GRANNYS GAP YEAR

I thought I would post a blog entry that would lift my spirits....its been a tough few days in our family but hopefully I will cheer myself up just writing this blog.!!

If you have ever been in London and travel on the Tube...it used to be that when the train stopped in the station the electronic voice would say...MIND THE GAP . This was to warn people that there was "space " in between the platform and the doorway of the train. At some stations this GAP was quite wide and meant you had to really look where you were going and step big....at other stations it seemed as if the GAP was so tiny that you wondered why the voice said it at all. This seemed to me the only time the word GAP was ever used...I don't remember ever using the word in any sentences at all.

Then at some point in history the word GAP took on a new meaning....and the most popular way of using it was to explain the time that a student would take between leaving school and going to university. Some GAPS were a whole year and meant work and travel...and stepping big.....other GAPS seemed to only last a few weeks or months but it was way of broadening life and giving the student a taste of independence and for some a dipping into a new culture and new relationships....for most GAP year students I guess they would say that it helped prepare them for the next stage in their journey.

When I left school....( all those decades ago ) there was no chance of me going to university and certainly no GAP year...it hadn't been invented in those dark ages....I also had my children fairly young but spaced out over the years so it never entered my head to regret not having the opportunity to have a GAP year....women of my generation didn't do stuff like that.

So....now I am  Granny....now I am fairly free of family....now I am actually approaching OAP status....I have decided  I am going to have  GAP year....YEP....me....!!

It is not going to be the wee small GAP as explained above ...its not going be a wee tiptoe over from one place to another on my life journey....nope...I am going to have one huge big leap into the unknown....in fact from where I am standing ...poised to jump..I cant even see the other side of the GAP...its a huge unknown and scary leap......

I am so amazed that the people in my life are enabling me to do this...the mum of  the fabby big lad I hang out with has given me the go ahead....the wee boy who is my gorgeous grandson fits around the GAP and his grandad ...my Chris... is releasing me in so many ways to have my GAP year and not one of them is saying ...MIND THE GAP.....they are all saying...GO FOR IT...

So....what is Grannys Gap Year....well....the church I belong to has a year long course called  THE ACADEMY.....and it basically means you give a year to serve in one of the church ministries....I have to work it round my work and family commitments which as I have said everyone is supporting me in....I will have the immense privilege of working alongside some amazing men and women of God...serving the Sunday ministry that is Konstruction Krew.. (childrens church for 5 to 11 year old )..I will be mentored by another amazing woman of God..I will have a classroom teaching session each week from the leaders of churches that will expand my knowledge of God and the bible and I will share my GAP year with a dozen or so other students...both from this country and abroad...... I guess I will be the oldest one on the team and probably old enough to be their grey haired Granny....and I wonder what folk may think about it but I just know this is the time for me to be doing this and if I hadnt taken the courage and applied I know I would have regretted it. It will be an opportunity for me to be ME,,,not a Mum or a Granny..it will a time for new friendships...travel...new learning skills (those who know me well  know that technology is a very big GAP ) and a broadening of my life. I am so ...so....so....looking forward to this coming season in my life.

So....Grannys Gap Year....and I am going to step out of my comfort zone...and jump....its gonna be fun.