The reading today is a kind of summary of the week. A full stop. A time to reflect. I sat in my garden in Lincolnshire for some time, the first nice day, trying to be quiet.

We travel and walk at too great a pace. It is good to listen to the quietness of the countryside.

“He leadeth me beside the still waters.” (Psalm 25)

Peale mentions a doctor who gave this advice to a patient suffering from stress. Take a two-hour walk every day and spend a half-day a week in the cemetery.

“Because, answered the doctor, I want you to wander around and look at the gravestones of men who are there permanently. I want you to meditate on the fact that many of them are there because they thought even as you do, that the whole world rested on their shoulders. I suggest you sit on one of their tombstones and repeat this statement: A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:4)”