An unwelcome visitor

On BBC television there is a programme where a well-known person tells a fantastic tale, and the others have to decide if it is true or false. I wonder, dear reader, what you think about something that happened the other day.

My daughter and I were leaving for a medical appointment I had in L’Esquirol. As we closed the front door, a long green snake slithered swiftly in and disappeared into the TV room. Just as swiftly Debs closed the TV room door. “Oh dear. We can’t bother about that now,” she said, “at least it can’t get into the rest of the house.” And off we went – slightly unsettled, to the doctor and shopping.

On the way back we decided what to do. When asked I practise meditation. The snake seemed a good subject. “I’ll go into the TV room with a stick to discover where the snake is, and you, Mum, stay outside and meditate.” This is what we did. Meditating to the background sound of furniture being moved around, Debs soon came out of the front door, preceded by the slithering snake, and though protesting with its forked tongue flickering, the snake disappeared into the long green grass.

I assure you, dear reader, that this is true.

It is said that late September is a month of mists and fruitfulness. If we look through the ’mists’ we can enjoy the ’fruitfulness’. The point of this story? That we must ever be open and alert to the fantastic in life where fact is often stranger than fiction.