And so it begins.....

Tuesday 20th March 2012

This is new chapter of life. Julius Lumsden is writing a Blog! How did that happen? Why is this interesting to anyone? I ask my self. Trust me, I think that as I type.

I called it An Englishman Abroad, a wandering spirit. That would be true for me as life unfolded. It all began with a poem, yes a poem .Rainer Maria Rilke's “ The Dove that ventured outside” spoke to my heart. I knew its truth then as I do today. This would be my life lesson.

“Dove that ventured outside, flying far from the dovecote:

housed and protected again, one with the day, the night,

knows what serenity is, for she has felt her wings

pass through all distance and fear in the course of her wanderings.

The doves that remained at home, never exposed to loss,

innocent and secure, cannot know tenderness;

only the won-back heart can ever be satisfied: free,

through all it has given up, to rejoice in its mastery.

Being arches itself over the vast abyss.

Ah the ball that we dared, that we hurled into infinite space,

doesn't it fill our hands differently with its return:

heavier by the weight of where it has been.”

I lived the poem. I recognized that it at eighteen, while a student at Oxford University and it remains true today as a I write this first page of my new blog.......