on thinking of friends...

Quiet thoughts from the river on my day.

River dreaming…

Last Friday was a normal day, in just about every respect bland and very average but nonetheless, my birthday. As such and in common with all birthdays, a day worthy of giving thanks. So here, albeit a few days later than I would have liked, I thought I’d write a few words for all of you who have helped make another year pass by with laughter and smiles…

After a simple but delicious supper — all the more so for it being prepared by son and hubby — the rain had stopped falling so I wandered down to the bottom of the valley to sit by the river a while. By the time I reached the old bridge that carries the lane across it, where the direction turns back up a different hill towards Lugan, the evening had turned, like magic, into a balmy and heaven sent, ravishingly perfect and unexpected end to the day. A birthday gift from Mother Nature - usually she forgets and it rains all day on my birthday so all the more serendipitous…

I found a dryish stone to sit on and day dreamed a while; I am prone to these moments with my head in the clouds, I try so hard (and fail) not to but on this day I allowed myself that simple pleasure.

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.”

A.A. Milne,

I don’t know how long I stayed there, lost in thoughts that flitted this way and that, not settling for more than a few seconds anywhere in particular, the epitome of the indecisive character of a Gemini girl — can I still call myself ’a girl’ when the number of years is way beyond the halfway mark? I’m not sure but certainly I don’t feel any older than I have done for the last 25 years so let’s run with it!

Anyway, I sat in the quiet of the evening with the crickets chirruping watching the water tumbling past, not turbulently as I thought it would be after so very many stormy days, but gently rolling over the river bed, glinting as it caught on the stones. Despite a fast falling night sky, the soft dappled light joined a brisk west wind cleverly orchestrating the shadows into a whimsical tango in rhythm with the comings and goings in my head, mostly irrelevant musings out of which but one thought continued its dance.

How simple it is to be content when we want for nothing.

When we can sit and just feel grateful for the air that we breathe, for colour and scent, for the sounds in the distance, an owl calling, cattle lowing, the sound of the river gently moving on its journey. I truly felt at that moment a profound gratitude. I am well fed, I live in a beautiful home — dilapidated and rustic as it is, I wouldn’t change it for the world — with a family that love one another and, on the rare days when I feel a need for something more, I have you, my friends, admittedly scattered far and wide but with the help of all that is modern and fast in this high tech era we live in, you are there at the touch of a button. I may not speak to you for months on end but I know that those of you who I think of often, who, when we speak the thread is picked up where we left off as though it were made just yesterday, are forever friends whether I’ve known since childhood or otherwise and I am grateful for you every day.

So to all of you, my kindred spirits, lovers of light, tellers of stories, friends that are always there, that inspire, that care, that love me back as hard as I love you - I send you my love today, just in case, as I did on my birthday, you are sitting, gazing on a scene so tangibly unassuming and yet so wholly beautiful, that you too feel the contentment of wanting nothing more but the need for that happiness to be known.

Let me tell you, I know that feeling, I know you’re there and I’m with you holding that moment.

No matter the distance it has to travel we all need love and friendship to be told… and that really is so simple.

With love xxx