The rhythms of my life in Ghent are returning.  I’m falling into my home once again.

Here I am sitting on the terrace of T’Kanon café by the Leie River yesterday.  For two hours.  A small part of me says that’s too long, that I should be out and about doing useful things.  But I don’t want to be useful.  I want to watch the world flow by and talk to lovely people.

You may have heard about my seagull fetish.  I love watching them fly.  I sat down beside the river and waited.  For fifteen minutes there wasn’t a bird in sight – seagull, pigeon, mourning dove or duck.

The frantic part of my mind woke up, imagining a future of total bird absence.  “The gulls are gone and they’ll never come back!”  Silly mind, but actually fun to watch when it’s full speed ahead.

At about the 20-minute point, white wings zoomed low from behind.  A friend of mine.  During my stay I only saw ten gulls or so but that was enough.  My life is richer within the soaring.

There were faces everywhere.  My St. Bernardus beer and goose paté were enjoyed under the gaze of a green post on the railing – a post that was curious about me.  And as the terrace filled, couples chatted and held hands, groups of friends were silly together … and there were so many cigarettes being inhaled through so many lips.

In the photo, but hidden from view, is a wooden path by the river, stretching from the grey building to well past the weeping willow.  Celebrating humans eat and drink there with their friends, enjoying the tiny birds who float by.

Above the grey building to the left of the willow is my apartment, set back so there’s no river view, but I can feel the flow. UPDATE: I got the wrong grey building. My apartment is beyond the tree.

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Here I am … Belgium instead of Canada, Ghent instead of Belmont, London (Ontario) and Toronto.  Lucky me.  Ghent will be the centre of my universe until I say goodbye to this world.

About thirty years from now