From My Journal – May 17, 2002
Towersey Road, bordered each side by thigh-high cow parsley, green pastures to left and right. Through the village, past the green where the May Queen celebrations were held, and the fine old houses and manor border the lane, to the path across the field to the old railway track.
May blossom out in full now. Sometimes a deep scent of it on the warm wind. Some elders in blossom; also: vetch and comfrey, some forget-me-nots, one poppy (a garden escape I think). Some very young rabbits disappeared beneath the hedges as I approached. At the railway station yesterday there were masses of horse (oxe-eye?) daisies and buttercups on the embankment over the platform fence. The horse daisies, as we called them in Devon, reminded me of the same flowers alongside the old china clay line at Marsh Mills when I was a small boy.
A small gathering of steers had their faces through the wires of their field as they devoured something tasty in the verge. I spent some time on the seat made from an old railway sleeper, looking across to a neighbouring village.
Gave thanks. Felt a sense of peace. Lack of faith in Christ’s action as rescuer is, I think, a great hindrance to happiness, as one always feels one fails to meet the standards of His Gospel. Fr Povey once talked about ‘sinning boldly’. Of course there are limits!!
In Ruth. The Kinsman Redeemer. Hope out of hopelessness. Bread out of famine. I’m astonished at Naomi’s boldness every time I think of this story. I doubt that I would be so bold coming out of a wilderness so desolate as hers was. Nor so hopeful. At least on my own steam.
A lovely insight. Thank you.