After so many days of retreating, I had grown accustomed to our distant dance. To accepting that her trust would come on her terms, if it were to come at all. But on this day, it felt different. That unspoken void between us seemed to shift.

I cannot help but smile at the simplicity of the message Chris has just imparted: how much better the world would be if we all stepped through life a little more carefully.

Don’t always expect the worst from people, because the best of humanity can be found everywhere.

One thing that pretty much unites us all is that we use the road. Sometimes in life, as sometimes in our travels, we need to reverse, back up a bit, correct a mistake, own it and move on.

If I have learnt anything during my 60-plus years on this wondrous planet, it is that every day we have the opportunity to be better versions of ourselves. And through the simple act of kindness we have this opportunity…

“Darn,” I cursed. The tree had died, for we had forgotten to dutifully nurture it. I feverishly raced to get a bucket of water. Dousing the parched earth that supported the resolute death stick, a part of me knew my efforts were in vain. But just like that dead stick, I refused to concede it was all over.

On a recent rehoming I was taken down some dusty tracks; they wound this way and that, and as they did, my mind wandered with them. I was struck by the raw beauty that daily abounds as Louis Armstrong belted out “What a wonderful world” in my head.

“I think you need another pair of shoes,” someone commented as they looked down and saw the cable tie strapped firmly around my left runner. “No, no,” I replied, “It’s got a few more miles in it yet.” And I smiled.

In a tale worthy of a Hollywood movie, if not our very own spine-tingling novel, comes the rescue of the “fourth sheep”.

With so much pain and hardship already delivered into their young lives, Switzerland and Mozambique have found sanctuary and a fast friendship.