Wake up and spot your pearl…...

Today I found myself talking to someone who is going to die soon. A mother of young children, wife and scholl teacher…but she has run out of treatment options for her cancer.

It left me wondering about the fragility of life, and reminded me that I must grasp the challenge of life and get on with being alive and experiencing the world while I can. So often I will spot something which inspires or moves me, and then I move on and forget the beautiful pearl I have just seen.

It makes me think that I must wake up and follow my inspiration…wherever it might lead…..the challenge is to stay open and to let go of the busy pre-planned nature of so much of life….

This is a photo I took a couple of mornings ago in my back garden. The sun was up and begining to warm the air, but the grass was still carpeted in tiny shimmering drops of crystal. I was held in awe for a good 10 minutes before the dogs came crashing across the grass and sprayed the dew in all directions…..

..and this led me to remember an old favorite poem…..

The Bright Field

I have seen the light break through to illuminate a small field for a while

and gone my way and forgotten it.

but that was the pearl of great prize, the one field that had the treasure in it.

I realise now that I must give all that I have to posses it.

Life is not hurrying on to a receding future nor hankering after an imagined past.

It is turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush.

To a brightness that seems as transitory as your youth once,

but is the eternity that awaits you.

By R. S. Thomas