So blog may take a bit of a different turn as we are not at present moving anywhere. Well, that is not strictly true as we are allowed to move to ‘essential services’ which for us at the moment means going forward to the water tap and trying our best to reverse without mishap back to our mooring! A beautiful day, we sat outside at the bow of our boat and watched the world go by, having a friendly chat with a few of the many passers by. Of one particular couple the man looked rather familiar but I couldn’t place him until his wife said his name. I remembered that he is an excellent tennis player and often wins the tournanments at Thorpeness, where we go on holiday. Once the connection was made we had a great chat and marvelled at how small the world is!
So, I am beginning to ask myself what is this journey all about! The lyric ‘the long and winding road that leads to your door’ came into my head in the night although I misremembered it as ‘the long and winding road that leads to your heart’ and then I thought of the heart of God. And are we all not on a journey through life that leads eventually to death and we have to work out what that means to each of us. Journeying on a canal is very like the journey of life. Sometimes the water is a long straight stretch that you can view as far as the eye can see. Relatively peaceful with any hazards up ahead in full view, one can relax and enjoy the ride. Even better if the sun is shining and the reflection of the trees on the water is a beautiful sight. But then the canal narrows and there are twists and turns that make it impossible to see what is coming in the other direction and it is easy to become anxious and fearful of what might be ahead. You have to be especially careful if there are leaks in the sides of the canal (as there are in some stretches of the Berkhamstead water between various locks) as the shallow water means the boat may get stuck on rocks or literally stuck in the mud at the edges. So you have to follow a straight path through the deepest water. A little like our following God throughout our life, trying not to veer too far from Him being at our centre as this could cause us to hit bumps or become stuck in a place we would rather not be.
NarrowboatTLC 