September, a time for reflection

I always try to live in the present (with varying success) and find 'living each day as it comes' immensely satisfying. Perhaps for you, dear reader, September is a time of `mists and mellow fruitfulness', a time for reflection, or just a rush to get back to work! But sometimes, the past, in the form of visitors during August and September (family and friends from Britain and Australia) has pushed through the curtains of everyday life here with somewhat bewildering effect. The heat of the summer months with sea and sand and holidays recede, but the snapshot memories persist and lead to thoughts...

We, as an English family of mother, father and six children, have experienced a travelling life. A life encompassing different cultures and experiences in South Africa, Cyprus, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Jamaica and finally Catalonia; also, holiday sallies into Greece, Asia and Japan. But what thoughts has this life produced? This life of learning new languages, integration, war, listening to people and working for different causes?

The answer is somewhat surprising. It is that, as a whole, in all cultures, families are paramount; that parents, whether they be black, white, yellow or brown, long only that their children have a chance of a decent education, that they find work, somewhere to live, and it is that religious differences matter relatively little, and also that happiness might prevail. Not perhaps lofty aspirations, but, in these somewhat chaotic times of the referendum and its results in Britain, I would say 'politicians, please take note!'