This morning as I strode around the streets, enjoying the fact that the return of GMT meant it was light by the time I was half way round, I saw the most beautiful rainbow.  Unusually, I could see the full arc and where it touched the rooves of building either side of a main road.

The wonders of a smartphone camera meant I could take a 'panoramic' view to capture it in its entirety.

A few minutes later the rainbow was gone, but the joy and hope carry on.

This morning I broke through the 400,000 steps in October target... it was a very soggy walk, starting out in the dark at 8 o'clock and still remarkably grey two and a half hours later when I sat down with a lovely hot cuppa and hot buttered toast.

Technically, I could stop walking now, but I won't, of course.

For one thing, for each completed 10k steps in a single day, I call to mind one person I've known who died of breast cancer.  I reset those steps to zero each day, so in nineteen days I have recalled 36 names... still a few to go.

For another, it suits my personality to get up and out early, to pound pavements, to ponder important things and even to pray.  I don't anticipate walking 20 thousand plus a day, as I've done today, on a regular basis, but keep on stepping I certainly will.

And it's a lived metaphor for life or spirituality... one step at a time, whatever the weather, from the old to new, God travelling along with me.