What’s the Story in Dalamory

Another poet (Walt Whitman) – reminds us of something else about friendship and living….

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
and what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you.

Here is something else to remember for our friends. This time by Yeats, fey Irish romantic that he was…..

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have o­nly my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread o­n my dreams.

Wonderful stuff!

When someone you know is in trouble, just remember this by Albert Camus.

Don't walk before me, I may not follow,
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead,
Just walk beside me, and be my friend.

I love this poem by George Eliot

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort
   of feeling safe with a person;
having neither to weigh thoughts nor
   measure words,
but pour them out, just as they are,
   chaff and grain together,
knowing that a faithfull hand will take and
   sift them,
keep what is worth keeping,
And then with the breath of kindness, blow
  the rest away.

St Teresa wrote………

Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee;
All things pass:
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing:
God alone suffices.

What started as a summer collection of poems and readings fifteen years or so ago has become a regular repository for writings that strike me as pertinent for the time. But I am not sure what I was thinking when my response to this poem about the theologian Kierkegaard, was thankfully I am no longer a crow…..

What a business the crow makes
lifting a foot, then down,
then the other, down too,
squawks – black –
oh, about flying,
but not fliying,
stamping the branch,
working its wings,
clinging like a lump
to its own fuss,
flaps up at last
in a kind of a flight.

I am going to the chiropodist today to get happy feet. You have to be a certain age to appreciate the difference a good chiropodist can make in an elderperson's life. Not to be mocked or derided. If you are a regular reader you will remember that he was in the same class at school as Son No 3. I am still getting over the shock of it!

Watching the cricket over the summer has given me plenty of time to muse o­n many things. In particular, I was trying to work out why the nation seems to have been so taken up with the sport this time around. After all, cricket is o­n the agenda every year. Much of the credit, of course, goes to the team and the personalities, but also Channel 4's presentation has been brilliant. Cricket has become the ultimate spectator sport. There has been a certain Kudos in getting to know the meanings of terms like slip, gully and square leg…..  In short, a serious business has become fun and an in-thing to watch and do.

What if Channel 4 was to take o­n doing church in the same way?
Just a thought……

The cat was limping this morning. Indeed it could be said that his front left leg was more “hanging there” than limping, so it was off to the vet as soon as possible. Turns out he has not broken anything, but the leg is mysteriously swollen. Two injections and a spell in the car have sorted him out. He is now stomping around rather groggily insisting he is perfectly all right thank you. He also wants to know how we can dare to go away o­n Friday and leave him to the tender mercies of a neighbour.

So will they won't they……?

Don't know if I can stand the tension of watching.
But then again…..