Adjoining the common lament that, “You can’t have it all!” is the stabilizing knee-jerk revival that, “I wouldn’t change shoes with anyone!” One’s occasional decline to comparative want is inevitably triumphed by the acknowledgement of comparative completeness. The admission of this incongruity of yearning and fulfillment is what succeeds to project one to seek fulfillment at every turn. It is also a recognition of the unfathomable complexities of achievement. Ofttimes the surge of contemplation is such that it entirely removes the credibility of any restraint upon satisfaction. In short, the direness of life is eclipsed by its wonder.
To resist life’s imperative to enjoy the view is a reminder that we are incapable of transitioning from a weed to a flower. And it is a cue that all will change.
Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 KJV
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them…
There is no pharaoh, king, president, ruler or industrialist from the past who is any longer whinnying among us. The pyramids, castles, fortresses and mansions have crumbled. And likewise the blooms of the dandelion have turned to seed and blown away. What however remains within each of us for the present moment is the ability to strengthen our perceptions and expand our view. If one hasn’t the strength to travel upriver against the flow – or even to swim within its body in whatever direction works – then sit upon its banks and watch what transpires beneath the fleeting clouds and the yellow sunshine.
The depth of magnificence is incomparable on a day such as today. After what had proven overnight to be a tangled collection of thoughts, predictions and impossible rumination, and suffering upon awakening from the restless seemingly interminable sleep, I gathered myself with forced application sufficiently from the outset to undertake my routine 4Km tricycle ride about the neighbourhood.
What a day it was! Though the temperature had fallen sharply from only hours before, the air was exceedingly wholesome. There wasn’t a cloud in the heavens, nothing but an azure dome above to the vast horizon below. In keeping with what I value of country living I stopped to chat briefly with an elderly couple whom I had seen before but to whom I had never spoken before other than to share a cheery “Good morning!” As coincidence would have it they most recently hale from New Brunswick (my father’s former turf) where the gentleman was engaged as an insurance agent for 40 years. He blandly acknowledged that, as much as they adore Almonte, they would yet have lingered in New Brunswick had they not two boys living in the immediate area. Such are the provocations of aging that family unwittingly overtakes all other necessities and preferences.
Confronted as I was on this superlative day of exceptional scenery with the rich ingredients of natural perfection, gentle familiarity and overall smugness, I supplanted in my mind any hint of relocation over vacation. There are boundaries for everything in life, not only what we consume from the table but also what we get from the soul. And pragmatically addressing the topic is the admission that the appetites for each change with time and in turn predict both content and duration, features which invariably characterize the mood as worthy or sustainable.