It’s the only place to start. The beginning of the day and the start of the trip back to England, the country of my young womanhood.
I don’t usually sit by the window when we fly together. Towards the end of our flight, Steve had got up to stretch his legs and I picked up my camera and slid across to his seat. I looked out of the window as we flew into the morning, nearing the shores of the British isles. Just then I was startled to see, out of the corner of my eye, a flash, almost like a flame coming from the jet engine under the wing. It was glowing with the reflected sunrise just as if on fire. Such golden promise for the future.
And so the day began, with the rising sun appearing over the blue and white cloud layer beneath. A dawn in the sky has such an immense purity about it, with all of the earthly complexities rolling and tumbling beneath the clarity of the still sky blue yonder. This so well describes our stories as we recall and relate them, with their moments of supreme clarity shining still through the confusion beneath that threatens to suck them under.
My England always has an airplane at the beginning and at the end of it. And I remembered back to where I was many years ago, sitting in an airplane flying from Montreal to London for the very first time. So this return would be a trip for memories and for clarity. I really wanted to cut through to the essence and this dawn was the way to begin, before we started our bumpy descent through the ever present cloud layer lying over England.
Hello Ellie, just sitting in the subway train on my way to one of the schools where I am teaching since fall and found a little time to read your post! So nice images that take me with them on several memories… I hope your health improved in the meantime (I have read the comments above) I am not really happy about not being able to catch up with friends since I am always so busy and lot of stress accompanies me. I have nearly no time at all for G+ and many other things still keep waiting to be finished. But otherwise I’m fine so far. Hugs!
How wonderful to hear from you my dear Ursula! I hope that you are well and it certainly sounds as if you have been very busy, though I’m sorry it is stressing you. That’s not good for the health, so I hope it soon becomes less stressful. Thank you for the lovely message. Hugs back to you! xo
Beautiful shots, Ellie! Have a fabulous time!!!
Thanks so much Sharon. I have been and now returned, it has just taken a little longer than I had anticipated to start to get my thoughts together and processed (along with the photographs).
Your memory, so beautifully captured in word and image, sparked mine. Three months out of high school, I found myself on a plane on the way to Scotland. I had the aisle seat in the very last row…and a guitar. I played and sang for most of the night to clapping, singing-along, fellow passengers. Those were the days my friend…we thought they’d never end…we’d sing and dance forever and a day…
Oh my Sandra! I am just feeling as if I was sitting right across the aisle from you with my own guitar and singing along. 😀 Those were indeed, the days, my friend! Thanks for enhancing my own memories! I am still singing and dancing in my heart.
I hope you were very careful when you took that photo of the engine Ellie! Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner.
Two lovely photos and, just occasionally, the cloud does disappear over England!
Hugo, you know me, I am known for being careless about hanging out of airplane windows! I know full well how the cloud does disappear from time to time. I was there during the two ‘drought’ years in the 70’s when my baby daughter didn’t know the word ‘rain’ until she asked me what to call the drops that fell on her. Yes, it’s true! And we had blue skies the whole of the ‘official’ visit this time, but it deteriorated quickly once I became sick and our return was delayed. It was as if the country was in mourning, covered in a murky fog. (I heard from somewhere that this fog was sent over from Paris. I kid you not!)
Nice to hear from you my friend!
testing to see what went wrong