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Jim McCrory

Return to Innocence: Life's Fleeting Moment

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Image kindly provided by https://unsplash.com/@norfolkboy14


I see McDonald’s is using Enigma’s Return to Innocence. Every time I hear it, a film begins to roll in my head.

In 1999, I found myself in a Norwegian Hytte (cabin) overlooking the  serene landscapes of Norway, amidst the rugged beauty of its fjords. One evening, as I sat in a spiritual moment, gazing out over the stillness, a profound sense of melancholy washed over me. Enigma’s haunting melody played softly in the background, as if narrating an unspoken drama that had long been waiting to unfold.

In that moment, an image and a sensation collided. It was something deeper than any golden-hour photograph or carefully rendered painting could capture. The sun, a radiant ball of compressed energy, began to descend, casting its golden light across the water. The world seemed to slow. The evening glow became sacred, almost eternal. As the sun kissed the fjord, the heaviness I had felt gave way to a deep, all-encompassing peace.

For that fleeting moment, I felt completely at one with creation. The boundary between myself and the world seemed to dissolve, leaving only the quiet hum of life. It was an experience that words can barely contain, yet it has never left me—a reminder of the stillness and connection we so rarely encounter in our busy lives.

I have longed to return to that place. But I never will. Still, I have returned to it in quiet moments of memory.


Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Jim McCrory, Friday, 6 June 2025, 08:05)
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Jim McCrory

Matsuo Bashō, Bless Him

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Friday, 20 Sept 2024, 10:27



Image kindly provided by https://unsplash.com/@fokin_k

 

I was thinking of the haiku I blogged on yesterday whilst having a coffee in Waterstones in Glasgow.

I was reading large book I took from the shelf called Haiku illustrated: Japanese Short Poems. It’s a nicely illustrated book and if my wife reads this, she may buy it for our forthcoming anniversary.

The haiku that caught the most attention was one of the early haikus in the book by Matsuo Bashō,


"On a withered branch

A crow has alighted—

Nightfall in autumn."


Here Bashō, juxtaposes nightfall with the emergence of winter. It makes me feel somewhat melancholy when I read it, and I would like to know how the poem plays on your emotions. Go on tell me, there are no wrong answers.

Funny, I enjoyed the poem so much, I shared it with a young lad who was browsing the shelves for books linked to his forthcoming literature degree.

Go on, share a poem, a piece of prose that had an impact on you. The thing about these chance encounters, they live in our head and we live in their heads.


Note: The haiku is not exactly the one in the book; the one quoted here is the public domain haiku

 


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