andi oakes

I spent a bit of time today visiting some of my family who still live in the village where my Mum was born and grew up.  My Grandmother, Aunt and Uncle still live there and my Mum is actually staying with them at the same time that we are in the area, so we were able to have a little bit of an impromptu family get together. 

 

Inevitably as my Mum and I chat, the topic of conversation often comes round to how the personality of the village has changed as the years have progressed, and as more and more family members and friends have either moved away or died.  

I remember each year, as we would spend a good part of the summer holidays staying with my Great Granny, being able to reacquaint ourselves with the same people in the village.  It was literally a little home from home that we looked forward with ever increasing excitement to spending our summer weeks in every year, and that hasn't diminished the older we have all become.  Yet we have all noticed the same thing as the years progress: that the fewer people we know in the village – the less we all feel connected to it, even though the village holds some of our most emotive memories.

You see, people make the difference.  Yes, there are places in the world that inspire and lift us, but I believe the greatest connections to places always involve other people: family members, friends, neighbours, first loves, lost loves...the list could go on.  We still love visiting the village that my Mum hails from, but to be honest, the fewer people we know, the less warm the village feels. 

As I write this, in one of my most favourite places on the planet, I realise that the reason I love it so, is because of the memories of my younger days with my family and especially my Great Grandmother who spoilt me rotten as a child.  I still miss her and the love she had for me; and to be back here, in the place where she spent all her life is comforting and refreshing for me.  But at the same time, I am conscious that I feel the draw of my home in Northern Ireland.  And what keeps that connection so strong?  Love.  My love for people back home.  You see it's a true thing that home is most certainly where the heart is.

I remember Bill Wilson from Metro Ministries saying that he felt that he had learned far too late that life was simply all about people – not business, money, gaining power or notoriety...it was simply all about people.  I think, therefore, that loving others and allowing them to love us in return is the true essence of life and what creates the most powerful connections of all.  So we should celebrate these connections.  We should celebrate life.  We should celebrate the people that God has allowed into our lives and those especially, who have left the deepest footprints in our hearts; and we should let them know...we love them.