Its raining and this suits my mood.

Well after two other post I have to do this one. After any number of leaving parties Sarah has departed from these green and pleasant lands and returned home to Missouri. I have always known it would happen from pretty early in the relationship but the pain and emotion are difficult to cope with. Having said that I would not swap the experience for anything. As this blog highlights there have been some special times capped by amongst other things the trip to Paris. This week I have been short tempered with the students and a bit irrational and need to be a bit more professional next week, nothing but being with Sarah seemed important and I was even less tolerant of marginal behaviour than usual. Friends have rallied around and have tried to fill this coming week with activities to help me avoid being maudlin and having too much time to think. I don't envy the task Sarah has settling into a new house, area, job, country and in the full spotlight of her congregation. We remain good friends and will evaluate where we stand in future but are not attempting a long range relationship. As a leaving present Sarah got me a print of my favourite painting which you can learn about at this link http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng524 but over the fireplace in the lounge it looks amazing.