To go back to “Whatever the question, love is the answer…” Today is my daughter’s birthday and so is a special day; and today I am sitting on a train, travelling away from my family and to a colonic association committee meeting – and it’s Sunday!

So where is the love in that?!

The same place it was yesterday, when we were getting ready to travel from York to Sheffield to start the full family birthday celebrations… Yesterday was hot – and sticky – all of us had been busy right up to the last minute so it meant that lots of practical stuff had to be fitted in before we set off.

So yesterday morning had delicious things like buying sandwiches and sitting in the park – but it also had things like getting up very early, packing, going to the post office, tidying, washing up, cleaning, hoovering … and hanging around in the heat waiting for people …

And around 4pm yesterday … standing sticky and sweating … waiting … thinking we were ready … aware that people were stressed and overwhelmed … with the words “birthday weekend” in my head and lots of question marks banging about in my brain … I suddenly remembered: “Whatever the question, love is the answer” … And it all made sense …

I was standing – hot, dripping – guarding a packed car – watching the door of my daughters’ house – forlornly waiting for people to emerge … because I love them … and because that was the most loving thing to do – to be
endlessly patient, devoted and adoring of my wonderful girls who I love more than life itself …

And love makes sense of everything … If you have love as the reason you get up in the morning – or indeed the reason you stay longer in bed 🙂 – then everything falls into place – there is an ease and a rightness about doing the simplest things – things that might have been trying or tedious – become meaningful – even exquisite …

So Happy Birthday to my lovely Nell – even if I am having to send my love from a bench on Crewe station – loving my girls is the best time I know 🙂