Thursday, February 17, 2011

Walking by the sea

Walking by the sea. I took off my shoes and let the waves wash over my bare feet. Mills, my father’s whippet, was with me. Now and again I raced her over the sand. She would shimmy past me like a rugby wing back avoiding a tackle. I needed to feel like a teenager again. Needed to reassert a vigorous ongoing relationship with the soil underfoot. Finally I sat on some rocks and watched the waves.
       When I turned inland I saw two moving white columns in the sky which at first glance I thought was smoke. The two encroaching formations rippled into funnels and then spread out beneath the labyrinthine coral of clouds into fans. My vision blurred for a moment. Then I realised I was witnessing two perfectly synchronised flocks of birds.  The abstract shapes they formed were flawless . I stood with my hands on my head as the birds tapered into a long undulating line which gently vanished behind the surface of things. The same thing happens when people die - they vanish behind the surface of things.

5 comments:

  1. thanks for visiting my leafdropper journal, glenn. i'll gladly follow your blog as well. i loved it when you said -- "The same thing happens when people die - they vanish behind the surface of things." only on the surface, because we are all divine beings. our True Self carries on ..

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  2. Nice descriptive work I can actually visualize most of it as I'm reading and it flows together well.

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  3. Always what you write is beautiful. Lately it speaks to me more deeply, especially when you write about your father. It makes me feel less alone.

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