Keep it trimmed

 

Pack only the weight you yourself can lift

and it makes sense to prioritise.

The small often weighs way more than the big

it’s not always linked to size.

 

You’ll have to take off your shoes many times.

At security. Strange doors and streets.

Wear the most robust yet softest you find

and remember to put up your feet.

 

And there will be the unplanned layover

that’ll pounce out from simply nowhere

a light bag means you’ll keep your composure.

A delay won’t stop you getting there.

 

All routes don’t have to be perfectly straight,

enjoy the panoramas while you wait.

This one's addressed to the folks who're always in a hurry, get their tempers frayed by the least delay or deviation. Basically, they make it easy for the world to ruin their day and their travels in a million ways. My suggestions distilled from 50 plus years of air travel in the above. 

Enjoy the panorama, this one right here, because it's never going to happen again. This particular unfolding of the world to your particular gaze is never going to be repeated in its entirety again. Worth being mindful, because no situation or vista is ever all bad, there's always something of breathtaking beauty studded somewhere in the worst delays - you only have to look a bit close. Actually a delay isn't even a delay half the time, it's just a different route. Relax. Keep your eyes peeled, keep your mind calm. The gems come at you without notice and disappear without trace in a split second. Lamps must be ready, wicks correctly trimmed, if you're in places where power outages are quite common. In the ROTW - all devices fully charged. 

Year end 2K22 : Not Just a Christmas Thing

 

One year, many years ago when the blog was still a toddler unsteady on its legs, my father and I got into a discussion about Irene Rutherford's poem 'Is Love Then So Simple?' That spun off many responses in my head and one of them was this 'ereunder. Reposting it because it felt particularly appropriate just now.

Love Is Not Just a Christmas Thing

I’ll love you with the dance in my bones

and the pigeon calls in my veins

with the soil of my flesh and its stones,

the bungled belly laugh in my brains.

I’ll love you when the dances get dim

when the anklets draw hooks and blood

when pirouette is brimstone and grim

the last thrash of fish on the mud.

I’ll love you when the tinsel’s trash

when the tree’s just needles on the floor

all festive is only one flash,

and the dark is the maw of the door.

I’ll love you still when the music thins

under the amber songs of dawnskins.

It's been an extraordinary year - the good, the bad and the ugly. The challenges have been many - some earth shattering, some just a pinprick, but then so have the high points.

But...at this time, every year end, the bad and the ugly somehow drain away and only the residues of the good remain, like the faint smear of sand on fingers that have been building sandcastles on the beach for too long. That can't be dusted away no matter how hard I try. Has to be properly scrubbed off under the shower, now that it's dark and play must be taken indoors. 

However, I have to confess I'm not taking that shower yet. As I am content to go around with the grit under my nails and inside my shoes, ever so slightly uncomfortable but welcome still because it originates from a place of happiness.  Thankful for everything the year has brought me, the learning that has happened, the castles that have been built and those that fell and/or never got finished. Everything has its place in the wider scheme of things and nothing is ever wasted, not even a grain...my mother, Arundhati, used to say that often.

The advantage of having a mother who was named after a star is that I just have to look up at the night sky and there she is....still twinkling down at me with all her wisdom and laughter and life lessons and love and constancy, still steadfastly beside her partner star in the heavens. Both my parents have been with me all through this year - the farther I travel out from the centre, the closer they watch over me and my family, the deeper and broader their presence feels in my life, both present and past. And hopefully in the future too. 

Wishing you all the joys of this festive season. Happiness, peace and plenty of sandcastles to build in 2023. See you in the New Year!