Attribution: © Francis C. Franklin / CC-BY-30 (Creative Commons Licence)
One of the moments of life that I remember with clarity as being among the most blissful of experiences happened years ago when I visited the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss. I was on my own - and in those days, post divorce and getting used to a new state of being, that was an occasion of some bravery: a major trip out, alone, simply to enjoy myself. I walked the long circuit of the reserve, out along the Causeway. In those days the path continued beyond the reed beds, through woodland, to return to the Visitor Centre along the roadside. It was sunny and still and I’d already enjoyed seeing a feast of birds, harriers hunting across the marshes and all sorts. I entered a little clearing among the trees and there beheld a male bullfinch, one of only a handful I’d ever knowingly spotted, resplendent in his breeding plumage, such a stunning coral pink set off with black and blue grey wings. He took my breath away. I was suffused with joy, a perfect sense of bliss. We had a moment together before he went on his way. I’ve never forgotten the encounter, a real gift that somehow made things right and filled me with peace, not a relaxed peace but an energised sense that ‘all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well’.
