All things this way must pass

This was not taken in a cemetery. This farmer chose to be buried in his field, and for eternity keep a watchful eye on his ancestors as they till the soil. The inscription on the gravestone roughly translates as: All things this way must pass.

I pass it on my daily walk, and it always provokes contemplation.

Today I finished final revisions on my new book, Entry Island. I have been working on it for about fifteen months, and finally I think I have the book I was trying to write - the most difficult and ambitious I have ever attempted. I feel drained, as if I had run several marathons.

I will pass the way of this farmer one day, too, but hope that like him I will have left something to provoke contemplation (the book was inspired by The Clearances) .