Peace and Quiet

As I get older, I find that it is the simpler things in life which give me the greatest pleasure.  Today, for instance, was a beautiful Spring day full of hazy sunshine.  I don't know what it is about hazy sunshine, but I find it intensely pleasurable, giving the day an atmosphere that a clear sky never can.  Being off work this week, (and still amazed that, for once, I'd managed to book off a week of unseasonably good weather), I decided to take a break from my various DIY efforts, (mainly trying to repair the damp damage to the kitchen and spare room wrought by the leaking hot water cylinder and the gutter blocked by the council's ivy, respectively), and spend today simply enjoying the glorious weather.  So, as I often do, I ended up at my favourite Iron Age hill fort, dodging the various Easter holiday groups of children, students and the like as I wandered around its reassuringly familiar environs.

It's days like today, when time seems to stand still and I spend what seem like peaceful hours sitting on a hill fort admiring the view over the South Downs, watching birds of prey hovering and listening to birdsong, that I realise that we would all benefit from a calmer pace of life.  When I'm not spending my time driving from one pointless work job to the next, as I seem to spend a large part of my working life doing, or enduring desultory hours in the office pursuing pointless paperwork and chasing arbitrary targets, I really do feel more at peace with myself.  We really do need to take more time out to just watch the world go by.  It isn't just restful, it's definitely better for you - my stress levels have dropped off markedly - and today were non-existent - in the week I've been off work.  All my regular aches and pains have likewise vanished.  Sadly, of course, it can't last and I'm back to the grindstone on Monday.  But that still gives me another three days of peace...