First Posted 20 September 2007

Stepping Out Of Reality, For A Moment

Current mood:contemplative

I was walking along the mile stretch, once again on my way to the gym. I barely noticed my walk through Chelsea Heights, I had put The Cure on my mp.3 player and was just enjoying the music of my youth. The cooler weather seems to bring out theGoth in me. I found myself, several times, singing out loud, probably off key and far louder than needed and had to stop myself out of embarrassment more than once when I suddenly looked up and saw people staring at me in disbelief along the way. As I rounded the housing project, the last buildings before the bay gets in the way, I noticed the sky. It stopped me dead in my tracks.

It was...astounding.

It was as if I walked into a Claude Monet painting. The sky was brilliantly coloured, tangerine, baby blue, dark blue, orange sherbet, yellow highlights, the clouds stretched into the horizon dappled by the paintbrush of that French master of colour and light. Honestly, it was exactly like his paintings only, I had to imagine the telephone poles as the Poplar trees the lined the Epte. Believe me, it didn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to feel myself strolling along the banks whilst the master painter created this scene, just for me.

There are times in my life, no matter how blue I feel, no matter how unhappy I have become, that I will happen upon a scene such as this and my heart, my soul, my very existence will soar up to the heavens and I know that beauty, love, life and true happiness actually exists in this world. That beyond all that we humans can conjure to destroy, to hurt, to hate, Mother Nature can still inspire awe, and love, and beauty and wipe away all that we mere mortals do to ruin things.

I remember when I saw Mars and Venus and the full moon over the still Atlantic ocean at dusk a few years ago. I was literally moved to tears at the beauty of that sight. The heavens aligning in perfect harmony, the colours, dark blue and purple in the east with a few of the brightest stars shining in the darkening sky, orange and yellow in the west gleaming off the wisps of clouds as the sun was setting and between the boundary line, the moon and the gods, brighter than all, sitting like jewels over the sea.

It was bliss. True bliss to witness this spectacle.

The storm I wrote about, recently, that was another beautiful moment, one that took my soul to new, terrifying places, terrifying and magnificent.

I got to the gym and worked out, noticing how busy it was in there and smiling to myself. I took my time at home getting ready, I took my time walking to the gym, and because of my tardiness, I got to see something spectacular. And no one there had a clue.

Today, was a beautiful day.