Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and every day in March I'm out and about looking for the wisdom in nature and today up on Dartmoor is another lovely day.
I can see up above me on the hillside it's called Eastern Beacon also known as Ugbera Beacon by locals.
There's a herd of Dartmoor ponies grazing and the sun is rising.
It's a cold morning,
Very lovely.
We've got a little bit of a settle patch at the moment which is wonderful after very unsettled and often stormy weather and I'm actually beside a granite bench and it's placed on what would have been a tee of a golf course.
This golf course was in existence for over a hundred years I think but sadly a few years ago it had to close down.
This granite seat just reminds me of what I wanted to talk about today and what I want to talk about today is love.
This seat has got a lovely engraving on it.
It's dedicated to somebody who died.
Husband,
Father,
Granddad and friend.
Brave and determined right till the end.
A smile that would brighten the darkest of days.
A special man in so many ways.
Loved forever.
Forgotten never.
Isn't that beautiful?
Somebody knowing that their husband,
Father,
Granddad loved this spot and it is a beautiful spot.
They dedicated a bench to him here.
Yesterday I was at my hairdresser's and I was telling her about the pilgrimage I'm about to go on and over the next few days I'll tell you a little bit more about that because it's imminent now and we usually don't talk much.
I'm not really one for chit-chat and she's really grateful that I'm not one for chit-chat and we just love each other's company and she just cuts my hair and I'm in my own little world and I don't need to try and answer her or she doesn't need to pretend to be interested in my life and it works very well.
And yesterday though I was telling her about the pilgrimage and suddenly the conversation transformed and she was fascinated and we talked about the spiritual aspect of life and you know what is it all about.
It came to me so clearly in that conversation so just imagine there I was sitting in the hairdresser's chair as you do speaking to the hairdresser by looking in the mirror and looking back at her and I said to her Jill I think it's just all about love and she stopped cutting my hair and she said yeah I think it is.
It's just about love.
Isn't that simple?
Isn't that true?
You don't need to do a lot or to go to places or to spend a lot of money to know that it's just about love and it really struck me as she was cutting my hair and we were reflecting on the conversation that here we were practical strangers.
I meet up with her maybe once every six to eight weeks but here we were having quite a profound conversation that in most cases we just wouldn't have because we'd be talking about holidays and weather or in the case of me and Jill we don't really talk that much but that's the kind of accepted conversation that you have when you're sat in a hairdresser's chair and yet here we were talking about it all being about love and it feels so poignant just looking at this bench this seat here on Dartmoor which has been dedicated to this man who was obviously dearly loved.
A special man in so many ways loved forever forgotten never and as we walk through life or as I walk through life and maybe this is the reflection for today it's just about reflecting on the power and importance of love of being present to those who are close to us and to strangers and realizing that at the end of the day regardless of people's behavior regardless of what's going on underneath it all there is a craving for love for love to be expressed and to be received this reciprocal relation of giving and receiving love and I find great comfort in that great comfort because I find the world very complicated at the moment and yet bringing my attention and awareness back to the simplicity of it all just being about love makes complete sense to me
