The Eagles Are Coming

So screamed Bilbo at the end of the Hobbit during the battle of the Five Armies.

I'd never seen an eagle in my life before and then last week on Vancouver Island I saw 2 . Different days, different beaches, different sides fo the island but equally stunning. The second time the eagle circled round a few times before settling on a tree just behind us. The Elvish Princess and I stopped our picnic and looked in awe - it was so close we could hear the beating of his wings. If i was a poet I would write a verse but even now I just find myself filled with silent awe at the beauty. Luckily Gerard Manley Hopkins had a smiliar experience a century and a continent apart from mine but his words on seeing a falcon flying one morning are still beautiful and i offer them to you.

blessings


The Windhover
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

-- Gerard Manley Hopkins

O CANADA

Dont worry not all my posts will be this long - Just a little something i wrote on the ferry last week going from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.

Vancouver was amazing - a city of contrasts - sea and mountains and my favourite season. Crisp autumn mornings with a nip in the clear mountain air. Sitting drinking coffee and watching the seaplanes taking off from the harbour warmed my soul. Its a big city but didn't feel overwhelming and closed in like London - there was always a sense of space and from almost everywhere you can see the mountains or the sea. Clean and healthy feel , travelling on the electric buses - all human life is here ... it feels good and of course good banter with femininefeminist.

Meantime I’m feeling alive - there is a still a hint of the new world here,its spirit is still felt.The spirit of carving a new life out of the harsh but beautiful wilderness around. We are passing sailboats and forested islands ....there are seaplanes landing, fishing trawlers heading out to the Pacific - it feels real. It feels like life is meant to feel. There is a little clearing at the waters edge with a mini lighthouse , a square white 2 storey house and a fluttering flagpole on a lawn. As we get closer now other houses start to poke out from amongst the tree lined shore. A blast on the ships whistle scares those on the outer deck - a man in a green shirt uses his fingers as earplugs- and somehow looks pained and amused at the same time. We are in a narrow channel between 2 islands - swiss style chalets on one side and more modest abodes on the other.

Its a breathtakingly beautiful ferry ride ....this is the way we are meant to live - not in concrete choked cities which suck the life out of those within them. Am listening to the new Duke Special album - it feels like the best work he has ever done. Songs from the deep forest feels appropriate here as I look out on forested islands all around. It also feels alive and young like the country around me. Stunning - I dont love you - half as much as I should . I dont get those pop and idol shows - everybody knows that the good things take a little longer. Its true - I need to write a lot more - give it the time it deserves .

There is a pretty girl in a red and yellow checked coat sitting across the way reading Harry Potter. She wears her beauty like it was a burden and doesnt smile at those who catch her eye but looks away instead. I wish she could hear the Duke singing ...” the sun will rise once more , yes it better / the sun will rise once more if you let her.”

I do feel most at home near the water . I love Nashville and am posting this from there but I'm not sure I could ever live here. I love the restless everchanging sea. If i feel God anywhere its there - feeling my soul resonate with the creation and the creator.
"come on come on come on my soul - i dont wanna stand still - i just want to freewheel."

The river of life has many tributaries .....there are many turns along the way and many different possibilities. Many different scenarios one could fit into. Many different places one could have ended up - sometimes its enough to drive you mad ....... all those possibilities and the self doubt that you have made the wrong choice ... lived the wrong way ..... how to find peace within that ..well look at the sea and realise we end up in the right place in the end - some of us just have longer journeys.

till next time Blessings upon you .

Into the world of blog .... I am still not entirely comfortable with what Lawson so well described as this benevolent act of narcisism. I'm not convinced that my life or anyone elses, is interesting enough to share every day ....but some days ... yeah some days you smell the rain , breath in the sunshine and feel the Oran Mor - The rhythm of Life - and you have something to say. Or you have a need to write and there is a hope that out there somewhere what you write will resonate with another human being. Or it coluld be that you are a bad writer and the only way to become a good writer is to start bad , write lots, and hopefully maybe one day we will run faster , try harder ........ but no we beat on boats against the current , born back ceaselessly into the past.

more later my children - blessings and salutations

father M