Finding a Heart

Edinburgh Castle from Castle Street.

The New Year is a time of reflection in so many ways. I found myself thinking of all the old traditions that surrounded New Year in my youth.  How the fireplace had to be cleaned spotless and a new fire laid and made ready to be set alight just after midnight.

Then off we set to visit the neighbours in their homes. We took with us a bottle of whiskey to offer the neighbours a toast, a lump of coal to bring them warmth and a piece of shortbread to symbolise the desire that they ate well in the coming year.

Every year we made new year resolutions, promising to do so many things, of which most were forgotten before January came to an end.

When I became a minister of religion I re-established some traditions that had slipped away. I rang the church bells at midnight.  After the service, which finished just after midnight I invited so many people over to the manse they could hardly all get in.

Now, it comes and goes. No longer to I make resolutions other than to continue as I have been in the year just gone. I hope that my year has been fruitful to others as much as to myself, so why promise to make any changes.

I do like to make a real effort to apologise to anybody I have hurt in any way whatsoever during the year now gone. I do so even now in this blog to anybody I may have offended and not yet been aware and apologised.

All the thinking and promises in the world are meaningless unless they are truly meant.

The old wise sage was talking with his disciples one day.

"Of what use are your learning and your devotions?

 Does a donkey become wise through living in a library or a mouse acquire holiness from living in a church?"

"What is it, then, we need?" asked one disciple.

"A heart."

"How does one get that?"

The Master would not say. What could he say that they wouldn't turn into a subject to be learned or an object of devotion?

Another year in which to get on a do the things we artists do. With all our heart aspire to make people enjoy what they see, touch and feel.

This blog is linked to my other. Edinburgh Castle From George Street.

It Is What Lies In The Heart That Really Matters.

I mentioned that I visited a little village that sits in the very heart of Edinburgh the capital of Scotland. Let me tell you just a bit more about this. For most visitors to Edinburgh its main street is its centre. Princess Street has on one side the castle towering above the city. Also on that side is at street level its beautiful gardens with its art galleries built in classical style. For many this is the heart of Edinburgh. If this was in fact the case Edinburgh would be pretty much like many other cities.

But not far off this main street lies a little cobble street that leads down into a little village that has been there since Edinburgh was just in its infancy. It is possible to walk through the village and all the way to the sea following the river of Leith never ever more than a few hundred yards from all the buzz of city life.

It is little wonder I love this city, because it has a beating heart at its centre.

I heard the other day that the heart is more akin to the brain that we ever knew before. Well scientifically maybe that is true but we all knew the importance of the heart. "Countenance is a press conference that your face calls to give the state of union of your inner heart." In other words the face merely reflects the inner you.

On being asked how he won a race a famous runner said, “Easy I just threw my heart into it and my body followed.”

I remember when I was fairly young I went with a friend to stay with her grandmother. Her grandmother lived directly under the Forth Rail Bridge. Trains roll over this bridge day and night. The first time I heard it in her home I almost had a heart attack, she on the other hand never seemed to notice. She said she had hardened her heart to the sound and now she did not notice at all.

The same hardening process can occur when friends speak to us and we don not respond. Eventually we stop hearing them all together. I have a silent vow I make frequently that I will never ever ignore the voice of another and especially not that of my friends.

So if I do not comment on your blog as often as I would like please trust and believe me it is not because I do not want to it is often just simply that I am responding to another voice but I still hold yours dear in my mind.



It is not the face or the words but what lies in the heart that makes us what we are. Tend to the heart and the rest will come easily.



This is the way of the Tao.



Today I will put two pictures on here of the heart of Edinburgh and one on my other blog. I hope you agree that not many cities have a beating heart like this.

This blog is linked to my other. The Beating Heart Of A City