Walking through Treacle

Not a full twenty-four hours has past since you left us.

I am up on the moors above Chipping Village.

I am walking through treacle and thinking of you and your Sabden "Treacle" Mines.

The blackness of the peat up here both facinates me and repels me. My newish boots are getting dirty! I am afraid that if I step onto a really boggy bit I will sink down and disappear into the blackness.

I think you would have liked to be up here with me today. As a child you may have walked these Moors or somewhere very similar and not too far away. I doubt you would have much liked the blackness of the peat up here, as you were always so well turned out. Once you got to adulthood you kept to the path.

There are few others out walking today. It is lonely up here and the wind is becoming fierce. I put up my hood against the wind and think about the path behind and the one ahead. 

The moors are deserted it seems, and dark clouds are gathering. Except for the wind there is silence, strange and quite beautiful. I stumble across the boggy peat and it crosses my mind that I really have no idea of the path now as it is nolonger clear at all. What if the mist comes down and I cannot find my way? It's so cold. I could fall off the edge or tumble down and sprain my ankle. No-one would know!

Except for this chap circling overhead in this glider. I feel sure that he/she is keeping an eye on the lone walker in the purple coat far down below.

My legs and feet are suffering a little after the long climb up and now as I start to descend from the summit, my toes hit the front of my boots and my knees ache even more. The wind cuts through my waterproof and my fleece. My fingers are cold, I should have worn gloves. It's all part of the fun I tell myself.

In three weeks I'll be on my way to China. The new sights and sounds that I will see, will keep my feet and legs moving when they feel like giving up, won't they?

After all the view from the top, or over the next hill is what keeps us going. Each moment there is something breathtaking to look at, a rabbit just about to bob down his hole, a bird hovering and about to swoop, the sunlight and the shadows.

That's what you taught me and I feel privileged to have been able to learn from you and yours.

Even though life can sometimes be like walking through treacle, there are miracles all around us if you are looking. You don't even have to look very hard at all.....

                                                               

There may be fairies at the bottom of your garden, or a child might be laughing, or learning to talk or to read.....  

A calf may be being born just over the hedge in that field where we stopped the car.....


Or there is a flock of sheep in the road right in front of us....


Or you may be walking through treacle but it's made your legs stronger and you didn't get stuck!