I've been away for a week and was not able to post but here are my notes for each day that I would have posted if I could....
Friday 22nd May
The good Samaritan
Today I met a good Samaritan. He was a farmer on his way to mend a fence. I had had a puncture in my bike tyre. Like all well equipped cyclists I was carrying a spare inner tube. I changed it efficiently at the roadside. Then I got out my pump and tried to inflate the tyre. But nothing happened. The pump wouldn't work. Wouldn't fit properly. When it had happened I waved to my friends who were riding with me to carry on to the lunch stop- confident of my bike engineering and that I would see them for lunch. So I was alone on this narrow country road with no passing traffic. I set out to walk the three miles to the abbey where I knew they would be waiting. And surely one of them would have a working pump that would fit.
Then along came my farmer. He pulled up and asked what was up.
I told him my tale and he told me to throw the bike on the back of his truck and climb in beside the dog and he would take me a couple of miles down the road. And he did. And as he dropped me off at the top of a long descent where I could see at the bottom the abbey at which my friends would be waiting . A fifteen minute walk and I was with them and I found the pump and was ready to go.
Thank God for good Samaritans.
Saturday 23rd May
It has been a day of sunshine and heavy showers as we did a 35 mile tour of the countryside by cycle today. There was a lovely café for lunch with home made soup and carrot cake. The thing that made today special was the trail of art and craft studios that were open. A barn had chainsaw wood carvings, a front room had paintings and prints and a converted outhouse was a photographers gallery not to mention the ramshackle farmhouse that had ceramics displayed all over it! Loads of talented people trying to make a living off the visiting public – and being welcoming to a group of cyclists who they knew would look but not be able to carry and therefore buy anything. I saw a statue that I would like in the garden but she who must be obeyed said definitely NO. It makes me glad that I have a regular pay check and don't have to rely on selling my talents from my front door or garage. It does make me wonder though what people would be prepared to pay for what I do!? That is a sobering thought! Perhaps some of those overpaid financiers and politicians with their snouts in the trough would do well to ponder on what ordinary people judge that they are worth.
Sunday 24th may
what goes up also goes down...
that old adage is so true for cyclists. Hills cause you to sweat and puff all the way up but you are rewarded with a long wizz down afterwards. Wheee... hope the brakes work
unfortunately the only place you get all the whees down with no toiling up is when you are skiing!
The rest of life requires you to struggle for the uphill in order to enjoy the downhill whee run..
if you coast through life you will never enjoy the exhilaration of a long run as you will not have built up the potential energy. For that is what it is – building up potential energy.
We need the energy we build up during the good times to give us strength for any times of difficulty.
Summoned by the bell
Threave Castle near Castle Douglas was the destination for my cycle ride today. 
This castle is on an island and requires you to ring a big brass bell hanging up by the jetty to summon the ferryman who will come and take you across to the castle. The ferry is a small motor launch that can take about four passengers at a time so they are not overwhelmed with visitors. As I looked at the boat and the bell I thought of the legend of the ferryman who would ferry people over from this life to the world beyond in Greek mythology. I think he was called styx or something like that. It is a nice image of passing from this life to the hereafter with a friendly ferryman and a boat on a calm crossing. Humans have had lots of picture language to describe the journey we make at the end of life. One of the problems for modern people who have rejected all the traditional religious pictures - what will replace them – the scientific picture is bleak and cheerless. The traditional picture often doesn't resonate for many . Perhaps we need images to help people understand what life after death means. For unless the traditional religions and for me especially the Christian church , can supply this creatively and catch the public imagination – then there are all sorts of New religious movements with all sorts of wacky ideas waiting in the wings.
Tuesday 26th May
I crossed Mull today on the bus. 40 miles from Craignure to fionnofort. And the bus driver was having one of those days.... I could tell by the way he interacted with the people who approached him. To the question where is this bus for he replied it says on the side! To the man who who said is this finofort he replied no this is craignure. To the couple who asked for tickets to Dunessan he replied “there is no place of that name on mull.” after some umming and aarring and they spent several moments looking for the details of the address they were heading for he relented and said – Do you mean Bunessan!? He showed in everything he said that he was having one of those days....
I wonder if it is as noticeable when I have one of those days as we all do.... But it was a lovely bus ride across the island – the weather was clear and the views spectacular. And by the end of it as we got off and said thanks to the diver it seemed he had mellowed too.
Wednesday 27th May
I found a lovely poem today. Thinking about peaceful people R S Thomas wrote “farm wife” here is someone you warm to – who's presence conveys peace just by being with them ...
FARM WIFE
by R S Thomas
Hers is the clean apron, good for fire
Or lamp to embroider, as we talk slowly
In the long kitchen, while the white dough
Turns to pastry in the great oven,
Sweetly and surely as hay making
In a June meadow; hers are the hands,
Humble with milking, but still now
In her wide lap as though they heard
A quiet music, hers being the voice
that coaxes time back to the shadows
in the rooms corners. O, hers is all
This strong body, the safe island
Where men may come, sons and lovers,
Daring the cold seas of her eyes.
This was in an anthology of poems in the cottage I am staying in on the island of Iona. It is a small cottage let to Holiday makers but unlike many so called holiday cotages this one has been left just as the family moved out. The bookshelves stuffed with an eclectic collection of antiquarian and other interesting books. The walls cpovered with antique prints of real quality and value. Yet here – open for visitors to use – the owner a retired minister must be so trustign of others.. so unconcerned to protect his own property – Perhaps if I lived in a place like this I could have a similar attitude but its just not practical where we live in the city – or is it?
Thursday 28th May
Friendship needs nurture not to wither and die - thus spending a couple of days with guys from college days over 20 years ago was a special time. Time to catch up on stories from the intervening years. Time to think about what we have achieved and if we are now still as equally convinced of our call to be ministers as we were 20 years ago - And that is an interesting question to which we all agreed that the job had changed so much and now we were spending much more time doing things we were not initially called to do. Interesting to think about call and if it changes or if it stands unchanged for all time. We were all still in the church but we were doing things we were not trained for and didn't enter the church to do.
