Friends in deed

I give thanks to Biddy for organising such a lovely send off. Of course, technically it was her family who did the biz, the funeral directors and the new thoughtfully inclusive priest...but it's the people a person's life brings together that makes an occasion like this special as well, people sharing their love not only for the departed but for those present as well - even if some of them only know each other from Facebook photos. I give thanks for having good friends to be there with and new people to meet too...including one who fixes mobile phones for a living and can give me loads for my Kidney Research collection!

And, backtracking a bit, I give thanks for setting off a little later than I meant to, and waving a neighbour in his car past me as I came to the end of the terrace as it's tricky enough to turn out of without negotiating a random rushing pedestrian...and in the course of our brief conversation he revealed he was on his way to dialysis. I don't know him well but I can't say I had no idea, because I'm an observant soul and had wondered for a while about his kidney function, for reasons I thought might be to do as much with my own worries than clues. I give thanks for him allowing me to cadge a lift down the hill so we could talk a little more, and for his rebel spirit encouraging me more than any official literature or on line forum I've read.

I give thanks for beautiful weather, sitting outside in the sunny sensory gardens of the hotel nearby for the gathering, and popping down to the blustery bay with Jenny and Jane for a mug of tea afterwards. With the clear light, low tide and flat rollers it was very photogenic but too windy to try to take a shot (in fact I give thanks for not being hit by a gust propelled chair!) so this one is from a couple of days ago when it was also wild on the sea side but the back beach was, as usual, calm and blue. 

 I give thanks for coming home full of plans for things I might do and curling up instead with a book, a cuppa, a biscuit and a snooze. Emotions can be as exhausting as motion...and there's been a lot of both the last few weeks!