Bealach

After that course for the advisers last Monday, I had a strong sense that I was in a place of bealach. That’s the gaelic word for a hill pass, not a long narrow one, that’s a lairig, more of an up and over the ridge.

The last couple of weeks has been heavy going, rather like the last slog up to the ridge. A bealach is a good place to be, partly because you get to eat your sandwiches. But also because the way then goes down, and because you get a new set of views.

One quote I noticed in a financial advice mailing this week was by J.P.Morgan “When you expect things to happen, strangely enough they do happen.” And I suppose that because I decided in 1995 to leave BP, I began to cause that to happen.

But to go to the very last page of the Hobbit, a book I may well quote from time to time in these posts, Bilbo had a visit from Balin and Gandalf some years after he returned from his adventure to his burrow. On hearing what had been happening,

‘Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true after a fashion!’ said Bilbo.

‘Of course’, said Gandalf. And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies because you hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?’

However, so far I am on the bealach in cloud (a not unusual state of affairs!), and am looking forward to the view appearing.