The early hours are best spent outdoors whenever possible I have come to believe. When the light has slipped in  quietly bringing a warm pink to the treetops and the mist sits like  gauze in the shadows, the wind rustles the dry leaves, geese bleat as they arrive on the water, late autumn on the lake is a time to treasure.  The loons remain and on lucky days I spend some time in their company I have become a familiar sight, one to be ignored primarily which tells me I am doing it right.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours, staying until my fingers were too cold for function. There was magic  in the light and reflections, the perfect stillness of the morning and it was hard indeed to leave.

I have fallen shamefully behind on my schedule for painting but soon the time inside will be far greater than out and I will be grateful for work that is waiting. Ideas are simmering. Color combinations are introducing themselves and if I can hold them in memory I can attempt to produce them again on the palate and on the canvas.

I have been captivated by the loons, so iconic of Canadian wilderness considered the be primarily solitary, the pair I have shared time with this summer have pictured elegance and grace, and in their company I feel such ease.  Rarely have I seen them together as much as these past days of colder weather and shorter light and I wonder if the migration day is soon.

Life is change, the seasons, the light, the experiences though sometimes repeating are never of course exactly the same. In every familiar moment there is also the possibility of something brand new.  In my extended family, beginnings and endings are layering in some dramatic ways. It is all part of the nature of life which includes the inevitable challenging, exhilarating and compelling sense of change that equals the electricity of knowing you are alive.  My best learned secret is when it begins to feel overwhelming, trust your deepest self.  Float, close your eyes, take a breath, stretch your wings and let the current guide you. ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience’ much of which seems solitary, and yet we remain connected.