Life's Journey

  70 years ago on the 6th February a young man was seen wandering in the grounds of where he and his wife were on holiday. He was clearly quite disturbed, knowing he had a message to give to his wife which was not the best of news in some respects. News had just arrived that his father-in-law had died. If that was not bad enough he knew that this was a turning point in how they as a couple would carry out their lives. His name was Philip, his wife was Elizabeth, and as they began their holiday at Tree Tops, near Nyeri, in Kenya, neither of them realised that she would return to the UK as a new monarch, and a career that would span at least for the next 70 years. It has been said that she "went up a tree as a Princess and came down a Queen"    Roll on 14 years to 1966 and I found myself also in Nyeri. I never got to Tree Tops, but I recall visiting a grave yard and sitting beside the grave of Lord Baden Powell, founder of the Scouting movement. On the grave stone were the usua

  Today, I am taking things a little easier and copying what was already prepared for the church newsletter. Note that it was written on 25th January, just over a week ago. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is in a date? Today, as I write, is the 25 th January. Some will find the date is marked in their diary as being Rabbie (or Robert) Burns Day. It will be seen as a day to remember the writings of the Scottish poet. Many, particularly in Scotland, will celebrate as they partake in haggis and neeps (turnips), perhaps washed down with Irn Bru (or for some they would drink the other Scottish national drink). Then, of course, there will be the bag pipes heard in the midst of it all. It is a time of celebration. For Joan and I in our diary it is recorded as the day of the anniversary of our engagement in 1973, engaged to be married is the full term, and indication of a life long commitment that w