The title of Iain McGilchrist’s Lecture may have put off some from listening to it on You Tube. The word ‘Religion’ deters some in the same way it attracts others. If anything is strongly recommended for me to read or watch, especially if I am told if will be ‘good’ for me, it has the reverse to the intended effect.

The title of McGilchrist’s book, published by Yale University Press, ‘The Master and his Emissary’ will again put off some.

But for those who manage to get beyond the titles and into the stuff of McGilchrist’s research and thinking about the differing functions of the right and left sides off the brain there are, I think, fascinating discoveries to be made.

A lecture by Professor Iain McGilchrist on ‘Why we need Religion,’ given at Pusey House and available on YouTube was recommended to me by a young friend. I have found it incredibly interesting and illuminating. It is worth finding and watching

A friend, older than I am, asked, “Why did we not prepare for old age.” I think that was the question, or something like it, as, being old, I often can’t remember exactly what others say or even what I have said,

I think I replied that, like marriage, you can’t really prepare for it you have simply to enter into the commitment of it and then experience it. However, unlike marriage, you can’t have a trial run by living together nor can you have a divorce if it doesn’t work out.

What I have discovered, in old age, are some most useful things that I could have done when much younger and that are essential for me now.

I have always had a physical routine first thing after waking up in the morning – going to the loo, brushing my teeth, washing and shaving. A preparation for the day.

When my back was bad I added to that routine a number of exercises to do while lying on my bed bed before I dressed. The exercises, very simple and only taking a few minutes, were approved by my excellent osteopath.

It was only recently that I realised that while preparing my physical body for the day ahead I was doing nothing for my mind which, apart from anything else, frequently  didn’t even want to face the day ahead. I remember my mother saying when she was well in her nineties,

“It sometimes takes me until eleven o’clock to feel positive about the rest of the day!” And she was a naturally positive person.

Now I include, while still in bed, Squareword and Wordle on my iPhone, then the news on my iPad and, after that, two games of patience (solitaire these days) on the same iPad. I used to listen to the news and the radio however, being deaf, putting in my hearing aids comes after getting dressed.

As a child we said prayers before going to sleep. I still do – briefly. I now add in the Lord’s Prayer in the morning while still in bed.

So here I am in old age, body, mind and spirit slightly exercised each morning, prepared for the day ahead.

I live in the part of the house which was built as a doctors’ surgery and only fairly recently reconfigured. Unusually two of my large windows are directly on the pavement. One is in my kitchen and the other is blocked in from the inside.

What I see through my kitchen window is fascinating, people watching, people waiting, the greetings and farewells, the various dress styles and costumes, young and old collecting and returning bicycles and scooters – all this I see happening on the other side of the street.

And much happens on the pavement directly outside the kitchen window. Sometimes people look in, see me, and either turn quickly away or smile or even wave. I always smile back not least because I enjoy, when I’m out for a walk, looking through other people’s windows.

What is more surprising are the number of times people rest on the window sill outside oblivious of the fact that I am just a few inches away and could probably read the message they’re texting or see what they are looking at. I can’t hear what they may be saying as the glass is thick. When it was a doctor’s surgery they probably had net curtains. I have Venetian blinds

Recently I saw a couple were greeting each other so intimately that I had to go into the sitting room to leave them in the privacy of the street. It was far too close for comfort.

The other day I noticed that one of the panes in the other window, the one blocked in on the inside, was broken. That concerned me because, I thought, either someone was trying to break in or they had it in for me.

Scanning the  cctv I found that one afternoon a young man had been walking from the main road clearly distressed and angry. As he walked he punched the wall with his right hand. His head was down and he punched in fury. Then he struck and it wasn’t the wall, it was the window. It smashed. He didn’t pause.

He was neither trying to break in nor getting at me. It wasn’t about me. It usually isn’t! He was obviously angry. I was relieved.

The window pane has been replaced with toughened glass.

I enjoy again watching the world going past my kitchen window.

The time slot for the delivery was 8.00am to 6.00pm and when I telephoned the delivery company for more information I was told it was 9.00am to 5.00pm. I could have had an extra hour in bed.

I hung a notice on the door knocker that read, ‘Delivery. Please press the bell long and hard.’ I wanted to be any to do some gardening and not miss the delivery. I need not have bothered as at about 11.30 I had a phone call from the delivery driver telling me she was parked around the corner. I explained where I lived and she said it would not be a problem to bring the delivery, a new garden bench, to my garage.

We met at the garage and straight away she asked, with a friendly smile, “Where are you from?” I said, “Guess!” She answered, without hesitation, “New Zealand.” I then asked where she was from and she told me – the Bay of Plenty.

We had a very pleasant time comparing experiences and what we felt about London. A passer by helped us get the bulky bench into the garage and my fellow country woman graciously declined a tip for her trouble.

That was a sign of the New Zealand I remember as well as the friendliness. The new garden bench looks very fine.