Herald Express 1st July 2020 “This life of ours is a curious business with so many twists and turns. There are days of sunshine, when you feel that you simply don’t have a care in the world. But then there are days of darkness and storm, when the path ahead seems almost impossible.
None of us have the power to know the future, although pundits do make that claim. I have always thought the foreseers and foretellers a curious bunch. Even the mysterious Nostradamus seems to conveniently offer significance to coincidence as misty outcomes loosely support a current event as a predicted fact.
For me, life suddenly bumped off the track a couple of weeks ago. My wife had been ill for the past year, fighting the good fight on that often-scary cancer trail.
After Christmas, things were to be going well. The medical team seemed pleased and Lyndy often coined the phrase “I’m mended now!” The greenhouse got washed, inside and out. Numerous home decoration tasks were completed and the world seemed a warmer place.
A few months ago, that nasty illness got the better of her and she died at home in early June, surrounded by our children. I had my head on the pillow beside her.
Lyndy wasn’t just my wife, she was also my best friend. Our journey together started in Exeter over fifty years ago. We met as student teachers at Saint Luke’s College and did our first teaching practice at Torquay’s Saint Cuthbert Mayne School in the summer of 1969!
Back in those endlessly sunny student days, or so it seems as I look back, I used to keep a diary. My obsession with Lyndy on that teaching practice made me quite wobbly. She was the well-educated daughter of a local solicitor and I was a rather rough diamond masquerading as middle-class aspirant teacher. Those somewhat puerile ramblings do make me smile today.  
My diary tracks the early romantic attempts as I wrestled with my conscience. You see, I was actually heading toward the Catholic priestly life at the time. In truth, my vocational guide suspected that my vocation wasn’t strong enough and that, thankfully, turned out to be a truth.
We didn’t teach for very long before heading back to Paignton. We founded Harbour Sports back in 1978, with Lyndy’s sister and brother-in-law. I’m smiling now as I remember Lyndy skipping across the sparkling waters of Tor Bay on a windsurfer. Our children were brought up with sand between their toes and have Lyndy’s empathic approach to life. This morning, my youngest who is now a father of three, went for a swim. The water sparkled and as he emerged the air around him seemed star-studded.
I have always believed in the magic of spirit energy and in that moment could almost see Lyndy’s magical smile around him. How nice is that! I am warmed through and through by the beauty of that moment.
None of us can truly know the moment when our earthly journey ends and so living every moment is hugely important. Philosopher Alan Watts always advocated doing what you want to do in the here and now. I support that simple philosophy and have always attempted to live by it.
When I was a young man, older folk used to regularly say “If I was your age, I would do things differently!” That made me quizzical and I have always attempted to follow my spirit.
Certainly, as I look back over the years from my suddenly lonely platform, I hear the words of Edith Piaf “I regret nothing!”
……………….and always keep the smile.”