As the days lengthen and the sun grows warmer, thoughts turn to holidays and travel. I have a small pot with a cutting of Streptocarpus “Good Hope” in it, that also produced earlier a miniature “Morning Glory” which wound itself around a little stick and has given so much pleasure to watch long before the normal time of planting out in the garden. In Australia I seem to remember that the wild version of this climber was called “Travellers’ Joy”.

Down at Newhaven harbour the ferries and the smaller craft draw one into thoughts of travel and new experiences. Summer is here.

Tinged with the uplift of spirits is the fear and uncertainty that the sad world situation presents. I quote from a book by Esther de Waal The Celtic Way of Prayer:

“A journey blessing from Mary MacDonald a crofter on South Uist:

God be with thee in every pass,
Jesus be with thee on every hill,
Spirit be with thee on every stream,
Headland and ridge and lawn;
Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,
Each lying down, each rising up,
In the trough of the waves, on the crest of the billows,
Each step of the journey thou goest.

At the start of his journey the traveller asks a blessing for himself, thinking of the strangers whom he will meet on the road and how he will need the love of Christ, both to give and to receive, as he faces the unknown places which lie ahead.”