My daughter has a close friend who is off to university. Being a sensitive soul, he sent her a text from Sainsburys, where he was buying things to take away with him, saying how hard it was not to burst into tears because of how much he will miss everyone. Being a sensitive soul, her eyes were a little watery. Being a sensitive soul, I burst into tears on the spot! How will I be when my own children flee the nest?

We are comfortable without change, but we thrive on change. A stagnant pool is a world apart from a lively, free flowing one; through change and experience we grow and learn, we enliven our minds, we remain interested and become interesting. I am often shocked to find people whose conversations are based entirely around what they watched on television the day before. A recent visitor to our house spent a long time showing us the funny clips he'd seen on You Tube. Great. Is that what life has become now?

In addition to that, modern media has a rather cancerous affect on society, sensationalising negatives beyond reasonable proportion. If positives were given the same glamour how beautiful the world would be! The way to create heaven on earth is to welcome the divine, to be thankful for the wonderful things we have, thus attracting more of them to us.

I am off to clear some clutter. My lovely Dad bought us new mattresses, and three new beds, so I have packaging to dispose of, and a couple of beds to advertise on freecycle. Some of the mattresses are, I'm sure, unusable to sleep on, but may be of use to someone- an enthusiastic trainee free-runner or trick-cyclist, perhaps? I am also turning the downstairs loo into the prettiest room in the world! And writing some letters, cooking tea, putting on some washing and finding my diary. I find the practical things easier to do when the children are home, and devoted the quiet hours without them today to a lovely hour of meditation.

As for Alex's young friend, though preparing for change is unsettling and emotional, we all know it is such a good thing.

We also know that although he's moving to London, he's planning to come home every Sunday, at least for now. I did the same thing myself, because I was in a play in my home village. By the time we reached the performance I was relieved not to have to return, as the London life was proving far too exciting!

Let's celebrate change!
Let's LIVE!!!

It's what we're here for!