Norfolk Pines

We have been talking about our travels recently during our evenings on the balcony and we were thinking that we were glad we did our travelling when we did.  Though I guess people who did their travelling a generation before us would have said the same.

It certainly must have been something to travel in the days before passport controls, though of course only the rich could do it.

We became "rich" (travelwise) in our expat years because of the generosity of The Company.  They gave us a cheque every repat and, provided we were out of Kingdom for a minimum of 21 days, we were free to use it to go home, or elsewhere.  So we were able to visit my bro and his family in Sydney quite a few times (along with many other countries), which was wonderful. And the picture I have chosen for this blog is of the Norfolk pines you see on the seafront there.

We have a pine tree (not Norfolk) outside our balcony and sometimes when the sea is turquoise behind it, it reminds me of our days on the Northern beaches of Sydney.  

Maybe this talk of past travel was why I had a very stressful dream the other night, which seemed to go on for ages. I dreamt that I had taken a job back in the Middle East with The Company and had flown out there on my own with no money, no credit cards, nothing, except for food that I had, strangely, packed in my suitcase. I was in a company house, one we used to live in apparently though I did not recognise it, but there was no salary waiting for me. The dream had all sorts of twists and turns, and it was just beginning to dawn on me that it was a very strange thing for the company to be recruiting elderly ladies, when I woke up. It was such a relief to find myself at home, in my own bed, Captain B at my side.

Interestingly, when I took my blood pressure the morning after the dream it was very high!  (Captain B and I both have to do a bp chart this week.)  Why does my subconscious do this to me?  It's bad enough my own immune system attacking me...  what next in the frightening progression of old age?  Will I start punching myself in the face?

If I do, I hope I will manage not to damage my expensive new front teeth... I do not want to go through all that dental torment again.

The gift of life still continues to feel more and more wonderful though.  What is that line from a Sinatra song - "the days dwindle down to a precious few"?  

Every day is so precious now.

And the meeting at the Kingdom Hall last night was so comforting.  The teaching from the Christian congregation is an invaluable guide. You could not put a price on it, yet it is free to all who want it.

And the spirit and the bride keep on saying, “Come!” and let anyone hearing say, “Come!” and let anyone thirsting come; let anyone who wishes take life’s water free. - Revelation 22:17

Let anyone who wishes take life's water free. Jehovah is offering everyone back the life and perfection our first parents so tragically threw away.  Why not accept?