Lovely

A beautiful morning so far, cold but clear, with bright sunshine making the wet rooftops glisten and illuminating the wisps of smoke moving across the valley below. Starlings are chattering to one another somewhere out of my sight, and blue tits are prospecting through the tangled ivy on the trellis outside our conservatory. Yellow-edged clouds are moving briskly across the Long Mountain, and I don't suppose we shall escape without rain. There's plenty to do today: the last Christmas cards to deliver, a lunch with friends, a session singing carols at a local residential home, and some accounts that have to be tied up and sent off this week (or else) . . . but for the moment, I'm happy just to sit and watch the morning unfold.

These are the best moments, I think; the times of blessing, in which our souls are fed and watered. The times when, whether alone or with friends, we are able just to be still, to watch and listen, to feel the rhythms of the world around us. Times when we see the intrinsic beauties and joys that are always present in the stuff we normally just overlook or take for granted. The times when we simply have the time. Thank God for them, they are what he gives us; all we have to do is to accept, and use . . .