Today I saw a bird flying. It was a little Sand Martin. I was lying on my back by the peaceful river. There was no sound except the birds’ tweeting-singing and the occasional plop from a fish in the river. The sun was in the west, hazy, the sky was a lovely pale blue, a few high wispy clouds and a slight warm wind blowing from the west. The bird was soaring and then, for about 30 seconds, it was absolutely stationary, hovering, or rather a kite with wings outstretched, perfectly balanced, perfectly motionless, its weight of perhaps an ounce or two and its angle of attack against the gentle wind combining to make a perfect equilibrium, a glider at stalling point.
It didn’t need to flap its sharply-pointed wings. It was the perfect kite glider, saving energy just by pointing into the wind. It reveled in its absolute freedom in the air, maneuvering wherever and whenever it wanted, dashing about the sky incredibly fast – wheeling, banking, swooping, soaring, side-slipping – just about any move possible, short of a complete roll. It seemed to emulate the other Martins in its effortless and dizzying aerobatics, but they could never accidentally collide in midair. No flying insect was safe from this agile and voracious passerine.
This sight made me think of freedom and my travelling experiences in my life. I thought of a story I read in Australia, about one of the first settlers from Britain at the end of the eighteenth century. This young man had left home, and his loving mother, to seek a new life in a new country. His mother wrote to him a very loving and moving letter which showed her love but also her sacrificial character that wanted the best for her son. She wrote that she thought of him all the time, and that when she looked up and saw the sun shining in the sky, she realized it was the same sun that was shining on him and giving him its warmth and light all those thousands of miles away in Australia. That thought, she wrote, gave her the best comfort, even though she sadly knew that she would never see her son again.
Another tale I remembered was from a tough, rough Irish Republican man in Auckland, New Zealand. We were talking about travel and why we were both in New Zealand. His was a much longer story than mine and it turned out he had lived there for many years and had a business selling second-hand odds and ends from a market stall in Auckland. But at the end of our discussion, after I had told him my reasons for travel, he quoted to me what he said was a traditional old Irish blessing or farewell to travelers:
“May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, (and rains fall soft upon your fields)”. The last part he omitted but inserted instead: “ May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you’re dead!”.
Further quotes I have collected in my life, from an early age to recently:
“All things to nothingness descend
Grow old and die and meet their end;
Man dies, iron rusts, wood goes decayed,
Towers fall, walls crumble, roses fade….
Nor long shall any name resound
Beyond the grave, unless’t be found
In some clerk’s book; it is the pen
Gives immortality to men.”
For a long time I did not know the name of the author of this poem, which I first read at the age of about 20 and thought I would like as my own epitaph. Then not so long ago I discovered it was by a Norman cleric called Master Wace who wrote it in the 12th Century (much further back in history than I thought), along with a history of the Norman conquests. I like the thought that my name may be discovered “ in some clerk’s book” and therefore be passed on to posterity – although to update it, I hope my name will be discovered in my more recent poems, stories and reminiscences, in my laptop, pen drive or filing cabinet!
Another quote:
“It’s good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
Ursula K. Le Guin American writer born 1929.
This means a lot to me, I first came across the quote in my travels in Indonesia in 2008, which was a particularly significant period for me. I was learning that the journey mattered more than the end, as of course I didn’t know the end, and only wanted to keep travelling and learning as I did so, and if I’d known the end, maybe I wouldn’t have travelled at all.
Another quote:
“What saves a man is
To take a step
Then another step.
It is always the
Same step,
But you have to take it.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Wind Sand and Stars 1939)
(Translated from the French by Lewis Galantiere.)
I felt the wisdom of this quote immediately, when I read it also in Indonesia. I hadn’t yet read Saint-Exupery’s travel book or his famous “The Little Prince” and knew nothing about the author, but I realized that he had been through struggles and travails, as I had been and was continuing to be. It seems that my whole life has been one small trudging step after another, but I have made some progress late in life.
“Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Winston S Churchill.
Yes, I agree, this very much pertains to my life, and Success can be judged in many different ways, but I judge Success as Survival.
A further quote:
“What a difference a day makes – and the difference is YOU….Our life is only like a puff of smoke….our names may not always be remembered but the work of love and changes we’ve made will remain forever. Fill our days with spreading love, therefore, and the day we leave this world will be the day we make a difference to the world around.”
Yoz Tanuwiria. Jakarta Post. c 2009.
I don’t know if the (male) author of this quote, a journalist and reviewer on the Jakarta Post, had borrowed it from another source, but I love it. It completely sums up my own attitudes and beliefs, and I hope also my own practices. I do try to spread love as much as I can, I do try to make changes to the world around me if I see that as necessary and within my power to do so.
C. Tim Taylor. 2020