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Tiny fragile flowers show themselves every year to be determined and hardy, and are always welcome. I’m glad of the year round arrivals that lift our spirits and raise our cheer …
Always welcome
Month: January 2022
Edinburgh daydreamin’
It’s a decidedly chilly and grey January afternoon in Cumbria today – never, of course, without the natural beauty of Lakeland, but chilly, in a dispiriting sort of a way, anyway.
And then a note from a friend in Edinburgh led to my daydreaming of that beloved city, and of summer days there this past year, and of my returning there in the not-too-distant future, and I was away! Eyes closed, after-lunch coffee to hand, in January, in Cumbria, I’m in Edinburgh on a bright summer day …
Silhouetted
Here is my shape and shadow silhouetted on the promenade deck of MS Borealis; and here her shape and shadow, I realise time and again, is silhouetted upon my heart …
Water and light
So much of life has continuing need for the same set of requirements, and is made up of those same elements: a right balance of darkness, light and water. No wonder so many teachers have asked humanity to consider a flower as we contemplate our own lives.
I wonder
I wonder why some
beautiful scenes in our lives
make our hearts ache so?
I am a …
I am a … man who is smiling, on a grey January day, having discovered a writer quite unlike any I’ve known before … and I am writing a glowing ‘review’ of a book I’m only 30 pages into because anyone who writes about mountains that ‘splooge out thick liquid fire spurts that run downhill and cool and turn into vacation destinations after a few thousand years’ just absolutely needs to be read by every pandemic / winter wearied person I can think of. So I shall stop distracting you, because I want to read some more, and I want to hurry forward the moment when you tell me that Jenny Slate and her Little Weirds lifted your imagination up to sunlight too.
Lighting up life
Thank you, thank you, thank you to the loveliest of friends who lit up a grey day here with the gift of tulips. It’s a delight to watch them slowly opening (just like people!) as they’re reaching for the light.
Thank you
thank you dear reader –
because your being who you
are really matters
Resting Space
Some days and nights seem to ask of us that we turn down the volume on News reports and uninvited thoughts and listen to – and be held by – the great silence of resting space. Often, even.
I am thankful for the silent music of the night. Quiet reflection and slowly revolving and renewed perspectives are as food for souls.
The giggles …
.
… for all you lovely ones who light up others’ lives – filling the world with fresh hope and cheer. Thank you. May you have a rich dose of the giggles today and every day 😊🙏x
At the Gates of Dawn
There are moments in all our lives when we find ourselves awestruck – aware of unexpected encounter we understand has changed something deep in us, without quite being able to recall the detail. Somehow awakened to ‘otherness,’ somehow knowing ourselves called to quiet contemplation in the midst of the everyday. Conscious of all our unknowing, but on the cusp of something, and content to be awestruck anyway …
Ullswater blue
My little red adventurer and I checked in with the Lakeland weather forecast earlier today. Present blue sky’s a bit of a short-term blip in a (more usual for January) sea of grey, they say. So we set out to capture a few snapshots – reminders of light and warmth to come, and perhaps of glad company with whom to sing: ‘it’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day …’ ☀️🌿
Home to Lakeland sunset
Of course it’s a shame that the Caribbean leg of MS Borealis’ voyage to the Americas had to be curtailed, but what a glorious Lakeland day not to have missed! Beautiful sunrise and sunset are to be enjoyed on land as well as at sea. The backdrop to majestic Blencathra tonight would have stirred JMW Turner …
As though she were shy
the Moon now appears
tentative and shy but will
soon enough rise high
Coffee-time daydreamin’
I shall miss my first coffee of the day here in this library – one that, literally, transports people to new worlds! This morning I’m thinking of a conversation before dinner last night.
Her face illuminated by sunset, leaning on the stern rail aboard MS Borealis, a fellow ocean lover told me: ‘every morning, when I open my eyes, I ask myself “what’s the best that might happen?” – and pretty much every day outshines whatever I imagined.’
And here comes sunrise! Thank you, Borealis ☀️🙏
wind in my wheels 🌱 