Betwixt Lakeland & Edinburgh
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Enjoying the passage of time
Asked about ‘the meaning of life,’ Jimmy Carr responded with a five word answer: ‘Enjoying the passage of time.’
Now, in ‘the in-between times,’ the liminal spaces in my days and nights, I’m asking myself ‘what have I been enjoying; what am I enjoying; and what do I hope to enjoy?’
This concentrates my mind. On thankfulness.
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Wrap up well!
For a decade or more, in common with many, my chest has protested the arrival of winter’s cold. The rest of me protests that, cold notwithstanding, a decent walk is still a good idea. So I wrapped up well!
Home now, mug of steaming hot chocolate in hand, I review the quickly snapped photos of my ambling – and thankfulness wells up within me. This life, this world, this love, this Edinburgh – are amazing! And I remember a line from a hymn learned in primary school
He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell …
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An evening in quiet candlelight tonight, mindful of ‘the saints’ – and of the sadnesses and gladnesses, the needs and the delights of humankind the world over.
And – having visited Gdańsk, Gdynia and Kraków in the past twelve months – a part of my heart is with friends in Poland tonight as I think of them celebrating All Saints-tide. Warm remembrance for them – the thousands of lighted candles in their burial places bringing to mind not so much death as life – the continuing lives of those who live on in the hearts of humankind here in this temporal world.
How grateful I am for my daily sense of our global connectedness. How mindful I am of our need to sit quietly sometimes to bring to mind and heart the gentle light that is at the core of every human presence, albeit sometimes well hidden.
Am I too pre-occupied to light a candle, with my iPad in my lap? Shall I be distracted? Or maybe take a nap? Ah, but I recall the last time a single candle stilled my mind: so, yes, I’ll light one, and sit with it and all the saints – connected, all of us, with a global humankind
Sometimes a gentle light surprises in the quiet of the night.
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