Love is proved in the letting go.

[Kkimm]

I've just had the most magical weekend in Oxford with my daughter. I've tried to capture the "dreaming spires" a little here.

Climbed to the top of the Carfax tower to get the higher shot.

Wonderful to think of Tolkien, Grahame, Carroll and Lewis wandering these cobbled streets and drinking or feasting, smoking and endlessly talking in the same taverns my daughter Ariel and I visited. Authors I love by the way, not being identified for special merit.

We go to Oxford occasionally when she has a a work meeting or conference there, I am free to accompany her now I have retired, in the way she and Pete used to accompany me on similar excursions which fell during school holiday times, and he could get time off from his wooden boat building and restoring business.

Ancient buildings somehow seem to capture the essence of the history and characters of the centuries.

It is Michaelmas term now and students are heading home for the Christmas holidays. It took me back to that feeling of warmth and relief I would have at the end of Ariel's first challenging term at University. Knowing she had survived, perhaps even thrived and we would be having her home again soon into the safety of the family where I could try to "over" protect her once again and get told to chill out a bit.

That little figure in a stiff blue uniform standing alone in the school playground comes back into my mind. " Finding no path where path should be"

The words of C Day - Lewis come drifting back into my mind;

"How selfhood begins with the walking away and love is proved in the letting go."

In more recent media, the film Finding Nemo very nicely captures the same sentiments as the poem. It is a great line when Dory, the wonderful creative fish who struggles to remember day to day matters but has a deeper wisdom, replies to Nemo's dad. "You can't promise that however much you want to " when he says "l promised Nemo that I will never let anything happen to him."

Kim

[Sprinkle1]

Thank you for your lovely story of you and your daughter, and yes Oxford is a beautiful city, I am originally English, went to collage in Lincoln, another beautiful city. Thank you for the lovely photos, I hope many members read you post. Have a wonderful rest of your year....Sprinkle 1......

[Kkimm in reply to Sprinkle1]

Thanks for your lovely reply. It is really strange because my husband and I are off to Lincoln this weekend for our 20th wedding anniversary.