Reframing Life

 They say life has a habit of scuppering the best laid plans and in recent months this has been our experience. It was always our ambition to relocate permanently to Cornwall once our financial circumstances permitted. In addition we were going to bring my wife's parents with us as they are not getting any younger and my wife is an only child, so a support network would be vital. Currently they are five minutes around the corner in case of an emergency. 

So after crunching the numbers, last May we put our house on the market and begin searching suitable locations in the South East of Cornwall somewhere between our holiday home in Pelynt nr Looe and St Austell as access to a rail station would be needed for my wife's work purposes. We had some success initially in finding properties suitable for multi-generational living, even put an offer one one in Looe which we later withdrew from after being made aware it was part of an increasingly bitter divorce battle.

Our biggest stumbling block however was that we were unable to sell our current home and by end of September having dropped the price three times and still no serious interest, we reluctantly took it off the market. For me it was particularly disappointing, I thought I would achieve my ambition to adopt a couple of rescue dogs and spend mornings and evenings taking them for long walks while seeking inspiration from the wonderful landscape to write creatively again. Further I was looking to expand my preaching ministry to other parts of the now renamed, South West Peninsula District including presiding at Holy Communion. I also had hopes of joining some of the local writing groups and literary societies perhaps being able to participate with Liz Manning and the Looe Literary Festival and the various other festivals that take place throughout the county. 

On a brighter note we did not relinquish the ownership of our holiday home in Pelynt so we will still be coming down at least once a month until we can finally relocate permanently. I have a preaching engagement at Canworthy Water nr Camelford on the first of next month and we will be going down later that month. So Liz, hopefully we can meet up some time soon.

So what now? Well having gradually withdrawn from most activities here in the West Midlands particularly my leadership of the Black Country support group for people living with Motor Neurone Disease; having also announced to my fellow preachers that beyond a certain date I would not be taking services in the home circuit and using that time to say goodbye to congregations I thought I would not be seeing again; it's as you were. Consequently as the title suggests, I am now having to reframe my life as we have decided to postpone any relocation to the spring of 2028 at the earliest. Not only will we have our mortgage fully paid off and can buy mortgage free, my wife will have achieved her ambition of exiting the corporate world and started working for herself once she has achieved the necessary qualifications she needs to be able to practice in her chosen field. On the upside, my congregations I preach to while disappointed our house sale fell through, have told me they are glad I will be around to lead services again for the time being. God does indeed move in mysterious ways sometimes. 

Over the past few weeks I have looked again at my previous outputs and am going to make some changes over the next year or so. My creative blog Black Country Londoner is being retired I no longer feel it serves me as well as it used to plus my postings on it have become sporadic in recent months. I will be retaining my personal blog on matters of faith at www.michaelcronogue.com, but am exploring moving it onto substack so any fellow ACW bloggers who use this platform some helpful advice would be of interest to me please. I have also revamped my linked-in bio to better reflect what I do and my experiences bringing faith into the public square. I want to start writing poetry again and possibly some short stories which I can share with other groups by using the Gospel as my source of inspiration. Fingers crossed the creative juices haven't entirely deserted me.  

Finally, having always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument, Mrs C bought me a mandolin for Christmas (see below) and a friend of mine who is a musician - he is also a Reverend and my yoga teacher - has agreed to teach me how to play. Why a mandolin? Well is is something different and having come from a Country & Western and Folk tradition in terms of musical taste, well, why not?  Perhaps this might help with some creative poetry or lyric writing for worship songs which could be performed at church services. The opportunities are there for those willing to put their faith in God and in our Lord Jesus Christ, to use those talents we have been given in his name and for his greater glory.

I will keep you posted on progress. Meantime it is good to be back with a regular slot on the 03rd of each month so looking forward to connecting again with you all. 

May 2026 be a year of hope and good fortune in all your writing endeavours. 

Michael Cronogue originally from London still resides in Walsall in the Black Country region of the UK. Writer and blogger discussing matters of faith and theology on his website www.michaelcronogue.com . He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theology from the Queen’s Foundation Birmingham, and is a Methodist Local Preacher serving various churches in the Black Country area, as well as a visiting preacher in parts of North and Southeast Cornwall.