The world is changing. For change to happen, some things have to fall. We can rage against it, or we can treasure the moment, seek to inhabit it and note the tender beauty it contains.

Will and I took the canoe up Loch Eck on bonfire night, paddling into a sepia landscape of amber reflections and gold light holding the high hills. Just me and my son, heading for a stand of trees for shelter. We watched the stars come up, then appreciated the incongruous impromptu firework display set off by some revellers on the far side of the loch, each explosion rolling around the valley like ancient thunder.

The year is closing. Soon things will lie fallow for how else can we pause in order to consider anew our becoming? How else will new things rise?

Treasure the fading light as it closes softly onto the things that have been. New light is surely coming.