skylark at sunset

I'm on the Scottish island of Iona, and I've just watched the sunset. It's a little after ten pm – amazingly long days this time of year – it's the end of May. Another beautiful sunset, and watching it I was set on top of a rather windy hill. And the whole time I was sitting there, watching the sun slowly sinking into the ocean, the whole time a skylark was singing away, somewhere up in the sky, I didn't spot it, but it was singing so merrily, so full of life. And listening to the skylark, as I was giving my thanks to the sun for lighting and warming a beautiful day, listening to the skylark, it felt like the little bird was really celebrating every minute of the day, right to the very end, and it touched me.

Sometimes I feel, in our mind, we get ahead of ourselves. We're thinking about tomorrow or the day after. We might be on holiday and instead of really enjoying it to the very end, perhaps a day or two early, we start thinking about the return journey, heading home, back to work perhaps. And in a way when we do this, we rob ourselves of those moments, and those days. It's so much better if we can just stay present with whatever's happening in the moment.

Then we can be like the skylark and really rejoice, and not miss the end, the end of the day, or the end of the holiday, or the end of life: you know the same as we get old. Let us really celebrate life until our very last breath, not start thinking ahead and feeling rather depressed about the fact that we are going to die. No, let's really live, until the very last moment.

Let's enjoy every day of our holidays. Let's enjoy every minute of every day. And rejoice, like this wonderful skylark, until the very end.