An incredible trip to Ireland and England with my dad, and yesterday I have returned home. We were in The Burren in Co. Clare for an Art of Hosting and then my dad and I drove to Armagh to see the house his great grandfather was born in. Along the way we met some distant cousins, found the graves of our ancestors and drove through the landscape of our history. Afterwards we went to Engalnd and stayed with friends in Hertfordshire where we lived 30 years ago. Met up with some old school mates, saw Spurs play a dreadful draw at White Hart Lane and caught up with old friends and colleagues.
Today one of our Art of Hosting participants sent this lovely John O’Donohue poem along. O’Donohue was a poet closely associated with The Burren and I read his work on friendship the whole time I was in Clare. This is a good way to come back home, with the memories of a great trip behind me.
Fluent
I would love to live
Like a river flows
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding
That is me at the moment, in the moment.
Long week here in Calgary and happy to be finally homeward bound. Starting with a quick flight over the mountains to Vancouver, train downtown, cab to Horseshoe Bay, followed by a ferry ride to Bowen and a quick ride home.
A poem from my travels this week in Calgary
What we were trying not to see
Behind us a cloud rimmed
By the electric light of a prairie spring’s
Sharp sunset casts a glow
On the towers downtown.
In that moment of reflection
A small truck carrying a small boat
Bolts over the Louise Bridge
Takes a hard right on Memorial Drive
And stops by the new sculpture
Full of quotes about war and loss.
“they’ve been pulling bodies from the Bow”
My companion says and I peer into
What little I can see of the churning
Waters below, wondering for a moment
How anyone could find anything as
Humble as a body in that flow.
Behind us the sun bends below the horizon
And the clouds clasp together to cloak
The twilight’s fading.
From the time I was a 10 year old kid, I have loved flight. It has been a dream come true that my work involves so much time in airports and on airplanes. Notwithstanding the rethinking I am doing about the carbon cost of my vocation, I’m in love with being in the air.
So I was delighted today to discover this blog: Flight Level 390. It is written by an experienced American pilot at a major airline (my guess is US Air) and the writing is as beautiful and clear as the skies he travels through. Lose yourself in it for a few hours.
At the end of a week in california with the family, capped off by some short hikes and a rock balancing session in Joshua Tree National Park. Beautiful, but disturbing. This photo is of a rock balanced at 4800 feet overlooking the Coachella Valley which is filled with smog that blows in from the Los Angeles basin. A little bit of balance restored.