At the risk of sounding like a broken record may I just say again how grateful I am that it’s Friday? The week flew by relatively quickly–too quickly in some ways–but I am glad to have a couple of days when I’m not rushing off to another meeting. I had three meetings on my calendar and went into a fourth that was going to be “quick” but ended up lasting about an hour and a half. All four of the meetings were important, productive (broadly defined), and generative. I could not have spent my time better than I did today (well unless perhaps I was having a massage or doing something equally therapeutic.)
I am tired. It’s been a long week, some of which was spent in traffic. I keep a log of my commute–I got into the habit when earlier in the year I worked as a consultant and commuted over 20 miles one way to where I was doing my contract work. So I know how far I drive each day and week and how long it takes me. I suppose it probably seems a bit anal, my record keeping, but I like being able to calculate how much time I spend driving each day. I haven’t figured out averages, but if I had to guess I would say that it takes me roughly about 45 minutes to get to work each morning and twice as long–90 minutes or longer–to get home in the evening. But all in all, it’s not bad. I have moments of significant impatience and I fuss and swear at the basic incompetence of the many Maryland and Virginia drivers, all of whom happen to be on I66 and I495 at the same time as I am each night. It’s amazing.
Nevertheless, I am grateful for the day, the week. I am grateful to be where I am right now, in this moment and all that comes with that. Life is not easy, but it is good. There is no “in spite of this” or “because of that” life is good…life is just good. Sometimes I wish I could more adequately express what’s going on in my head, my heart, my spirit when I have these moments of clarity. Sometimes when I see or hear or experience the beauty that’s present all around me, I find myself virtually wordless. It reminds me of a scene from the movie “Contact” in which the protagonist Ellie Arroway is propelled on a cosmic voyage across time and space. She gets to a place where the awesome majesty of the heavens is spread out before her and she gawks at what she is seeing and stammers, “No – no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should’ve sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful… I had no idea.” They should’ve sent a poet. I can’t say I’ve witnessed the wonders of the cosmos, but I’ve sometimes seen beauty in the smallest things and found myself without words to describe the experience.
I am grateful for this moment, for drawing breath and my beating heart. I’m grateful for the knowledge that I have been and am loved. I am glad to be here.
