I was in the sea, swimming on the north coast of France: on the way back to England. There was a great white beach, huge at low tide and a heavy sea, pounding the shore. Again and again I stood, swam, was pushed down in a kind of rhythm. This is an alternative to religious feeling, the power of nature and we are all children before it, living for our present interaction with it.

“I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Matthew 18:3 (Tuesday, 19th Week in Ordinary Time)