Perfect peace is at best fleeting and at worst, an illusion!

It was lunch time, so I found myself a sheltered spot in the garden and sat down to enjoy a few moments of autumn sun. The weather over the last several days had been less than perfect, and the busyness of the lead up to Holy Week had caught up with me. The peace, the quiet and the warm sun on my face were the perfect antidote to the stresses and strains of everyday life.

Like someone who had just climbed to the top of a high hill, I decided to sit down and enjoy the view (metaphorically) for a few moments before moving on.

Perhaps it was the pastoral conversation I had just had with an elder lady in hospital who was looking back over her life because of declining health, and facing some tuff decisions about her future. Or perhaps it's just something one does naturally relaxing in the noon day sun, but pretty soon, like Alice, I found myself falling down the rabbit hole and to day dreamingly review my own past, looking at where I'd come and who had traveled with me. As I did the years (and decades) fast forwarded themselves: like the individual cards did when you turned the handle in a 'what the butler saw' slide show in an old amusement arcade. Individually they were all still shots, but viewed in succession they appeared as a movie.

It's something I've done often before but this time it was different. For the first time the memory cards seemed to show a seamless integration of past and present. There were no bits that I'd rather have left as 'cuts' on the editors floor, no bits I'd have wanted to send to technical boffins in post production to 'gloss up' on, no scenes I'd rather have re shot. There was no hierarchy in the actors cast either, big part or small part, all were significant and deserving of an Oscar. In short, nothing I would have changed.

Was it a daydream, or was it reality? Only time will tell, but in that moment all the pieces of the jig saw called 'My Life' seemed to fit perfectly, from as far back as I can remember, to as far forward as I can imagine.

Having put the world to rights an unexpected series of phone calls, unscheduled visitors and an assortment of interruptions has left me once again feeling scattered and in need of a fresh daydream.

Seems perfect peace is at best fleeting and at worst, an illusion!