Marc Provins

The car radio was on in the background during a short journey the other day, when I heard the line 'that place between above & below'. From that point on I was transfixed by the programme Soul Estuary: The Mouth of the River (Radio 4), a poetic remembering of growing up by the river and being influenced by the landscape, written and presented by Alan Read. That simple phrase seemed so poignant, a description of something epic - where we are right now in this moment, this place.

I visited an old friend in Birmingham last weekend, by old I mean long standing, as she's younger than me and I don't consider myself old yet. We went to university together and shared a house with three other people who are all still close friends too. I suppose you do quite a bit of growing up together at that point in your life and there is a certain intensity sharing a home, and being part of each other's daily life. Those days were fast and long, slightly chaotic and exciting so you don't know if the people around you will always be in your life, in fact I don't think I considered it until it was time to leave.  We watched the recent Madonna interview on catchup one of the evenings and she talked about how we are brought up to believe that family means blood, but actually we create new families for ourselves, people who won't judge, who you can trust, people who are loyal - that's family.