As I was driving home from Liverpool today I got to thinking about time. A thought resurfaced which kind of went ....funny how it is that the older I become how the months and years somehow go quicker. When I was younger time seemed a commodity that I had in excess, it was something I squandered.
Now in my battered old car, driving down the A55 I wonder about the strange phenomenon of shrinking time, and as fate would have it a tune came on the radio by Elbow, it is called 'The time of our lives'. I didn't really listen to it properly until the lyrics ' Stitching us in to this tapestry vile' came to me like a siren call and suddenly my thoughts turned to Africa.
Last year I was in Africa. I was in Africa until May. I had gone to Africa the year before to fulfil a long held wish to have an adventure, go travelling. The trip had been talked about for years, it had taken a year to plan, then off I went. I travelled over 16,000 miles across Africa. I have never known such freedom. I may never know it again because now I am back home my friends and family talk about my adventure as 'a trip of a lifetime', which to me translates into that's enough of that malarky and I should settle back to down being part of life's rich tapestry, a tapestry that includes doing 'normal stuff.
But what do you do when life's rich tapestry becomes the 'tapestry vile' that Guy Garvey sings of? And how on earth do we so often find ourselves stitched in to it? Ask yourself how many times have your feet walked a path not your own? How many times have you colluded with a part of yourself that stops you from pulling loose the thread and allowing yourself to be someone else?
I pulled the thread and off I went. Looking back on how people reacted to this I can see that those who wished me well were those who also wished to do the same if only life would let them, and although for whatever reasons life wouldn't let them they would have an adventure by proxy, they would tag on to my exploits and feel the joy and fear as I experienced it. Those who were less than happy about my departure were truly rattled, at first I thought it was because they were concerned that I might die but then I realised it was more to do with the fact that the hole in the tapestry that I left behind made them nervous. Not because they missed me, although I believe they did, but because it shook the order of things, the plan, the weave and weft of life.
When I returned, I was different, I am different. Cutting loose and experiencing freedom has given me what my Grandfather would call a 'weather nose', which means the ability to smell a change in the weather, in my case having a 'weather nose' means sniffing for a change in the weather so that I can run away with the circus again. I have tried to be part of the tapestry again but somehow the needle keeps dropping the stitches and I find myself with one foot out the door.
Have you ever itched to run off and join the circus, to have the time of your life? Are your wings folded so tightly that it would take a crow bar to loosen them so you could unfold them? Have a listen to Elbow's song and just think about what you are doing with the most precious commodity you have right now....your time....and ask yourselves are you having the time of your lives? Do you have a 'weather nose' and if you do is it perfect weather to fly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDQVIim8fr8&noredirect=1
Now in my battered old car, driving down the A55 I wonder about the strange phenomenon of shrinking time, and as fate would have it a tune came on the radio by Elbow, it is called 'The time of our lives'. I didn't really listen to it properly until the lyrics ' Stitching us in to this tapestry vile' came to me like a siren call and suddenly my thoughts turned to Africa.
Last year I was in Africa. I was in Africa until May. I had gone to Africa the year before to fulfil a long held wish to have an adventure, go travelling. The trip had been talked about for years, it had taken a year to plan, then off I went. I travelled over 16,000 miles across Africa. I have never known such freedom. I may never know it again because now I am back home my friends and family talk about my adventure as 'a trip of a lifetime', which to me translates into that's enough of that malarky and I should settle back to down being part of life's rich tapestry, a tapestry that includes doing 'normal stuff.
But what do you do when life's rich tapestry becomes the 'tapestry vile' that Guy Garvey sings of? And how on earth do we so often find ourselves stitched in to it? Ask yourself how many times have your feet walked a path not your own? How many times have you colluded with a part of yourself that stops you from pulling loose the thread and allowing yourself to be someone else?
I pulled the thread and off I went. Looking back on how people reacted to this I can see that those who wished me well were those who also wished to do the same if only life would let them, and although for whatever reasons life wouldn't let them they would have an adventure by proxy, they would tag on to my exploits and feel the joy and fear as I experienced it. Those who were less than happy about my departure were truly rattled, at first I thought it was because they were concerned that I might die but then I realised it was more to do with the fact that the hole in the tapestry that I left behind made them nervous. Not because they missed me, although I believe they did, but because it shook the order of things, the plan, the weave and weft of life.
When I returned, I was different, I am different. Cutting loose and experiencing freedom has given me what my Grandfather would call a 'weather nose', which means the ability to smell a change in the weather, in my case having a 'weather nose' means sniffing for a change in the weather so that I can run away with the circus again. I have tried to be part of the tapestry again but somehow the needle keeps dropping the stitches and I find myself with one foot out the door.
Have you ever itched to run off and join the circus, to have the time of your life? Are your wings folded so tightly that it would take a crow bar to loosen them so you could unfold them? Have a listen to Elbow's song and just think about what you are doing with the most precious commodity you have right now....your time....and ask yourselves are you having the time of your lives? Do you have a 'weather nose' and if you do is it perfect weather to fly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDQVIim8fr8&noredirect=1
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