Those important moments.

So the world cup got underway yesterday. My wife, Irene, made a comment to me that it was the date of her mother and fathers wedding anniversary. She very quickly went on to recite a list of other important dates that had made an impression on her mind. It is true that certain dates seem to make a lasting impression.

Getting back to the world cup, there are a number of people on pitches around about me who seem to have a certain date firmly embodied in their minds. If I tell you the date is 1966 you will instantly know which nationality I am speaking of. it seems that a certain football team won the world cup in that year.

My friend has a birthday coming up, his 84th, he was asking me how we were going to get all those candles on a cake? Seems he has forgotten that after a certain age you get one candle. The hidden message is, "Go on see if you can blow that one out."

Dates are not my strongest point and my excuse is that if you live by the Taoist principle of going with the flow then dates do not really matter in the ongoing continuum.

So with these thoughts in my mind, I asked myself. How old am I?  Then I asked, "Have I made a life I can look back on with some sense of satisfaction?" The first question I may not always get a correct answer for but the second is a resounding yes.

Can I look back on my inner and spiritual growth and see an unbroken progress?  I am feeling that I am progressing and still on the road.

Has the world progressed along a path I feel happy with? No.

How much have a done since I last sat here in Agde in France? Happy to say I feel I have continued to move onward.

Each day is a milestone on a path. If you are still at the beginning of that wonderful journey then look forward to that day when you may look back and hope that like me today you look back with a sense of achievement.

Thoe who have found a path they are happy to travel tend not to count days or years, or mark the calendar of success, they are more like hikers who wander, not worrying or fretting about the path, not concerned by distance or time they are just content to still be on the journey.

I am aware that for those who in the past have made a dramatic decision in life to change the path they travel and find it good to mark the milestones as a way of encouraging themselves to make the most of the day, one day at a time.

For those who today is a meaningful day, I wish you well. For those looking for a repeat of a bygone momentous moment, I wish them good hope. Is that a lump on my face or is it my tongue in my cheek? I am smiling, please smile with me and make this a good day for us all.

Have a good one.