A Very Good Place

“It’s like being at home and on holiday at the same time” says Sam Gamgee in the midst of Lothlorien, midway through their epic journey in Lord of the Rings, (probably my favourite book of all time).

As ever, Tolkein captures something timeless about the essence of a place where every individual element is good in its own right but also interacts to create somewhere wonderfully ‘whole'. 'At home and on holiday', somewhere that just feels like it works, full of positive relationships that enable somewhere wholesome and beautiful. 

I think that ‘wholeness’ and interdependence and healthy interactions within and between people and with  the natural world around them is what is meant by the idea of ‘shalom’, the Hebrew word for peace, and the reason why the Bible often uses an image of a garden. 

We all create our own ‘good places’ in our homes and garden and with our families, but there are different kinds of places that include the public, or institutions, or businesses, where the interactions just seem to work. 

When we lived in Greece, we enjoyed the privilege of getting to know the vineyard at Ktima Kokotou, outside Athens, as regular customers for the wine, but also as attendees of open Sundays, participants at the outdoor pre-school and as guests of the family. When we left, I wrote this for them to try and honour their deliberate intention to create somewhere really special. Since then, I have adapted this for a pony sanctuary and for friends running a stately home as a wedding venue, upholding the history of the house and the future of the grounds. 

 

 

A Very Good Place

“There is a vineyard, set between three hills. And every way you look, it is good.

The wine they make fuels friendship and conversation and you taste it and it is good.

The events they host, the parties they hold are set in a place of beauty: the food is plentiful and it is good.

You can take just a few steps away from the busyness to experience the birdsong, the mountains, to notice everything and enjoy the peace. And it is good.

It is not just the vines that are cared for there. Everything good can find a place to flourish. The frogs in the pond, the birds in the woodland; Even the swallows get to share the eaves in the house.

In spring, the bees have their choice of the many coloured wildflowers, because nothing that would harm them is used there. The farmyard animals eat their fill of what's left after the vegetable garden has yielded its good produce.

During the week, small children explore. They ride the ponies; they feed the animals; they touch and feel the plants and experience the changing seasons. Whether at pre-school, open sundays or holiday camps they help to care for the place and understand their world. They come home with earth in their fingernails and ruddy cheeks. And that is good.

The goodness of the place is nurtured and nourished by the family who steward it; who care for the people who work on it, and welcome those who come to experience it.

There is a vineyard, set between three hills. And every way you look, it is good.”

 

If you are reading this and thinking of other places where you get the same sense, I would love to hear about them!