You ‘Right?

I walked beside the sea this Boxing Day morning. A cold East wind was coming in off the sea, but the sky was clear. There were the energetic and athletic were running off their Christmas excesses… the solitary and pensive… the hardy, habitual dog walkers…

My cheery ‘Good morning,’ brought the usual variety of responses. One man said, ‘You ‘Right?’ It’s the standard local abbreviation to ‘Are you alright?’ It doesn’t require an answer. It’s just a greeting.

Musing… Am I alright? …After yesterday’s food, drink, people, noise, activity, laughter, conversation …and remembering those who yesterday there was sadness, loneliness, regret…

Yesterday King Charles delivered his Christmas day message: ‘…Journeying is a constant theme of the Christmas story. The holy family made a journey to Bethlehem and arrived homeless without proper shelter.

The wise men made a pilgrimage from the east to worship at the cradle of Christ; and the shepherds journeyed from field to town in search of Jesus, the saviour of the world. In each case, they journeyed with others, and relied on the companionship and kindness of others. Through physical and mental challenge, they found an inner strength.’

Musing… You ‘right?…Facing tomorrow’s plans, hopes, anticipated highlights… uncertainties, fears, insoluble problems, unresolved difficulties…someone to share the journey with is vital.

The King continued: ‘…the greatest pilgrimage of all is the journey we celebrate today – the story of The One who ‘came down to Earth from Heaven’, ‘whose shelter was a stable’ and who shared his life with ‘the poor and lowly’.

“It was a pilgrimage with a purpose, heralded by angels, that there should be peace on Earth. That prayer for peace and reconciliation – for ‘doing to others as we would have them do to us’ – which rang out over the fields near Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago, still reverberates from there and around the world today.’

Musing… The truth from the old carol ‘The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.  You ‘right’? Yes.