white sky thinking

gavin (he of three men in a float fame) hosts a great website for the cloud appreciation society at

http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/

part of their pledge is to promote cloud watching as an antidote to the dullness of 'blue sky thinking' - i like their quirky approach to living - and i didn't realise there was SO much to learn about clouds

spring into summer

things are beginning to spring up everywhere - i love this time of year - life is so very evident (though missing an hours sleep is not quite as joyous an experience !)

i thank You God for most this amazing day:

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;

and for everything which is natural

which is infinite

which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;

this is the birthday of life and love and wings:

and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any

-lifted from the no of all nothing-

human merely being doubt unimaginably You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

eecummings

by the slowest route

i have been listening again to a bbc radio four programme broadcast in february called Three Men in a Float - it is a traveller's tale of three adventurers who journey across england from lowestoft to land's end in a fifties milk float - their antidote to a timestarved, speed fixated world is to trundle along at 15 miles an hour and 'see' england in a different light - author dan kieran, editor ian vince and technical genius prasanth visweswaran make a beautiful voyage of discovery as they 'go slow' and 'prove that dawdling serendipity makes for better travelling than planning and speed' - their strategy (if they have one) is enjoyment and humility - by day they revel in the oblique perspective that a less paced life offers - by night they throw themselves upon the mercy of strangers who allow them to charge up their milk float battery for the next day - listening again, i was struck by prasanth's beautiful descriptions of a world viewed in slower motion and by the generosity and kindness of those they met along the way - great to hear about such scandalous hospitality very much in evidence amongst the english - a real experience of listening pleasure - made me wonder why i cave in to the constant pressure to race through life at breakneck speed !

fledgling

i was reading yesterday about baby falcons and how they take their first flight - despite the dogged persistence of their parents, sometimes they wait an age before risking a launch - it has taken me a long while to begin blogging (despite the consistent nagging of many friends) - finally.......well.........here i go........not sure it will be an impressive launch........but i love that feeling of stepping off the edge of the world into nothingness beneath