"Our Revels, Now Not Ended...."

Okay. So I took a liberty that I wouldn't take if I was actually performing "Tempest".

"Our revels now are ended.  These our actors, 
As I fortold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air ...."

I should actually get on stage and perform this, I think I'm just the right age to give Prospero a good run. There was a chance recently and I didn't get organized enough in time to try it.

My revels are ended. My 56th birthday passed with working on Wednesday, an impromptu dessert and sushi dinner, then a tango practica.

Thursday was a late start, a tango lesson, walking a dog, climbing a mountain and cuddling a three-year old with a boo boo.  A nap by the road, a tango class and a short, tossing night.

And here I am.  Back to normal. A run to Trader Joe's, a last dessert and then a return to the regimen of  Persian cucumbers, hummus, muffins, almonds, fruit smoothies and apples for the forseeable future....

.... and yet, somehow "normal" isn't the same as it was before these events.

There seems to be more chocolate in my glass of milk - somehow the flavor of life has suddenly ratcheted up.

We live our lives in our bodies and I seem to be much more present in mine. So if my physical presence is more, well, present, then the more psychological/emotional part may be connecting better as well.

I'm not really sure if people can fundamentally change, but I very sure that they can learn new ways of being. If there is a voice inside that sends me East when my true self points North, then I can learn to continue around the compass to point back true to North again.

My friends, from tango partners to professional colleagues to three-year-olds with boo boos - all of them are both signposts and destinations. I see my progress on my journey in their faces and thoughts as I pass - and they are also welcome hostels of grace, offering the traveler refreshment, information and the occasional tour of a beauty spot.

So I suspect the trip will continue, a moveable, constant birthday party, like the steps in a well-done tango. Each movement is blended into the one before it. Where you are serves as the rooted source of the next step's energy.

Now I have to work on music.The piece below needs a remix and new ones crowd my poor brain.