We had a beautiful sunny afternoon with leaves of every autumn colour to delight us as we cruised towards Hermiston and back. We stopped for tea and cake and to say evening prayer at Bridge 13.
When I am at the helm I sometimes see sights that call me to prayer. On the trip between Linlithgow and Falkirk we pass the high wall at Polmont jail, which always reminds me of Israel/Palestine, and I pray for all who are divided by the concrete and bitterness. When we pass the oil shale bings at Broxburn I sometimes fear a land-slide that might engulf us, then I remember the children and people of Aberfan in 1966, and currently the miners in Chile who are underground waiting for release. But on St Francis’ Day I looked up at the sky and saw the clouds and was reminded of Hildegard of Bingen’s description of herself as “like a feather on the breath of God”. Sheer delight.
The Sycharwell Project 
Thanls, Liza! It was sheer delight to celebrate St Francis Day on Jessica. I found it quite hard to adjust to the slow speed for the first 15 minutes THEN I settled down and I realised how everything was able to offer itself to me in all it’s “this-ness”; and I was fully aware, now. There were red leaves, orange leaves, yellow leaves and white ones; hawthorn berries abounded and rose hips too and then black berries whose name I didn’t know. The colours changed continually and the canal bank even looked as though it had road markings (eg left turn approaching) made up of sunlight and shadows. I was able to share this that evening with someone who finds it hard to sit still.