Listening in the Silence

Excess Baggage It's only a couple of years since COVID forced me to head back from India with all my worldly goods as excess baggage.  I had been offered the opportunity to rent almshouse accommodation in a Victorian retirement home, set in beautiful gardens near Lincoln Cathedral, well within  earshot of the cathedral bells.  I had lifetime tenancy, until the day when sombre men-in-black would wheel me out of my picturesque cottage, horizontal and feet-first. But that's not quite true, because  I had forgotten that God chuckles when mere humans make plans. Little more than a year passed when my daughter learned of an opportunity for me to live less than a mile from the family in rural Oxfordshire. This would be a novel experience for me, compared to the wide distribution of my other offspring in Canada, the USA, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. As the digits on the calendar progressed relentlessly, I was beginning to realise that my travelling days would soon be curtailed...