Author Archives: Rob Wykes

There will be a scientific reason and yet I still wonder why. Why two tomatoes attached to the same vine ripened at different times. It’s now September and I wonder if the green tomatoes will ever become fully ripe. Was the summer too hot, the soil too rich in nitrogen or have the non edibleContinue reading “We are all human.”

Many of you know that for two and half decades my wife and I worked at St Paul’s Centre in Crewe. It was a wonderful time in our lives. One of the privileges, and achievements was to re-home people. In a good day with two vans and four helpers we could move two families/six orContinue reading “Moving home”

While away and walking on a short trail near North Cheyenne Canyon in Colorado Springs I found myself constantly stopping to listen. Seeing a kingfisher would have been nice. A momentary glimpse of a hummingbird heightened my sense of connection with how special the free world is. I’ll come back to that! Just when IContinue reading “Enjoy the free world”

Visiting a friend in Colorado Springs we called into St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.  At the entrance we were greeted by a row of four wooden tables each with a glass box on top under which are displayed two large books. St. Michael’s has one of only 299 Heritage Editions of The Saint John’s Bible. CompletedContinue reading “Art – a pathway to God”

On a warm drizzle filled day, as the sun broke through the clouds, I rested by a fast flowing brown churning river. It’s autumn, so I walked on a carpet of soft leaves, the surrounding trees releasing them to the ebb and flow of the October breeze. Above me, birds beyond count sang forest music.Continue reading “A place to retreat to or advance…”

I recently chatted to a man who, it turned out, attended the same school as me. We had much to reminisce about but dominating the conversation was the teachers. We both recalled their character and behaviour much of which would not pass in light of today’s expectations. Looking back I am reminded that our schoolContinue reading “A Place Of Peace”

Recently I helped a friend service a water pump on a farm.  When we first separated the pump from the pipework and put it on the bench it looked dusty and the stainless steel case just needed a wipe over. Then we took the cover off! Rushing through this pump had been water that onContinue reading “Pumps & Pauses”

It’s Easter time. A public declaration by the Church and its people about what it stands on. The Sunday when Christians all over the world mourn the loss of Christ and celebrate the rise of Jesus from the dead is upon us. Or is it the loss of Jesus and the rise of Christ… HaveContinue reading “Abstain for a greater gain”

Packing the right book for a break can be tricky. Do I really want an action adventure in an imaginary world while I restfully, peacefully soak in the sun? The gentle lap of water, warm sand, the distant giggle of children seem an ill-fitting ambience for Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher or Captain Jack.  So IContinue reading “Reaching towards one another”

Nehemiah 2:8b ‘…the gracious hand of my God was upon me’ I grew up in a city with three Cathedrals. The 1960s Cathedral in Coventry stands next to the bombed out shell of its predecessor, built 400 years after the original.  Although there is little left of the old cathedrals, their history is alive inContinue reading “Brokenness rebuilt”

Edward Elgar is reported to have said, “The Spirit of God is not something less than God, – it is God.” He is celebrated here in Worcester as a son of the city. His story reminds me of the importance of parents. Now a world famous composer I suspect it all began with his mum’sContinue reading “encourage one another”

‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’ Luke 9:23 Boarding a train I helped a young woman with her bags, she was a concert goer. The train teemed with them. Asking who she’d seen I realised my lack of observation. Her t-shirt, bags andContinue reading “Going out of our way”

Revelation 3:11 “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.” Following a storm an elderly neighbour’s tiles had slipped near the ridge of her roof. After anchoring a ladder and giving it a shake to convince myself it was safe I trusted it and climbed.Continue reading “Keep a firm grip”

Roy, my 86 year old cycling friend regularly rides up to 30 miles at a slow steady pace. Our friend Caroline can ride 200 miles at a fast and focused pace. Chris, a cyclist I once met pedalled 16,500-mile from Bewdley to Beijing at a measured pace. Distance and speed may vary in their individualContinue reading “The race marked out for you”

In 2021 at Wendover, Buckinghamshire British engineers working on a High Speed rail link stumbled on an ancient site once set aside for the dead. This archaeological find paused the progress of millions of Britons hoping to speed up and down the country. Many of the Anglo Saxon graves held bowls, beads, and even silverContinue reading “What will we take with us?”

