Something Else

Monday 15 May 2017 I woke up suddenly at 5 am this morning, rested, refreshed, ready for the lovely day promised by both the birds songs and the clear pervasive sunlight. It was a morning with no shadows, a ulyssean dawn shining with possibilities. What was there not to hope for? Bur something else happened... I was not alert to the change: I was still living inside my expected day, unaware of a shift that ran through space and made time accept a different outcome from the beginning I had witnessed, as I stood on my balcony at dawn. The sky darkened, The rain fell around 1 pm, just enough to spoil a family's picnic, or make eager revelers disband. We were sheltered from it, eating our lunch, enjoying our conversation. We deftly attuned ourselves to the day's changing melody, perhaps singing new lyrics to a familiar song we know by heart. That's how we live, that's how we thrive... But still the day had been consecrated doe a different purpose, a purpose shaped and rehearsed in my mind, as I looked into the early light from my balcony. It was already half-lived as I thought my way through its natural wonders, across its various places, fully satisfied by its calm and riot, those twin experiences of Spring becoming Summer. That may be a sufficient explanation. But I see Ulysses striding the length of his lone ship, exhorting his tired men, 'Stay true to your sworn purpose, keep hope alive, and you will see your Ithaca again! ' Did I surrender too quickly in these latter days of ease? Did I abandon the consecrated day as if it were just an ordinary day?