A very happy New Year to you all, whoever you are, reading this. When we look back over a year that has closed, we are faced with a blend of recollections we like, and those we prefer to forget. There are likely to be some aspects of the past that we had barely noticed at…

A Happy Christmas. In a recent Thought Christine O’Neill reminded us of the words of the Gloria. An ancient and beautiful hymn of praise to the glory of God. I wonder what the Shepherds really saw in the night sky when Jesus was born? It may have been indescribable but it was summarised as the…

Today’s reading is Isaiah 9:2-7. Others have written about the appearances in Suffolk in early October of the Northern Lights. It is quite beyond me to understand how my phone camera can pick up colours in the sky which I cannot see with my own eyes. Putting the physics on one side, this gives us…

I love games with words. No doubt that says something about the way my mind works but I can gain lots of entertainment from deliberately mispronouncing or misusing words. We are in the season of nativity plays where the scope for misquotes is broad as junior thespians do their best with complicated words they only…

Read 1 Samuel 8:10-22 and pause to ask yourself how much mental energy you have expended on grumbling about leadership during your life. If you are anything like me it will be a significant amount. Being in a leadership role can be a thankless task. At National and International level moods change and today’s popular…

It is rare to come across an empty road during the normal day. This year on 11th November I was driving to a meeting in the West Midlands and realised that if I wanted to stop for 2 minutes at 11:00 my place of remembrance would be Corley Services on the M6. My experience there…

I sat down on a flat rock beside Rydal Water, enjoyed the view of the hills and the feel of the autumn sunshine. Having taken out my sandwiches and water bottle from my rucksack I was soon joined by a gull; it kept looking the other way but really it was watching, knowingly awaiting a…

The fictional character Professor Dumbledore has his obviously fictitious grave on the real Eilean na Moine, a small island in Loch Eilt in the Scottish Highlands. We passed it on the Jacobite steam train this August. The island is not special and yet for Harry Potter fans it touches the dividing line between the imaginary…

My father used to tell us how he spent Coronation Day in 1953. He climbed Ben Nevis which was, coincidentally, when the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest was achieved. One person’s achievement is another person’s walk in the park; one person’s victory is beyond another’s reach. Only one person could have been crowned Queen…

It is the time of the year when the pigeons provide entertainment as they perform acrobatics in pursuit of the holly berries on our small tree. Watching them the other day reminded me of this tree’s story. Several years ago I was weeding under our fence and noticed a seedling in all the wrong place.…