The moon

Travelling down to King's Cross last week I must have dozed off and then had one of those tricky moments where you're not quite sure if you're really wake or not. I saw the moon through the carriage window to the west, then it disappeared again and then re-appeared.

I half-expected someone to poke me in the ribs and tell me the train had been sitting in the platform in London for several minutesand and was now about to return to Cambridge. But no, I was awake and yet witnessing a disappearing moon. Was I alone in this discovery? Had the other passengers seen it and dozed off or I was I dreaming about being awake amongst non-believers who had forgotten how to look?

Then I understood. The train was travelling through the various Hertfordshire tunnels and thus the moon appeared to be appearing and then disappearing again. I thought then that , like the Christmas Star, the moon is always with us - there is always light, and that light is reflected from the sun that gives us life. No matter how dark and cold the day may appear to be, there is always light, if we can only remember that all our journeys will be longer than the sum of all the tunnels we have to go through to get to our destinations.