Time and Tide Wait for No Man...

As Summer turns and September begins to advance toward Autumn I'm always aware of the shift in season and sense of change that brings.  A time to consider how the rhythm of life goes on and nothing stays the same.  Locally to where I live is the charming and historic village of Bosham, situated on a peninsula between two tidal creeks, near Chichester in West Sussex.  Dating back to Saxon times this is the location where King Canute ordered the tide not to come in, as a lesson in mortality to his courtiers to prove he was 'just a king' and did not have special powers.  Irrespective of how we may try and control events in our own lives at some point it's necessary to acknowledge the need to 'go with the flow'.

I find it fascinating how Bosham has been a settlement for over a thousand years and with that the perpetual cycle of life through the ages.  A busy port at the time of the Crusades in the 12th Century it was traditional for Crusaders returning home from Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire to blunt the edges of their swords on the stones of the first church they came to.  Consequently to this day these marks of the cross can still be seen in the stone arch entrance to Bosham church.  Such a tangible connection with lives past across the centuries and realisation that we are each on this earth for a limited time.  Best then to make the most of every day and be aware of what's important. 

This poem called Late Fragment by Raymond Carver, who died at the age of 50, certainly makes you stop and reflect:

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.