Endor

    New Zealand is known by many names.
    To the Maori who first discovered these islands, it will always be Aotearoa - which, when translated literally, means "long white cloud."
    Because earthquakes are not unknown here - we've gone through three so far and have only been here since mid-June - New Zealand is also known as "The Shaky Isles."
    It's sometimes referred to as "Middle Earth" by fans of "The Lord of the Rings."
    My favorite: "The Land Down Under and Over a Bit," which is how someone corrected me when I mistakenly referred to New Zealand as "The Land Down Under" back when I didn't know any better.
    There are times, however, when I'm standing in just the right spot on the porch in the early morning that I think of it as the forest moon of Endor. The mist obscures the town below; the trees are so thick you can't see your neighbors, the bird calls are otherworldly and I feel like that lone sentry standing guard in "The Return of the Jedi."
    It's on mornings such as these that I let my mind just run where it will for a while and, despite my advanced age, be a kid again ready to do battle against the forces of evil, save the world (whichever world I happen to be on in my imagination) and, depending on just how old I am at the time, get a kiss from the Princess Dejah Thoris.(Yeah, I was an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan as a kid and Dejah seemed to be the princess of just about every planet I was on...)
    I don't often get a chance to do that these days... there are always things that need doing, places that need to be gone to and people I need to see for one reason or another; all of which makes me thankful for mornings such as these in places such as this.