Glimpses of The God

This morning dawned with glorious sunshine and I jumped into my car to head off to see one of my customers. The local trip took me through very narrow single track lanes on the back road between Dowlish Wake and Knowle St Giles and was just breath-taking.

As I drove along, a small raptor flew out from the verge, straight down the lane in front of me; I'm sure it was a merlin, though I'm not Bill Oddie when it comes to birds of prey. Wow. As if that weren't treat enough, a deer dashed across the road in front of me; I was travelling nice and slow, simply because you can't see very far ahead, so there was no danger to the deer, but by then I was grinning like a village idiot with the sheer delight of seeing so much nature up close.

Not to be left out, a buzzard, who had been perched on a tree stump not far above the side of the road took off, swooping within a few feet of the car. He was handsome and so close it was possible to see all the lovely patterns on his feathers. "OK, I thought, things can't get any better than this" as I continued to amble the car along the lane. Not so, as the rabbits hadn't had their five minutes of fame and put in an appearance!

Just as I crested the hill and stared the gentle descent towards my customer's place, with the most astounding views over a valley towards slightly misted green hills, the last player in the saga took their leading role. The 'road' I was travelling is a typical back-of-nowhere road in Somerset and has grass growing up the middle of it, through the tarmac. Sat right in the middle of the road, on a patch of grass was a partridge. Now, I don't know much about partridges, I even had to check in my bird book before being sure it was what I had seen, but what I can tell you is that they are not the brightest birds on the planet!

The partridge decided to run along the road in front of the car. Now, any sensible bird, even the daftest pheasant, will dive into the hedgerow when faced with trying to outrun a BMW, but not this partridge! So, imagine the scene; a country lane, sunlight dappling through leaves, birds singing and this poor, dim partridge, bobbling along the road in front of my car, which was now travelling at fast-partridge pace. Luckily, the track I had to turn into appeared and I left the bird to recover.

As I approached my customer's door, a swallow began swooping and diving so low that I felt as if I could reach out to touch it. I wasn't with my customer for long and when I turned out of the track, guess who was waiting for me? Yup, the partridge was waiting where I had left him, as if he were ready to take on the race again! I couldn't oblige and turned the way I had come, but with such a smile that I shall remember this morning for a long time.

There have been many discussions about faith and belief in other places and somehow I haven't had the time or enthusiasm to join in. This morning is why. This, to me, is all the evidence of being within a whisker of the God that I need. I was surrounded and touched by the sheer magical beauty and power that Herne is so why would I rail against some silly intellectual who's blinded by the light shining from his own behind? My feet are in the earth, the sun is on my brow and the Goddess and God are present - that's good enough for a simpleton like me.