I had the joy of leaving the city last weekend. A weekend trip is part of the concept of the Alpha course and as we're coming to the end of the 10 week course in our church we had organised a weekend in a little resort not too far from Tallinn. For me it meant working full-time as me and my senior pastor had divided the lectures between us and had to present different topics over the weekend. That wasn't why I was looking forward to it. What made me look forward to the trip was the location of the resort. We spent the days just a walking distance from a place that I would call the sanctuary of Estonian literature. The place is called Vargamäe and it was the birthplace of our famous writer A. H. Tammsaare - I'm sure every nation has someone who could be called a national writer. For us Estonians, that's him. He based his most famous work, a massive five volume novel Truth and Justice on the characters of the local people. His parents. Next door farmer. Himself. So the place is being preserved and has been turned into a kind of museum where you can walk around and see the life of 19th century peasants and where references are made to that novel. For me, it's a very romantic place. It's a place where you meet history. Place where literary characters become real flesh and blood. And where the well-known sayings from Tammsaare's novel come alive like nowhere else. "Work hard and love will follow," said Tammsaare. Work hard and love will follow.

This is Vargamäe from distance. Just so that you know - I didn't take away the colours from this picture. The world actually was black and white on Saturday afternoon. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

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As to reading, I've fallen under the spell of Maya Angelou. I started with the first one of her memoirs, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings on Thursday evening, and now I'm already half way through the second book, Gather Together in My Name. I've become slightly manic as I read not only in the evenings but also over my lunch breaks and, well, basically any time I can. I read as if my life depended on it. And who knows, maybe my life does depend on it in a way. It's one of those readings and Angelou's one of those writers who assure you that life is not only livable but that you can - even under the most difficult of circumstances - live courageously and gracefully and proudly, refusing to be defined by the nonsense life throws at you and refusing to accept stupidity and injustice. It's funny, as soon as I picked the first book up last week, right away I knew I needed to read this, needed to cry and laugh with Angelou, and needed to be given new hope and faith. Gosh, what a woman she was. So much goodness came from her pain and misery, so much hope from her hopelessness...

I think my life depends on books like these more than I dare to admit.

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I think I've already posted this song once. It doesn't matter. Here it is again. James Blake, A Case of You.