Simple things....

I'm no gardener.  It's not that I don't love a garden, I do.  But I never have the time to give to make a garden what I want it to be.  And yet my garden grows.  Specifically, right now my garden grows the most beautiful roses.  I don't deserve them - I wouldn't know how to care for a rose even if I had the time - and yet here they are, undeserved and beautiful, and a sudden and simple joy when I stepped outside a few days ago.  And I'm not the only one enjoying them.  Can you see the tiny insect absolutely loving his or her time on the flower.  I spent ages just watching it walking around, relishing  the colour of the flower and the face of the little insect. Can insects smile?  This one seems to!

I had another special moment recently.  In the last few weeks the rules for shielding have changed and I am allowed to leave the house if I stay away from other people. So at a suitably quiet time we found a back route to a quiet part of the beach.  It was amazing. Had there been anyone else around we would have had to leave, but we found ourselves alone, and oh, the freedom, the sheer joy of being back at the sea, in the open on the sand.  I ran for the water and did this

I'm not sure any paddle in the water has ever felt so good!  Or so appreciated.  The feeling of the sand beneath my feet and between my toes, the cold water sweeping up and covering my feet, the sun on my face and the wind in my hair.....

And that's when I made myself a quiet promise.  That, once this is over and life is back to normal, I will try hard to never take such simple things for granted.  That I will take the time to look at a beautiful flower and a small smiling insect, and appreciate the freedom to visit the beach and stand in the sea.  That I will treasure the special moments that come in my life and take the time to really see them, rather than rushing on in a busyness that can make me miss what really matters.  

R S Thomas, the Welsh poet and priest spoke of this in his poem The Bright Field.  That in rushing ahead for the next thing, or living for the past we can miss the present moment, the treasure that was meant for us.

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

Each moment of our lives is God given.  Let's reach out and treasure all that he shares with us.

Love and prayers

Liz