The trees in the garden have finally shed their leaves. We have had a long autumn here in Ireland but it finally begins to make way for winter. There is a certain sadness in seeing the yellow leaves and yet a beauty in the bareness of the branches. Two aspects of a life – it moves on and yet is fully here:

Why… Have a yearning for destiny?

…because being here amounts to so much, because all

this Here and Now, so fleeting, seems to require us and strangely

concerns us.  Us the most fleeting of all….

Having been once on earth – can it ever be canceled?

            Rainer Maria Rilke, The Ninth Duino Elegy