13 August 2026

In his essay on ‘The Firstborn’, Laurie Lee celebrates the birth of his daughter. ‘If I could teach her anything at all … I’d like it to be acceptance and a holy relish for life. To accept with gladness the fact of being a woman – when she’ll find all nature to be on her side.’

To relish life is to take delight in it, to find joy in it, to treasure it, to  remember it, to seize the day and to live every day as if it were our last. It is to see life not as an accident nor a right but as a mysterious gift which has been bestowed upon us.

He wants his new born daughter ‘To know the natural intimacy of living close to the seasons, where they are still the gods in possession; to feel the quick earth stir when she treads upon it, to take the smokeless wind in her mouth, to watch the green year turn, lambs drop and stagger, birds hatch, grass grow and seed …’

But Laurie Lee not only talks about relishing life, he qualifies this relish with the word ‘holy’. This is a characteristic of God. And this holy relish for life lies at the heart of the Christian Gospel and the Christ who offers us life in all its fullness.

This holy relish takes us into God’s kingdom where priorities and values are different. It is a life characterised by the fruits of the Spirit -  joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

‘So I would like to give my child chances to be surprised, periods of waiting to sharpen her longings, then some treat or treasure that was worth looking forward to, and an interval to enjoy and remember it.’  Savouring this holy life requires time, wisdom,  patience, a commitment that never tires, a love which doesn’t die.