Self-Closing Door

Seagulls are self-confident to the point of arrogance. House sitting here in Spain, a nest on the roof contains two baby gulls and the fraught parents dive kamikaze like over the terrace every time I sit down to sip a glass of cava (Spanish champagne for those who don’t know, same grape, better taste due to more sun). I dreamed of sitting on that terrace writing my new novel long longhand like a Zen monk and the squawking gulls have forced me back inside – where it’s easier to concentrate. Is there a lesson here? Lao-tsu wrote: a self-closing door needs no bolt, and I have always wondered what it meant.