Yet another set of roadworks and a closed road sign had directed us onto a diversion. 

So rather than taking the customary, wearisome, overcrowded major roads, we were obliged to travel along country lanes, with their twists and turns and beautiful vistas of rolling countryside with isolated farms and homes nestling in amongst.

It reminded me of holidays in the 1950s in Cornwall, my mother’s birthplace, in my uncles old Austin car. Journey’s that inevitably ended on some isolated windswept beach or propped behind some granite edifice on a bleak moorland with only meandering sheep for company.

We ate the obligatory cheese and tomato, egg salad cream (mayonnaise was unheard of in our family) and ham sandwiches and, of course, one of my auntie's freshly made Cornish pasties kept warm in newspaper and towels. No ‘cool box’ in those days, had they been invented, I wonder? Lukewarm tea from less than efficient flasks and for the children plastic cups of fizzing ‘Tizer’

Rock pools were investigated, hide and seek amongst the granite rocks was played a game of cricket was a must with my uncle trying every which way to cheat and stay at the crease.

How life has changed, become more chaotic, time motivated and frantic. How wonderful the chance to step back momentarily into a bygone age and enjoy the slower pace of life and the happy memories. A totally refreshing experience that quashed the angry outburst caused when our journey was interrupted.

We may not all have such vivid memories to enjoy, but we can thrill to the seclusion of a slower pace. A moment taken to relax, to calm ourselves and if we choose to, to link with the God energy or our Spirit brethren to glory in their love.

Not a full-blown meditation, not even a planned intention to sit or reflect. Simply a few moments of quiet, taken when we feel the need. To recharge the batteries, to enjoy a personal peaceful moment or my in my case to quieten an angry frustration.

Minister Alan Rawnsley