June 9 - Day 70 - ‘What pillow can one have like a good conscience?’ ― John Steinbeck

I first came across Cotton-grass while walking in Goyt Valley (one of my favourite places to walk in Derbyshire). At this time of year, the whole landscape can look like a blanket of white or silver. Their fluffy heads also dot parts of the brown moorland on my route to and from work - hence the photograph. Despite its name, it is a member of the sedge family rather than a grass (Not that I’d be able to describe the difference to you I’m afraid)

So what has today’s title quotation got to do with cotton-grass? What I didn’t know until today was, historically, it was used to stuff pillows in Sussex. During the First World War, it was also collected in Scotland to dress wounds with. I do find it fascinating how people have managed to use plants for so many reasons over the years.

The two quotations about pillows (the second found beneath the picture) are very similar in their meaning. Anyone who has read the St Wilfrid Newsletters will know that the saying I have used most throughout my life is I need to be able to ‘Live with my own conscience’. If at the end of the day, you can do this, despite what other people do or say, then we can’t go too far wrong and our pillows will remain soft and sleep-inducing.

Supporters of St Wilfrid’s Centre can, I know, live with their own conscience with the understanding that they are contributing to the creation of a better society while meeting individual needs through the work we are able to do. If our motivation is selfless and based on good principles, then our consciences can be clear and we should be able to lay down tonight, despite the heat, more comfortably than we would do otherwise.

There's no pillow as soft as a clear conscience. Glen Campbell