Just back from a walk through the Royal Wood of Drum Castle,
a couple miles away from here.
Today I had Don and Dusty with me.
And what a delightful day it is! The sun is out; the sky is
glorious. Winding through the initial copse of trees, bouquets of daffodils are
opening their yellow trumpets towards the sun. A carpet of lilies of the valley
are sprouting, preparing to bloom.
Walking underneath and around the ancient woods is always
amazing. Some of the trees are hundreds of years old, gnarled and twisted,
bulbous at the bottom of the trunk from overgrazing. We didn’t see any of the
red squirrels which inhabit the woods, but still found them enchanting.
Signs of the wet weather of past weeks still linger, though.
Ponds where there used to be grass. Moss clinging to most trees, sometimes
grey-green, sometimes spring green. Squelch where there used to be terra firma.
Suddenly Don noticed a giant rhododendron off the path,
standing at a majestic ten or twelve foot height. The flowers were pale, with
hot pink flashes inside and stamens which look like tongues sticking out of
open mouths. And the whole lot was alive with bees, busy gathering nectar,
preparing to make the honey we so love.
We’d never have seen them if we hadn’t wandered off the
beaten track.
In all walks of life, the tendency is to tramp the path worn
down by hordes of others. Sometimes it pays to go off-piste.
As Christians, we often follow the way laid out by others,
fearing that if we venture too far left or right we might be guilty of some
terrible sin. The good news is that God made us all different, with different
flowers to drink from, and the path we should be on is the one he has guided us
to.
Never, in anything, just follow the crowd. Life is too
precious for that.
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