"Want to do good in the world? Do good today, rather than putting it off till you "have more time". Want to create something beautiful? Create it now.Want to mend bridges with an old foe? Mend them this instant, while both of you are able to totter over them together. Want to tell someone you love them? Seize the moment. It may not come again.
Some day, if you are lucky, you'll return from a thunderous journey trailing snake scales, wing fragments and the musk of Earth and moon. Eyes will examine you for signs of damage, or change and you, too, will wonder if your skin shows traces of fur, or leaves, if thrushes have built a nest of your hair, if Andromeda burns from your eyes.
Do not be surprised by prickly questions from thosewho barely inhabit their own fleeting lives, who barely taste their own possibility, who barely dream. If your hands are empty, treasureless, if your toes have not grown claws, if your obedient voice has not become a wild cry, a howl, you will reassure them.
We warned you, they might declare, there is nothing else, no point, no meaning, no mystery at all, just this frantic waiting to die. And yet, they tremble, mute, afraid you've returned withoutsweet elixir for unspeakable thirst, without a fluent dance or holy language to teach them, without a compass bearing to a forgotten border where no one crosses without weeping for the terrible beauty of galaxies and granite andbone.
They tremble, hoping your lips hold a secret, that the song your body now sings will redeem them, yet they fear your secret is dangerous, shattering, and once it flies from your astonished mouth, they—like you—must disintegrate before unfolding tremulous wings."
Geneen Marie Haugen's: The Return
Sage words indeed; although this picture seems to sum up another way of looking at things. What will be of more interest is how this trip pans out. But more to follow on that later in the week, as the plan is to now update the blog daily and also to use Twitter as much as possible on the ice.
