Wednesday 15th March

The spring arrived this morning. I felt it when I woke up. Of course, my untrusting cerebral mind required visual evidence, but a glance out the window only confirmed what the body already knew. The body is extraordinarily intelligent in its own way. Just take the incredible workings of the internal organs, which (thankfully) do not require the slightest intervention by our conscious minds. My eldest daughter (the doctor) says that, the more you learn about the workings of the human body, the greater the sense of amazement and wonder. But the body lives a lonely life, largely ignored or even abused by the so-called "higher functions".
I took the bike to work, ostensibly to avoid the trafic inevitably associated with a nine o'clock start, but really in order to participate fully in the magic of the new season. Although the air was still cold, the sun was already quite high in the sky and the birds were all singing away for all they were worth. At times like this, one gets the beginnings of a sense of what is meant by "the miracle of life". The body active and alive, the heart buoyed up by a spirit of optimism, the mind relaxed but alert.

Inspired by this enhanced state of awareness, a little poem popped out of the woodwork, influenced to a degree by the Danish poet , "Piet Hein" and his celebrated "Grooks".

If I say

I was lost in thought

I got carried away

I disappeared into a book

Where should I have been?

A poem is a machine

To return us to ourselves

Here

Now

I am

Beside myself with joy