It has been sometime since I last wrote. The inevitable brevity of a human life, set against the scale of the life of this universe, and the speed with which each moment passes, or appears to, has left me with quite a bit to tell.
Significantly, I have reached the 'half century' marker, which lengthens the odds of doubling my age by quite some margin to that of a 5 year old doubling theirs. I am not overly troubled by the end of this life, after all, no one worries much about the beginning. The end, being the flip side of the coin, should cause no more concern. Life, after all, is a great experience but it is very hard work, and I, for one, will not mind laying down the burden at some future, unspecified date and time.
27th August 2012, I started trading in a new business and new premises of my own. 'Trinity Atelier Hairspa' yes I know it sounds a bit pretentious but please let me explain. 'Trinity' is the name of the location, Trinity house, where the lighthouses were once administered from. After a brief spell as a museum, the site was purchased, for 'a song' by my landlord and is being brought back to life. 'Atelier' this french word describes the workshop/studio of an artisan and there is now a growing trend amongst some of the very best British hairdressers to move away from the high street business model to a more exclusive, smaller, design led working space. My own space was once a blacksmiths shop and it feels good to be doing something creative in that space, a poetic nuance?. Finally, 'Hairspa' This was a word/concept that I lifted directly from an  article I read in 'HJ' describing the philosophy of working with hair in a more holistic, caring and respectful way. To enable one to achieve great looking hair, that will, hopefully, give 'as many good hair days as possible, for the least amount of effort'.
My daughter is awaiting GCSE results and is about to embark on the 'college' phase of her life. Young, beautiful, smart, stylish and with a great head of hair! I believe that so equipped, she has a good chance of enjoying the next couple of years, with one caveat only, she has to treat the studying as if it were a job!
Were you aware that I am, and have always (more or less) been a keen cyclist? The last decade has seen me cover about 100,000 Kilometers and has seen me race, compete and complete some arduous events in Italy, France, Spain and the UK.
Its very hard to explain why one should enjoy the suffering of riding up hills, mountain passes, into headwinds and through torrential rain. I can only tell you that there are sublime moments where your physical presence in the landscape, your exertions, the bike with you upon it, the road and the elements (weather) are as one.
The time thing is unfolding and drawing me away from these moments of writing, I know I will be back but I cannot be sure when.....

The steps we take

Gifted with the ability to walk, where in your life will you go, have you been?. Have the steps you have taken brought you to a place of contentment? of fulfilment? Time and movement through time have brought me to this moment of reflection which I share with you now. In reality , it is the only moment I have, as all those which have led me here are now gone and those which may follow have not yet come to be. This is the place which, almost reveals to me a vastness which is both terrifying and liberating, such a paradox, the moment between one breath and another, the turning of the page, raising a foot to make another step, to where will it lead?

The lands end peninsula, almost as far south and west as you can go in the uk, a favorite of the second home owner, beautiful, rugged and for most of the year populated only by locals. Day to day life is generally not glamorous, money is tight, life is not easy, especially now and yet today was a day of a strange story unfolding.
The leisure center Penzance, only a few years old, pretty well equipped and possessing both a sauna and a steam room and it was in the sauna that the tale was told to me of a company contracted to provide security to a number of very wealthy families for whom the possibility of kidnap for ransom is very real.
The location of these families was not revealed to me nor was any explanation given for the divulgence of this information. The tale was told by a man of middle years, slack bellied but strong jawed, with an intriguing accent which, in my mind, had brought him from the pacific rim, via north america to our remote and sleepy town. A perfect place to hide?
With remote and isolated properties that do not appear on sat navs and are invisible to all but the most thorough search. Could west penwith become a hideout for the paranoid plutocrats?
I'll keep you posted...

The joys of winter

Lets face it, there aren't many great things about winter. For me it boils down to attitudinal shift, seeing the beauty and positive in a winters day rather than negative and decay or bareness.
Today, late November, cold and crisp with blue skies and sunshine, must rate as one of the easiest of winter days to find easy to like.
For me today was a cycle training day, taking me on an 80km loop down towards the lizzard. I love the feel of the sun on my face, the way the light illuminates the colour of the last few leaves on the trees, the way the land takes on a dormancy that you can sense, laying low and waiting for the (almost) inevitable movement of the earth taking us back towards the light from which all life and everything we have has flowed from.
3 weeks and 6 days to longest night, keeping the vigil.........

Our Present Hope

Present hope, a little paradoxical as hope has the connotation of a future outcome, wished and desired. Present is the continuously unfolding moment often barely acknowledged or fully experienced, so keen are we to be there, in the future where our hopes have all turned into a reality (of sorts)
For how long has humankind nurtured this longed for future where things will be better, easier, without fear, pain, hunger, danger, poverty..........the list could go on and on, you can add your own desires to it, then imagine this on a global scale, 6 billion plus humans, all desiring that there present hopes will become future realities.
Some might argue that for  some those present hopes of the past, have in fact, become the present realities of day to day life, the realities of abundant material wealth, science backed medicine, free education (whose agenda?) security, for some. What is the cost of the realization of all those past present hopes, culminating in a constantly unfolding now, now ,now.
It is the cost of all those present hopes that should concern us all.

We are reliably informed that all there is, is the present moment, the past has gone, committed to an uncertain memory, which will fade and decay with us. The future is not yet here and is in itself unknowable except through the medium of probability.
Seconds tick by with an increasing pressure for action ,movement and activity and once the moment has passed , it can never be reclaimed, rewound, replayed, edited or modified, all that we can do is watch to see where the ripples will spread and what other intertwined moments and actions it will collide with.
Awareness in the moment of action, easily written,incredibly hard to achieve, is, I believe the key to living without regret.