I am setting out for the last time and I know this journey will end with my death. Oh come on, it’s not that sad. It will be joyous. We will learn together, walk together, we will peer into the void together. I have so much to tell you.

Let’s go now and find out where I want to take you. Our journey starts right here, in the centre of our being. It starts with our Souls. Inside is the mill where by hammer and by fire our attitudes are forged. Our Souls are not some sort of esoteric mystery, no they’re not. It is the music we make and the pictures we paint as we go about your daily round. Fire and ice, light and shade, it is the blade we cut through all of life’s ambiguities and disappointments. It is our last freedom.

There are many things you cannot change. Life’s unfairness is the only certainty, that and death, of course. Like a fog that rolls in and you cannot stop, its cold or its dark. It will creep in through window cracks and slip in under the door, the unfair fog will find you wherever you may hide. The only thing you have against such onslaught is your choice of attitude. For you, for me, that is our only weapon against adversity. Used deftly, our sharp sword can also peel and share an orange.

There are a few things we have to bring along with us on our final journey, the most important is our minds. Oh, yes both sides too, the left and the right. It’s fine to have the analytical side that weighs, measures and compares, but we are also going need that crazy side that creates and is compassionate. Like a sailing ship we are going to need both the rudder to steer us and the sails to drive us on. It’s no good sitting in the harbour pointing exactly at the gate knowing where to go but never leaving. It’s also dangerous to be at sea in full sail with no steerage. Wreckage on the rocks is our only certainty.

Ours will be a journey about balance. It profits us nought venturing into the wide blue yonder without paying good heed to our daily work, our family and our health. Every day we walk a tightrope, and if ever we should ever lose that poise, it could leave us hanging on to our sanity for dear life or even worse. It could plunge us into the dark abyss to be lost there forever. But even there, together, we can rehabilitate ourselves, forgive ourselves and steady ourselves, we can reignite our Soul’s candle and find our way back into the light.

There are times we are going to need rest, reflection. We must find those white spaces where we can consider the artist in you, the warrior and the saint. This journey must take us along the pathways of beauty and lead us to gardens both wild and wonderful and gardens carefully tended.

So shall we depart? Come now and let’s march on joyously to our deaths, whenever that may come. Want some orange?