In Orbit.

On a balcony in Mainland China.

I watch the city scurry below me.  A sea of unknown faces carrying out a million agendas, each on another mission in another moment.  Some walk hand in hand with their companions.  Others hustle in the darkness, for their night is a working one.  Some prowl for gratification.  Others, like me, are spectators of this scene.  Yet now I am beyond wondering - for I am alone here.  My own universe.

Today is my birthday.  It is the third consecutive year that I have had my birthday cake on Mars.  The first was spent in the sands of the Middle East, the second lost on the dateline at cruising altitude, and now I sit in Guangzhou.  The clock ticks into another year - only 2 minutes remain until the significance of this day fades into historical footnote.  Another milestone in my personal history. 

In a few weeks I will be in the Middle East.  Then Europe.  Then Asia.  Then Australia.  *TiC ToC* 

Calls and messages filter through to me from those people in my life that matter half a world away in either direction, sending their greetings and salutations.  Each message asks me for my latest novelties.  A tale or two for dinner parties I will never be seated at.  I acknowledge their wishes, but I am underwater.  Blowing my bubbles in reply.  My present company is fleeting, reminding me of the one universal lesson of the road:  the people that I meet will always go their separate ways.

When solitude becomes the hallmark of your anniversaries, the distractions of celebrations fall by the wayside.  What remains is reflection - for what has been, what is, what may be.  On this day, my thoughts revolve around this island of existence:

What has been: An improbability.
What is: An impossibility.
What will be: A redefinition.

For tomorrow always brings a new dawn.