Saturday 22nd July 2006

We have just returned from what for us is the perfect summer afternoon occupation, relaxing on Fermain beach.
When the sun is out and the weekend is here you can almost guarantee where we will be.
In fact that dot on the beach just at the foot of the buttress is Judy in our favourite spot.

This afternoon the tide was coming in and was eventually only a couple of feet away from us on a steeply shelving beach.
Swimming in the crystal clear water, and making our way out among the boats that were moored just offshore, and turning to view the magnificent cliffs that rose up from the bay, it truly was heaven on earth.

Later, as I was lying on the beach listening to the waves gently breaking on the shore, the gulls calling and wheeling overhead, it was hard to believe that elsewhere in the world people were cowering in fear at the sound of gun and rocket fire.

Indeed on the Mediterranean coast where there should have been people doing the very thing we have been doing today, there are mothers grieving over children that have been killed, sons caught up in the conflict, and families that are fleeing their homes not knowing if they will ever return.

Yes the world is indeed a place of contrasts, even Fermain bay carries the evidence of previous conflict with fortifications from both the Napoleonic age and the second world war when our island was occupied by a hostile force.

Let us remember in our prayers those caught up in this current conflict, for whom peace seems a million miles away, where bloodshed is in the very streets where they live, and may we appreciate the tranquility we can find, and which if we are not vigilant can so easily be snatched away.