2nd July

So today has been a very peaceful day. Although I started the day feeling very tired and perhaps a little numb which is par for the course nowadays I did eventually manage to get going. At one stage I wasn’t totally sure if I should drive as I felt rather ill with M.E. but that lifted by late-morning and so I went into Deal again. And the weather is amazing, so I’ve certainly picked the right week for a holiday on the coast. I had another stroll along the seafront, in a different direction alongside the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club home to the British Open many, many years ago and almost adjacent the current host Royal St George's in a couple of weeks. But I have no interest in golf and just enjoyed my walk along the beach. I had a good time singing and praying as I was mostly quite alone and that loosens the inhibitions wonderfully, especially when I was making up words to a made up tune singing out praise and thanks to my God. He is truly wonderful and I am so very grateful for his goodness to me over so many years.

And my thoughts quite naturally turned towards Jane and it struck me that she was truly a gift from God. I remember after we became Christians in 1982 how much we both changed, but especially how the Lord gave me a new love for her which was far deeper than simple attraction. It was more of a joining together with a bond of Godly love which became stronger and stronger with every passing year. And this love came with a sacrificial price that I was more than willing to pay over the past few years, indeed life has been so traumatic that without the Lord and his gift of love I could not have run this particular race without failing completely. But I do know that Jane was loved and cared for completely and absolutely right until the end by both me and our children and even more so by the Lord himself.

I feel at peace with life at the moment. My neighbours on the campsite have been quite friendly seeming to go out of their way to pass the time of day. And now I know a little more about a guy from Holland, his exploration of a rather damp Cornwall and his observation that so many young Brits are rather overweight compared to those in his country! Then a nice man from Dartford stalled his tea to tell me all about his migration from a tent to a trailer-tent to a twin wheeled monster caravan all in the space of three years. And it’s too big for him to tow so he leaves in on site.

Ah the minutiae of life leaves me speechless but such is my world now I’ve lost my scrabble partner.

Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (NIV)