In Flight

Howth, Ireland

There's a lonely seagull flying above the shore.

The wind is icecold and stinging as it blows through his fluffy feathers. The water is deep blue and changes from navy to gray to white as it builds itself up to big crashing waves, flooding the beach, banging against the resting ships, letting them rock back and forth in the harbour where they are at anchor.

The seagull is circuitung the bay and the beach. The cold wind is still painful as he turns around and heads to the open sea. The ships, blue, red and green, with their fluttering flags and sails, begin to shrink. So high above, the ocean is only a huge carpet of blue and white, changing its patterns from a second to another.

The houses by the beach and the people on the boats are getting smaller and smaller, the colours are merging into each other as if someone took a brush and blurred them with water. The waves around the bay used to be so light and crystal clear, nearly glittery, glossy, reflecting the warm sunshine breaking through the clouds. But nothing changes quicker than the sea. The next storm is never far away.

At last, the land disappears. The green fields with the small wooden houses. The darkgreen trees and the yellow genista flowers, the icey rivers and swollen highways with those moving fuzzy lights on them. Like fireflies they followed the streets and paths of the little town when the sun sets and it gets darker.

In the end, the main land is just a grey streak at the horizon.

He is on his own. Leisurely the seagull flies over the ocean. The only thing he feels is the wind that carries him over the waves, the wind that is playing with his wings. What's coming next? It seems like the sea is endless, one wave chasing another, the storm, the trouble of crashing and sinking. But as long as the wind and the air are still there to keep him by the clouds, he will reach the main land again, so he just spreads out his wings again and again, softly steering, smoothly gliding, taking in the view.

It is a lonely journey above the ocean.