I am sitting here in Belfast and the sun is shining. It’s a welcome relief after a week of mad weather. Sunshine for two minutes followed by crazy downpours of cold rain and gusting winds. Today is calm and though not hot the sky is powder blue with wispy white floating clouds. Being Ireland, everyone is in small t-shirts, exposing themselves to the rays of a fickle summer.

In myself I am in a zone of transition. In my journal a few days ago I wrote, ‘I am in the space before…the part before. I am entering that place where endings and beginnings merge. Where great excitement and sleep-robbing adrenalin buzzes are interrupted by waves of sadness where tears tickle your tummy. . . The journey is changing shape. What awaits…’

‘The plans and possibilities are ultimately almost endless, but even within my boundaries are plentiful and abundant. Preparation is a process that has started…Part of the process is a mental/psychological one. The preparation for travelling solo. An exciting opportunity to meet people, connect, explore, be. The ‘shadow’ of loneliness dances nearby and has to be acknowledged, but not feared.’

Edward Abbey:
“There are lonely hours. How can I deny it? There are times when solitaire becomes solitary, an entirely different game, a prison term, and the inside of the skull as confining and unbearable as the interior of the house trailer on a hot day.”
“In the evenings after work I sit at the table outside and watch the sky condensing in the form of twilight over the desert. I am alone but loneliness has passed like a shadow, has come and is gone.”
(from ‘Desert Solitaire’)