The greatest gift, the highest price

It's so beautiful out here, every time I come I feel compelled to write... It's like my brain can disentangle its neurons.

I feel so dirty in the city; such a hypocrite; trapped.

Out here there is freedome to breathe and think. I can hear the blowies zzzzZZZZZzzzzz past my ear, madly chasing the next patch of filth. It's like being at a RAAF airbase for flies!

I feel my whole body unravells out here. My stomach unclenches, my eyebrows stop frowning with effort to block out the endless noise arising from the city.

Oh, this is great peace. It is me, it is in me. It is my love beyond others.

********

A butterfly alights on a rock, sunning, drying newfound wings - a gifted jewel beyond estimation for the lowly, belly-rubbing caterpillar. Oh to fall asleep and awake with an iridescent, varicoloured gift of flight. Is that not the greatest gift of all? The ultimate freedom...

And yet, as with all beauty, so heavy is the price. The butterfly lives but a few days, and then it returns to the earth. Is this the lesson for us? You may have Nirvana, your heart's desire, but there is always an equal price.

So true - with love. The blissful, intoxicating, all consuming feeling; it is truly the greatest feeling of all. The cost though, is inevitable heartache.

The pain of separation from that which is loved is beyond words, for the love becomes a way of being - it is the skin, the body, the physical and psychological self through which the lover exists. How then can it be a surprise that when this is removed, the person is bereft of all but rudimentary functioning?

Quotes from the Edinburgh Comedy Festival 2006

I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a goat.

Marcus Brigstocke at the Assembly Rooms

>

Cats have nine lives. Which makes them ideal for experimentation.

Jimmy Carr

>

The right to bear arms is slightly less ludicrous than the right to arm bears.

Chris Addison at the Pleasance

>

My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of our family holidays in Immigration.

>Patrick Monahan at the Gilded Balloon

>

The dodo died. Then Dodi died, Di died and Dando died. Dido must be sh*tting herself.

Colin & Fergus at the Pleasance

>

My parents are from Glasgow which means they're incredibly hard, but I was never smacked as a child... well maybe one or two grams to get me to sleep at night.

Susan Murray at the Underbelly

>

Is it fair to say that there'd be less litter in Britain if blind People were given pointed sticks?

Adam Bloom at the Pleasance

>

You have to remember all the trivia that your girlfriend tells you, because eventually you get tested. She'll go: "What's my favourite flower?" And you murmur to yourself: "Sh*t, I wasn't listening... Self-raising?"

Addy Van-Der-Borgh at the Assembly Rooms

>

I saw that show, 50 Things To Do Before You Die. I would have thought the obvious one was "Shout For Help".

Mark Watson, Rhod Gilbert at the Tron

>

I went out with an Irish Catholic. Very frustrating. You can take the Girl out of Cork...

Markus Birdman at the Pod Deco

>

Got a phone call today to do a gig at a fire station. Went along. Turned out it was a bloody hoax.

Adrian Poynton at the Pleasance

>

Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.

Demetri Martin at the Assembly Rooms

>

A dog goes into a hardware store and says: "I'd like a job please". The hardware store owner says: "We don't hire dogs, why don't you go join the circus?" The dog replies: "What would the circus want with a plumber". Steven Alan Green at C34

>

It's easy to distract fat people. It's a piece of cake.

Chris Addison at the Pleasance

>

I enjoy using the comedy technique of self-deprecation - but I'm not very good at it.

Arnold Brown at The Stand

>

If you're being chased by a police dog, try not to go through a tunnel, then on to a little seesaw, then jump through a hoop of fire. They're trained for that.

Milton Jones at the Underbelly