The Wheel Turns Once More

"It's my belief that history is a wheel. 'Inconstancy is my very essence,' says the wheel. Rise up on my spokes if you like but don't complain when you're cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it's also our hope. The worst of time, like the best, are always passing away."

-Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus)

So here we are, back again. Following the even 50 posts of the 180 days abroad at the other place, it is time to return to the anonymity of this little space, to record the sporadic humdrum musings that occur as inevitable voyages to come are planned within these office walls.

The time on the road was indeed happy, the lessons great, the people captivating, and the random women beautiful, in all their mystery. You take a long time to think about where you are and find yourself happily right where you must be. We do not change, though we learn and experience and age. A comforting thought, I suppose, when looked at in the right light.

The familiar tasks begin anew - the marking of days on a spare pad of empty white paper, the dreams of flights and calculation of itineraries, the ridiculously bold ideas. Words as ever providing their inspiration:

"If you have the chance the best time to visit is Carnival. There is nothing in
the whole wide world like Carnival in Rio."

It may yet prove a too-expensive way and time to visit. But then, when have such constraints hindered the traveler in search of uniquely spirited moments? The flickering water in the harbour below smiles on this lovely day. Back to work I must, for the moment. Day-dreaming ever-always of what is next. Even as, surely, the epic nature of this start to 2010 cannot be denied.

I love these trips that seem to decide themselves. Will February 11 be another date of longing? I do hope so.