A Child's World

Mary was a happy, carefree child. For her the world was as it should be; a wonderful, safe place with joy at every turn, gentle new experiences to blend into her familiar, undisturbed surroundings. Like an artist’s unspoilt canvas, Mary painted her world with warm, vivid colours. This was home for Mary, home for her mind, her soul and her imagination. In fact it was more than home, it was what gave Mary’s little life meaning and purpose; it was what fed her romantic notions and vivid imagination. This world held her gently and gazed upon her with tender affection, it watched over her as she slept, prepared for her as she awoke, went ahead of her on her way to school, waited for her in the classroom and in the playground at the end of the day. Mary basked in blissful contentment, skipping through the sun warmed lanes of her happy world. Everyone she met, everything she saw breathed colour into the wonderful harmony of her painting.

Our Common Language

Held

Some months ago, a young girl in Norway was the victim of a terrible accident as she crossed the road on her way home from school. By all accounts she should not have survived, but miraculously she did. I do not know her personally but what I read and heard moved me so much I wanted to capture my thoughts and feelings and put them down in words. So here they are:

My little life, so carefree, full of joy
Enveloped in an undisturbed and peaceful cloud of bliss
What could now take this from my gentle hold?
I did not demand the life I have been blessed with
Then suddenly with just my fingertips I clutch it.

A flash, a moment, a horrible cascading
Fears, joys, and dreams and memories shoot through me
Like arrows into my unsuspecting heart
My little body, pounded, bruised and broken
Taken where I have no power to say
Terror floods and fills my very being
Surely this is what it means to die?

Then as all hell would rush to overwhelm me
Something stirs, a warmth I’ve never felt before.
A voice commands the raging storm be silent!
A voice that no one can deny.
And underneath I feel the arms that hold me,
Though they were there before my life was formed.
And in that moment I know I have been enfolded,
By those same hands that formed me at the start.

And now you look upon me lying here alone,
My body crushed and overcome by pain
Your hearts are heavy, aching, sighing, broken
With grief and thoughts of love that can’t be spoken.
I feel, dear hearts, your pain as much as you feel mine,
But please, my loved ones, let yourselves be comforted,
For Angels watch me morning, day and night,
And He who loves us all far more than many Sparrows,
Is closer now than I have ever known.

Winter's Beauty

A film I put together from footage I took last winter while living at Lower Lakes, Chilton Trinity, Somerset. A "practice" marketing video, but mainly for my own benefit! Probably the wrong time of year to be promoting the place, but some beautiful scenes to capture even so!