After my big start to training during a week of leave from the ‘day job’, it’s been down to earth with a bump this last week. Working 9 to 5 doesn’t sit terribly well with training for long walks, but I managed to get out Monday - Wednesday and managed about 5km each day.
And then … oh dear, the weather! Having got a little damp on Wednesday lunchtime and sat around steaming in the office for the whole afternoon, I took one look at the bucketing rain on Thursday and decided that Noah had the right idea: stay inside and seal yourself in! After all, I thought, I’ve got an exercise class booked for this evening and that counts as training too … but, sadly, it seems that once I’ve started procrastinating, I just keep on going! Although, in my defence, I missed the class because I worked overtime to help a client out, so it’s not so bad.
But then Friday was grim as well, so another training day lost. I’m pleased to report, however, that I managed to get myself out of bed nice and early today (Saturday) and set off before 8am for a 16km / 10 mile hike round and about Gillingham. After the torrential rain (and before the next forecast weather front comes in), it was a beautiful early autumn morning. As I watched my feet on the way up Bowridge Hill, a tiny, perfect, cream and black snail crossed my path and Robert Browning’s lines popped into my head:
The year’s at the spring
The day’s at the morn
Morning’s at seven
The hillside’s dew-pearled
The lark’s on the wing
The snail’s on the thorn
God’s in His heaven
All’s right with the world
It was a perfect little moment (even if the season wasn’t quite right!). But I quickly remembered that my perfect moment with all the world feeling just right isn’t the same for everyone: that, however peaceful and serene I might be feeling, there are countless people out there enduring war and hunger and pain and disease. So I took that as my cue to pray for all those on my growing Camino prayer list - I may not know the names of every person in in the world in want and danger, but I can pray for those I DO know and it WILL make a difference.