Leaving something behind can be on the minds of many. In times past a legacy would have been thought of as money or property. Many people are now drawn to protect assets that, if not at the point of our death, could be liquidated and shared out as inheritance. Indeed I’m sure my own childrenContinue reading “Legacy/Inheritance”

Walking across a field on a bright sunny day I came upon an old church. St. Peter in Astley near Worcester. I was in the area on a retreat at a Franciscan monastery. Between midday and evening prayers I had taken a stroll. It was typical even perfect British weather, some sun and the gentleContinue reading “A Consecrated Life”

About two and half hours drive from our house and accessed by a causeway is Holy Island in the North East of England. It’s a place with a Celtic Monastery and Christian history. Some years ago I had a wonderful few days there with my wife.  I recall looking at the old walls and oddContinue reading “How much does the shape matter!”

Sheltering from the heat of a hot 41°  midday sun my wife and I enjoyed the sounds and sights of many birds feeding at a watering hole. For what seemed an age the most delicate of birds busied to and fro maintaining their fluid and nutritional intake. At the same time we hid in theContinue reading “Sheltering”

I suspect we all consume words, gather knowledge or fill our minds with tales of the unexpected in very different ways. Reading is a personal thing which we all approach in our own unique way. Over the period of a year I will plod through loads of books. Christmas is book token season so IContinue reading “Powerful – Sacred – Problematic”

I recently walked around a most holy site in the Middle East. It was architecturally stunning and a dominant part of the skyline. At one point I paused and looked very closely at some detailed craftsmanship. It was an intricate piece of carved marble. I discovered I could enjoy it and appreciate it without understandingContinue reading “Images – hidden and seen”

Seeing Differently is a book I have been taking my time over. As one of the authors, Simon Cocksedge, moves you through the various tales of St Francis talking with worms or wolves, sheep or grasshoppers you begin to grasp the great depths of conflict in being compassionate to animals. It’s the kind of conflictContinue reading “Seeing Differently”

On my book shelf is an old book by Frederick Crossfield Happold, they don’t name ’em like that anymore! The title of his book is The Journey Inward, he wrote it in 1968 and the previous owner of my particular copy wrote his name and Queen’s College in the cover. I should write under this,Continue reading “praying”

As we approach these next few days leading to the 24th of December maybe we will be thinking about who is not able to be with us. That may be a relative living at a distance unable to travel through Covid restrictions. As frustrating as this separation is – we get the logic because weContinue reading “present in separation”

You may have read or heard the phrase Camino to COP26 recently and wondered what it all means. Camino simply means to walk or a path. We mostly come across it when looking at maps of Spain or brochures for a holiday there. The Camino Way is a famous pilgrimage leading from a number ofContinue reading “Climate Change”

On Sunday I had the opportunity to share some thoughts with my friends at church. Taking a lead from a line in a Psalm, ‘Be still in the presence of God and wait patiently’ we thought about what it might mean to approach and be in the presence of God. Our first port of callContinue reading “alone with our God”

The candle on my desk In my study, fancy words for the garage, I like to write with a lit candle on my desk. I actually have the little flickering flame in between my two screens. Most of the time my focus is on the screen and I am unaware that the candle is thereContinue reading “the candle on my desk”

These past few days I have been focusing on the length of our lives, the way we live-out the three score years and ten. We do so through the body, mind and the strange abstract idea of the spirit or our spirituality. It is to the spiritual life that many of us look to forContinue reading “beyond the senses”

Recently my daughter and I decided we would hike to the brow of a local view point, Shining Tor. It is believed to be the highest point in Cheshire East and stands at 1834ft. Our plan was to sit and watch the sunrise having reached the top in the dark. This meant scrambling out ofContinue reading “a cloud may obscure but not remove”

On the 16th March 2020 I hugged some of my team as I put the old cardboard box in the boot of the car. After close to 24 years of spending my days and the occasional nights in St Paul’s Church in Crewe it was time for a new adventure. At the time some wordsContinue reading “still in the race”

In my last reflection I mentioned Julian of Norwich. Julian wrote a book which has taken an amazing 700 year journey. It seems that there are no original versions of Revelations Of Divine Love in existence, as far as we know. Might be worth checking your cupboards! Amongst the copies that have surfaced two wereContinue reading “not a hair between them”

