The family of things

Mary Oliver famously wrote about your / our ‘place in the family of things’ in her glorious poem Wild Geese – which still strikes awe in me after the umpteenth reading …

... the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Now I know that some of us are great and enthusiastic ‘returners’ and some not. My family and friends know well that I’m certainly one of those happy wanderers who’s always hugely grateful to return to home-base and reflection upon the adventures of the day.

Here, in these Edinburgh days, life beneath Arthur’s Seat is time and place that brings about a gratitude – a ‘knowing my place’ – in me that I’ll never forget until the end of my days.

Solid as rock – well, nowadays anyway – 350 million years ago Arthur’s Seat was an erupting volcano! Sometimes the changing of the light across the Crags illuminates my very soul.