We’ve been walking in Derbyshire – very different from the Suffolk coast!
We’ve seen sheep – newly shorn mums, and newly-wooled adolescents. The mothers are still feeding the juveniles that are as big as they are!
I used to think that teenagers grow up, leave home and become independent. Friends have adult ‘children’ still living at home; our children are in their forties – we haven’t grown out of the parent-child relationship.
We never stop being parents or children.
Yesterday we walked beside the River Derwent at Chatsworth. Teenagers were swimming in the river; family groups were there with barbecues. Then it started raining – hard! There was thunder, lightning – and screams!
Years ago we took a school party to France. One evening there was a thunderstorm. Stephanie, a lovely girl, was scared. I’ve never seen anyone so terrified! Her friends were very good and kind; they sat with her through the storm.
She didn’t need advice or therapy, but friends there with her…
We’ve enjoyed the Derbyshire hills. We don’t walk as far or as fast as we used to; we discussed whether it is harder work to go uphill or downhill…
Throughout ‘The Sound of Music’ the hills are the place of peace, security, safety and hope, where you can ‘Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream’.
My Christian tradition quotes Psalm 121 ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth…’
Hills are a picture of hope…
…Musing on the prayer ‘Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.’ (Proverbs 30:8)
My prayer is to my Father. This isn’t a childish relationship that I’ve grown out of; it’s a maturing relationship that I grow into… He deals in truth, provides my daily needs, walks with me through fear and gives me hope.
malcolmsmusings.org 