The life of Julian of Norwich came across my horizon recently. She is a key character in a story I’m working on. I have to say Julian was a wonderful woman who I greatly admire and in whose life I find inspiration. She lived the life of an anchoress which means to be monastic. HerContinue reading “A window onto the world”

Standing at a slight distance from the family at a graveside service, present but alone in thought the word sacred came into my mind. Being late January it was cold with a light dusting of snow and a very subtle drizzle of rain. I thought about how personal and private our thoughts would all beContinue reading “marks of the maker”

A couple of weeks ago our car failed to start. Helpfully the screen on the dashboard flashed up an error code. The manual didn’t help but our daughter’s partner Al did. We turned to YouTube, where we found an instructive articulate and very excitable chap with the solution we needed.   Most of us nowContinue reading “spending time with the genius”

Is there a busier time of year, a time when we feel less pressure than Christmas? Our lists of things to do grow and groan and some things fall off the bottom. If you glance at what you didn’t do, what you failed to get round to feelings of guilt seep in. You know theContinue reading “too busy to be christian!”

Sitting on bench in the town square I noticed a young man opposite staring at his feet. After a few minutes he looked up with sad vacant eyes, eyes that looked empty as though he might be blind. For a short while we held each other’s gaze then like titans in a gladiatorial ring weContinue reading “undernourished imagination”

The tinkering metal-on-metal sound of a lock key being turned as it rattles over the ratchet mechanism is unmistakable. There is a mechanical strain to the sound like the winding of an enormous clock.  If you happen to be where there are a series of canal locks on a summer’s day you will see peopleContinue reading “slow down and look around”

Some months ago I read an interesting book, The Examined Life by the psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz. One line caused me to think about the profound effect our thinking about the future has on the present or should I say our perceived future. Stephen writes, ‘The future is not some place we’re going to, but anContinue reading “the examined life”

Annalise moved her round hairy body along a smooth tasty leaf. She felt today as she felt every day in her short life so far, a mixture of hope and despair. Most days were all about moving and eating, which consumed all her thinking time. Those were ok days, days when time moved without concernContinue reading “paused in the midst of change”

In 1984 during my early 20s I had an adventure; in fact I’m always having adventures. At the time I made the rash decision to catch a bus from London to Athens with no onward plan. Arriving in Athens without a plan and having spent three days sat next to two women and the daughterContinue reading “hospitality and generosity”

I’ve been missing church, the fellowship and gathering together. I miss that collective expression of faith. We are doing church a different way and for some it feels not right or not the proper way. We miss familiarity and the security it brings, though it’s good to get out of a rut every now andContinue reading “church – but not as we know it”

Almost three years ago and encouraged by my daughter I enjoyed joining in at the local Park Run with her on a Saturday morning.  It was great fun. At the same time my wife began using a tread mill at the gym having never run in her life before, apart from school days and theContinue reading “our own pace”

Some years ago Cheryl and I whilst on holiday in Thessaloniki, Greece walked along the Egnatia Road and found a food market with the most amazing pastries. We asked in a coffee shop for the owner to recommend something nice to go with our drink. Sugary, crumbling pastry with nuts, glazed on top melted inContinue reading “The judge’s taste”

Sport is as varied as our individual preferences. Attending an all-boys school in the 1970s we had cricket; rugby, football, and athletics both track and field. The school I attended even had its own swimming pool, for a comprehensive establishment that was something special. Sadly I found the whole thing hard work and uninteresting. ItContinue reading “creating a way through”

Christmas is on the horizon and talk of cancelling it or reducing it is all over the papers! ‘Wow,’ I think to myself, ‘Can we really cancel a past event? I mean, Christmas is a commemoration or celebration. It’s when we think about an event that many of those partying don’t even believe in! YouContinue reading “cancelled Christmas!”

Having lost his phone recently to an opportunist thief my friend lived for a week back in the 1970s. Liberation and frustration were the extremes he expressed that week but overall he said it was a good week. One day he was waiting to meet up with a colleague and without the distraction of aContinue reading “our unique pathway”

The Covid19 pandemic has altered our way of life in many ways but none more so than our gathering together. Many of us enjoy being in each other’s company. Walking and listening – entertaining and being entertained. These are the ways we give and receive – it gives us a sense of being partakers inContinue reading “Encourage an artist today”