Feeling strange... kind of like it must be to be shift-shaping...or a changling... or whatever the word for it is. Looking out to sea I can feel the rise and fall of the surf, the tenuous surge of the breeze, and the hypnotic motion of the seabirds effortlessly wafting on invisible currents.

Toby is with me. Even he is quiet this morning...lost in his own canine repetoire. The cats are too lazy and domesticated to come out before the sun is up - which is good as too many things still hunt in the dark. Molly is an especially late riser.

The tide is low... the air is apprehensive, but calm - almost like it feels the stirrings of the season; calm and quiet masking the tremendous force of Nature's rage within.

Awesome.

It's hard to be here and not be thankful. Thankful for being allowed to share in this life... to be a part (albeit a small part) of the whole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I reread recently something by Thomas Moore in his book, "Care of the Soul". It was referring to getting older and depression:

Depression grants the gift of experience not as a literal fact but as an attitude toward yourself. You get a sense of having lived through something, of being older and wiser. You know that life is suffering, and that knowledge makes a difference. You can't enjoy the bouncy, carefree innocence of youth any longer, a realization that entails both sadness because of the loss, and pleasure in a new feeling of self-acceptance and self-knowledge. This awareness of age has a halo of menancholy around it, but it also enjoys a measure of nobility.

I think we all strive not to stay young, but to grow old ... without growing tiresome...

Staying in tune with Nature seems to make the transition easier.

Oh well, time to get back to the RW. Duty calls.

Rian

(PS: my oldest son is 34 today!)