For the Auld years......

Xmas!
Nothing like it!
The sounds and thoughts of yesterday drowned in the pleasure and excitement of new spaces and places.
So what does it mean?
What is Xmas?
A time for lost souls to return to the fold?
Sometimes the fold has gone and reminiscences of such times are colored by the rose of glasses.....
For now it is a time of  slight emptiness
Without the people who have been part of your life
Who have helped to shape and warp that life
But are nevertheless still there.....
And I have found the Auld country
And tiny Scottish pubs
With the Lilt of voices soothing in their accents
But surrounded by a harsh existence
Of the sea
Of battles fought
Confrontation
Of the sea
Of the British
Of feudal arguments
And the I buildings echo the strength required by the people.
It is cold
The wind blows
The sea belts against the rocks
Just as  the country shapes its folks
A bare chested man in Edinburgh beckons his mates to fight....
Then closes them to his chest
A beaten woman screams abuse at the abuser
Then berates the police who seek to rescue her
Half naked people scream at the weather as they leap into the freezing waters of the Forth
The East Neuk Dook
But I have found real bread
And haggis and tatties
Eaten the freshness of blood pudding
But the harsh world
Shapes my thoughts.....

But I don’t want to r3uurn to the sunshine
Let me be
A fifth generation Australian
Searching in the world of my ancestors
For. Meaning
An understanding
Of where I am