Everyday Adventures

By way of change, and in case you are in a mighty hurry, I’ll start where I usually end, with the homily.

I used to tell everyone, pretty much, they are better than they know, because they very probably are, and so, Dear Reader, are you.

Then I would tell them….well I’ll get to that towards the end, so scroll down if that’s your way, but first I have a few little tales to tell, what I’ve been up to, and where I’ve been, and what I remembered.

I’ve been doing magic shows, with a growing feeling I might be on to something, it might just be a great way to talk to people about motivation. The only trick to this is to keep getting better, and to not give up.

I’ve also been coaching, and I love the intensity of that, and I’ve been writing, as always, still trying to finish The Healer, still looking for a few more days in the sun to scratch out the final two chapters, still wondering what people will think of me and how they will look at me when I press the publish button. I’m thinking I’ll put out a YouTube, reading the first chapter, and then I’m in!

Also I’ve been in Chelmsford, to my boy’s graduation, in the smallest cathedral in the country, probably, loving every second of it. Both he and my girl never seem to run out of ways to make me proud of them, both know I’d love them anyway, whatever they did or didn’t do.

Then to Dublin for a couple of days, to a funeral, which was sad and wonderful at the same time. The service started with All Things Bright and Beautiful, continued with The Rose, both beautifully sung, and then to a hauntingly eloquent eulogy, from my eldest brother, he and I the last ones standing, to his beloved wife. Lastly, we all sang Always Look On The Bright Side, and it was perfect, and then, by request, I performed some magic at the reception. Loss always feels surreal to me, maybe because it is.

Then back to England, for a couple of days at The Farm.

Take two people, so loved up with each other that they dare to dream of a different way of life, so they buy a big plot of land, a big field basically, with a tumbling down house and a few barns, and begin.

They live in a mobile home for a couple of years, doing jobs they’d rather not, and rebuild the house, every brick laid just so, and the barns become more living space, a garage, storerooms, a workshop, and then they buy some sheep and pigs and chickens, and work and work and work.

And it doesn’t quite work out, but wouldn’t you just know it, they have a magical dog, Lily, and she was always planning to save the day, and they work and work and work again, loving almost every minute of it, and now they breed dogs, every one a beauty, and they build them kennels you or I could live in, and all this time, from nothing at all, they create a garden, and help everyone they can, because that’s who they are.

If, like me, you went to see them, and stayed a couple of days, sat by the pond, or in the hot tub, or outside at the big table, and walked the dogs, giving them all the attention they wanted, and sat over dinner, with food fit for the gods, and talked into the night, then, when you took your leave, and drove away, feeling like a million dollars, at the very least, with bags of vegetables and eggs, and maybe an apple crumble, you would remember what it is to be amongst love, remember that love is a verb, remember what it is to love your own crazy chaotic life, that you are better than you know, and that you’ll only know how good you really are by daring to do more things. New things probably.

Dear Reader, you always have an adventure or two in you.