Thought for the Week, September 2 2022

The summer holidays are drawing to a close.

 

Probably many journeys will have been made, some short, some long.

 

Transport will have been by car, train, boat or plane.

 

All these journeys will have brought new adventures, new places, new friends.

 

Recently I was looking at a row of swallows perched on the telephone line outside our house; their long forked tails made them quite distinctive.

 

Sometimes they would fly off, ducking and diving, creating amazing flight paths which no aircraft could ever aspire to.

 

Sometimes, being inquisitive, they would venture on to the gutter of our house.

 

But the swallows too had a journey ahead of them. Soon they would set off to spend winter in a warmer climate.

 

Theirs would be an epic journey, taking them to South Africa. Travelling at about 20mph and completing around 200 miles per day, they would follow the western coastlines of the UK and France and across the Pyrenees, follow the eastern coastline of Spain, across to Morocco into Africa and the Sahara to eventually reach their destination.

 

Feeding on airborne insects while flying, the journey would take six weeks to complete.

 

Alas, many would not make it, dying through starvation or inclement weather.

 

The Old Testament mentions swallows. The Book of Psalms says this: 'As the sparrow finds herself a home and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young, so my resting-place is by your altars, O Lord, my king and my God,' and the Book of Proverbs leaves us with this to think about: 'Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.'

 

David O McEwan, St Kiaran’s Scottish Episcopal Church, Campbeltown.