In Santa Croce with no Baedeker seemed to resonate with so many people last Sunday (if you’ve not yet read it, pop over here) - and not just for the memories of E M Forster’s book or the beloved film of the book! (Room With A View, in case you’re wondering)

I’ve received more emails than ever before - thank you to each of you who wrote with your own memories of Santa Croce or of a mountain top experience, or of how last Sunday’s post resonated with and for you.

It was indeed a mountain top experience, knowing that God was nudging me, that Donatello’s carving was helping me to hear His voice, that I knew what He was asking me to do, to be. It came at the end of my month in Florence; you can catch up with week one here Are you a PLM or a PNLM? week two here What Giulio taught me and week three here What is the Best Prayer?

And it was extremely special. I didn’t want to leave Santa Croce - nor Florence the next day. But it was time to go home, back to real life, whatever that might mean; Florence was real life too. Just in a different way.

I was home by Friday late afternoon. On Saturday, two grandchildren and one granddog arrived, while my son and his wife are away for a week (he’s on a work trip abroad and she has been able to go too. Japan …. ) It was down to earth with a bang. Husband’s birthday on Sunday meant a gluten-free birthday cake to bake, Sunday lunch to create. And then a ‘normal’ week of real life, with its duties and to-do lists.

The peace and the desire to be willing to be willing stayed with me. But even ten days later, it has ebbed to a certain extent and I have to remind myself of it several times a day. Coming down from a mountain top experience is not always easy, but those ups and downs are definitely part of ‘normal’ life.

How to define a mountain top experience? It seems to me that it’s a time, a moment, when a person experiences God in some special way; when there’s maybe clarity, or some special joy, or feeling the sense of a nudge from God. When something transformative occurs, a life changing experience or a blessing or joy that is extra-special and the person knows, just KNOWS, that it is from God and is personal and special. It can occur at any time, in any place - but if we’re actively seeking God and asking Him to deepen our relationship with Him, it is perhaps more likely. But then sometimes it comes totally from seemingly nowhere. Either is a gift and a blessing.

Should we be seeking more mountain top experiences? I’m not sure we should - it’s impossible to live entirely at the peak, and it would no longer be special, memorable and transformative. It would merely become normal life. God gives us these incredibly deep moments - and then seems to say, now go and put it into practice! Oh and you’ll need my help to do that.

Or maybe He’s saying that what you received on the mountain top is meant not just for you, but for you to share with others, to bless them as well.

Or perhaps it’s a lesson you’re to learn, and to remember so that you don’t have to be taught it again.

And, often - a reminder of just how much He loves you.

Whatever your mountain top experience, however the Lord chose to communicate with you, whether it was long or short, vivid or peaceful, there comes a time to descend the mountain and continue your journey with God. And sometimes that’s fine; but often it’s hard. Remember Moses, coming down from glorious Mount Sinai where he’d talked with God face-to-face, and finding mayhem and dropping the tablets God had personally inscribed? Talk about coming down to earth with a bang! (Ex 32:15-19)

Here’s what I’ve found helpful when coming down from the mountain and walking the valleys of ‘normal’ life.

Journal the mountain top experience, just as soon as ever you can. Write down everything you can remember about it, and keep it somewhere where you’ll encounter it regularly or can re-read it daily. It’s an aide-memoire, it’s an incentive, it’s a riposte to the Enemy when the Enemy suggests it wasn’t real, wasn’t what you thought, wasn’t transformative. Ah, you can reply, but it was and it did and here’s the proof!
It’s to help you recall the joy, it’s to help you to keep going if and when it’s tough, it’s to remind you of what God called out to you.
Keep something pinned up where you’ll be reminded many times a day. A photo or a verse - something that is meaningfully related to the mountain top, and will remind you to touch base with the Lord. Have it somewhere you’ll see it A LOT - by the kettle, or on the back of the loo door, or on the car dashboard …. notice and remember, notice and recall, notice and ask for God’s help to do whatever He was calling to you. I’ve set the photo of Donatello’s carving as my phone screen saver. I thus see it many times a day and it truly is helping me to remember and recall.
Take time alone with God. For me, that’s while I’m out walking. Consciously inviting Him to walk alongside (He does anyway, but acknowledging Him) and having quiet moments to reflect, to recall, to rejoice and to renew the commitment. And then when I return to normal life, it’s as if I’ve received a reset of life-giving renovating renewal.
renovation (n.)
c. 1400, renovacyoun, in theology, "spiritual rebirth wrought by the Holy Spirit," also in a general sense, "rebuilding, reconstruction” from Old French renovacion (13c.) and directly from Latin renovationem (nominative renovatio) "a renewing, renewal; a rest," noun of action from past-participle stem of renovare "renew, restore," from re-"again" + novare "make new," from novus "new"
What about you? What helps you to remember, recall and renew? Pop it in the comments below - it may well help someone else too.

captured on my Saturday outing