Unless you have trouble with hot weather, we cannot complain about the sunshine we have enjoyed this year! grain harvest should be rich and plentiful as we celebrate Lammas on the first day of August. Traditionally the first sheaf of the harvest is hung over the fireplace until Springtime when it will be ploughed back in.

The last sheaf is for making corn dollies. The first bread from the new grain is said to have magical properties. We might never do these things now but it is good to keep the memory that we once did. August 1st is also the festival of Lugh, the sun king and god of light. I hope you are all having a good summer and the year so far has been good to you.

My local radio station, Bolton FM, broadcasts ‘A thought that counts’ every day. It goes out at 7.30am and 12.30 approximately Monday to Friday and local clergy write and record them. Every now and again I am asked to provide a week’s worth. It has to be ninety seconds long, and one of mine went out on July 21st. I thought I would take the liberty of sharing it with you:

When Neil Armstrong stepped down on to the surface of the moon on this day over fifty years ago, did he expect to learn the mystery behind its presence?

The moon is separate from us and yet tied to us. It seems lifeless, yet it gives us life. It has no power of its own, yet it drives the tides of the world to ebb and flow. Thus turbulent oceans then carry the heat of the sun around the world, releasing storms, cyclones and weather systems.

The lifeless moon entices leaves to grow and roots to burrow. It also tugs at human emotions as it waxes and wanes on its 28-day journey around us, thirteen times in a year.

Civilisations measured time and date by the journey of the moon.

This shining satellite is part of our lives and like an engine to the world.

There are endless theories of how the moon came to be where it is, perfectly sized and perfectly placed to keep the world in balance. It might have been created in some catastrophe like a planetary collision, or a huge eruption. It might have been a wanderer captured by earth’s gravity to be held forever.

And some will say, it is there by design, not accident.

We look at its silver light and wonder if we are being held in the destiny of the divine, leaping slowly towards the truth.”