24 May 2025

On my early morning walk, I pass the same people on a regular basis. Some are out walking their dogs. Others are walking themselves. Conversation is brief but it comes with a growing sense of familiarity. Names are not exchanged but greetings, the weather and sometimes an extraneous thought.

The other day, one of my acquaintances was walking his dog in the woodland near the East Sands. This time, he stopped me by a horse-chestnut tree which was in blossom. It has extraordinary conical flowers which can grow quite large.

‘Look at this.’ he said as he opened the photograph album on his mobile phone. ‘I took this yesterday just as a stream of sunlight was pouring through the opening in the trees. It shone on this horse-chestnut blossom.’ It was a beautiful photograph.

The light had caught the conical flower and sharpened its white and reddish blossom. It was a magical moment which inspired my fellow walker to stop and look  and then take the trouble to photograph the action of the sun and tree to preserve it.

What I saw was not so much the beauty of the sun’s illumination but the wonder which this natural phenomenon had inspired in him. He had made a tangible connection with the natural world which was deep enough not only to photograph it but to share it with me.

The wonder of the sunshine’s action on the horse-chestnut tree is one thing but  the wonder of the One who had created the sun and the seed and the tree and the flower and the whole cycle of nature inspires us to treasure the memory and share it with others like a  wondrous Gospel.