Yep! Them is blue skies!

If you are in the UK you know how diabolical the weather has been lately, and if you are overseas you may have seen some of the Diamond Jubilee coverage and noticed that the weather was just not playing nice.  In fact a friend had a birthday a week ago and I e-mailed her and said that it can't be that often that she has had a cold, grey and wet birthday...now she knows what it feels like to have a birthday in February.  I had actually forgotten her birthday because the weather has been so cold I just hadn't realised that it is June.  Wimbledon will soon be with us for goodness sake and while I don't mind the rain too much, even I think it would be nice for it to be just a little bit warmer.

Today is slightly different.  I had actually forgotten how blue the sky can be, and combined with it not being too hot has made today just about perfect infact.  It is strange how the weather can affect your mood and just make it that much easier to get going in the morning, and how everything seems to take a little bit less effort.  Personally I love the British weather.  I couldn't imagine wanting to live somewhere where it is hot and sunny all the time, because how do you really appreciate a beautiful day when it comes along?  It must be in my DNA that I have a pathological need to be rained on for x number of days per annum; but not necessarily as much as it has recently and all at one time.  We all need something to mark out the special things in our lives.  These marks are not always something as obvious as a blue sky after seemingly endless rain, because they are often ordinary things that remind us how special it is to be alive.  A smile, a song or something that jogs a special memory can be all that we need to make a day and lighten the darker days or moods.  It is like being out driving and suddenly turning a corner and seeing a wonderful view that can take your breath away.

These are actually the things which make my life worth living.  When I meditate I take myself to a view on the north Devon coast which is also the screen saver on my computer at work; or the view as you look back from the climb up to Belas Knap in the Cotswolds, or any of a miriad of other memories.  Unfortunately we cannot hold these pictures and memories in our mind all the time, but this is what makes them special - the very fact that they are not there all the time, because if they were there all the time they wouldn't be special would they?