The year has turned, it is now dark at bedtime. It may make it easier to get to sleep but it does emphasise the fact that the summer is rolling by. Some summer today – it has rained steadily all day and the clouds have been like lowered eyebrows on the hills. So what do the retired do? Declare it another holiday. The chores can wait till tomorrow.
Being aware that a drop of water flows from the river into the sea is a good way of remembering that we are all part of a bigger whole. Mystical? Perhaps – but true nonetheless.
Having a day out in the big city. Bigger than Oban! This year I am really getting the hang of being retired and able to do what I feel like and really enjoy it. So it has taken over three years to settle into this comfortable place. See Misty’s favourite place below.
Thank goodness….
another Monday…..
another Day Off.
PS – Let there not be rain on this St Swithin’s day!
Thank you, Lord, for a new day.
For light growing through the dawn
And hope flowing through my body.
Thank you for all the good things:
A rose in bloom;
Wind-blown grasses;
the busyness of insects;
the chattering birds.
Thank you,
Lord.
I know, I know, what an odd title. Today there is a central heating engineer at the homestead; he is revamping the rather creaking oil central heating system – especially the electrical side of things. This engineer works on his own, and sort of part-time as he eases towards retirement. He arrives when he says he will and does what he has promised. In this regard he is directing his own life. OK – you would not expect a philosophy or deity to be bothered about the vagaries of home maintenance, but I am using existentialism in a borrowed sense.
On the other hand, I am wondering whether the joiners (in case you didn’t know there is still work to be done on the extension outside,) are even real. Are they perhaps a myth? What philosophy directs their disappearance, non-appearance or false promises? Are they in fact the ultimate existentialists whose directing philosophy is ineptitude?
Perhaps the joiners are driving me mad.
In her comment on yesterday’s post, Lydia set me searching the net. It is possible to buy sea beans on ebay. That somehow feels like cheating though, I should like to find one while walking a beach. Apparently, they tend to be found on Atlantic beaches in the West coast of Scotland, but I guess they travel the world on the ocean currents. Some say they are lucky – but you wouldn’t expect a minister to say that is true, (or even the reason why I have wanted to find one,) I guess I just like the idea of something so seemingly fragile, travelling thousands of miles, ready to unwrap its genetic code when the right conditions apply.
A metaphor for death and new life I suppose. And a good thought for mid-week.
Am just back from a few days campervanning in Kintyre. Highlights were: much better weather than was expected – ie sunshine and very little rain; glistening, crisp,white shell sand beaches; a little dog running on the beach dodging the waves; sand martins zooming over a river, they were flying in and out of their burrows at amazing speed; over 1000 oyster catchers in and around the beach and links golf course. I also loved the sense of space, Machrihanish beach for instance, looks straight out over the Atlantic and is used for surfing in the right weather conditions. I kept an eye out for a “sea bean” from the Carribean, but all to no avail – maybe another year.
Coming home is a little more problematic. All of a sudden I realise there are lots of jobs to do. But what the heck, where is that CD of Mull of Kintyre?
Mondays are not wash days any more. Unless I feel driven or the sun is shining.
Mondays are Days Off.
