshness... though it had been a lovely morning leaving My Patch, arriving in Epsom a very different feel was to the place one of being able to breath..

What do I mean by that......

Here in My Patch life I find is fast... much faster than I have been used to... London is busy, high building, the tube feels feels like large sardine tins ( though I think sardines get more room) it's the same which the buses and paths... people every where...

Coming into Epsom the buildings where lower opening to the sky.... less shadows cast by them... the high street though bustling there was space to sit and be ( yes there are places along the south back to do this ).. Life here was slightly slower... a pace that I'm a bit more used to..

This view was held to by someone that we met for lunch who had explained they had done the commuter thing had lived in Clapham for a short time but found life here in Epsom less frantic.

That for me was a intresting conection as we were a similar age, and with their job would be possible expected to live more centrally based...