Why Seagulls Can Fly or making my way back to real life
Did summer seem short to you this year? It did to me; I would say it was the shortest ever. The time sped by and here it is September with all that implies. Thinking back to those long hot days, what I remember most is the ease, the flow. I met old friends and time stretched out to include a stay at the beach, a cottage, kayaking, long walks and good books. I worked, spent time in the garden, enjoyed my grandchildren and ice cream. Everything fit together and I felt my shoulders relax.
Then the calendar changed and it’s September with its commitments, garden pack up, dark mornings and early evenings. What happened? It’s still hot, it still feels like summer and yet somehow things have changed.
Wait. I want to keep soaring on the thermals, letting time move past me like a breeze not a tornado. At the beach in Port Stanley the last week of August I watched the seagulls. They are such a presence in the sand and in the air. I would walk toward them and they would rise up in front of me, settling back on the sand behind me, no feathers ruffled. I was just part of their day. Maybe that is the way to keep summer with me. Follow the wind, rise to the challenge and settle back down with my feet in the warm sand when it is past. No anticipation of what it will mean, just fly.
I have heard the reason seagulls can fly is they take themselves lightly. It isn’t that I don’t want summer to end, I love fall and winter, but I don’t want the idea of summer gone from my life. I want to stay in that flow and perhaps take myself lightly.