The picture above is of Yockenthwaite a small hamlet in upper Wharfedale. We drove through Yockenthwaite on the Monday of our holiday last week and the river was little more than a trickle, forming rock pools among the large pebbles, worn smoothe by the flowing water over hundreds of years. By Thursday afternoon on a dismal late October day, theriver level had filled significantly and the pebbles were nowhere to be seen. The river Wharfe starts its life at Beckermonds approximately two miles up stream and makes it journey of almost a hundred miles down to Cawood where it joins the River Ouse. It travels through what I believe to be some of the most wonderful scenery in the country.
I Love Wharfedale and whenever I revisit these places, I am transported back in time to an age when my mum and dad would pack my brother and I into the back seat of the sidecar, then more recently our three wheeler Reliant Regal. I know every inch of these roads and as I drove tham last week, memories flooded back of a bygone time, when as a little boy I played in the roack pools at Yockenthwaite and ended up sitting in the river. I travelled with a travel rug on my knee, safguarding my dignity, what there was left of it as my mum hung my wet clothes out of the car window to dry. I never need a gravestone to remember my parents, I simply come back here time and time again and relive those happy days that shaped my formative life.
Today is all Saints Day, often overshadowed today by Halloween. Today is the day we remember those who have shaped our lives, who have been and influence and we remember and give thanks for them. Looking back this year is particulalry hard, I feel to have lost so many people who have been precious to me and for the first time in a long time, if I was lighting a candle for each of them, there would be several candles. I invite you to think for a moment today about those who have meant a lot to you and have died since the beginning of November 2019, maybe you would find it helpful to light a candle. This doesn’t have to be a sad or morbid experience, give thanks for the good times, thos little idiosyncracies we all have, let us appreciate the saints in our lives on this special day.