A blog delayed

Guilty. I haven’t fed my blog for months. Time to start doing something about it.

I’ve just returned from holiday in Bulgaria, where we have a house. It’s a lovely country and warmer, friendlier people you could hardly imagine. Being in a place where people are quite poor, and only got free of Communism in the last twenty years, gives me a fresh perspective on life. My wife and I have met people very little money and who live simply who insist on giving us meals, gifts and (always) lots of Rakia to drink. Even if I had nothing I feel neighbours would help out, no matter how little they had themselves.

Knowing next to nothing about what the Bulgarians went through under the Communist regime I nevertheless got a strong sense of their ability to survive anything. In our village a young local priest was shot by the Communists, and the beautiful but rundown chapel there serves as a reminder and a monument to that event.

In light of what I seek to do as a counsellor, some of the Bulgarians I have met would make good role models. I try to help people I am counselling to recognise their inner strength and to use it to help them overcome even the most difficult issues. Many Bulgarians I know seem to have done just that, not just on a personal level, but on a larger, cultural and political scale. This must be true of other countries and peoples who have had to withstand the onslaught of oppressive leadership, but this is the first time I’ve had first-hand accounts.