it's a chilly morning, the sun seems bright through the blinds, but i haven't ventured outside yet. i have coffee in a wonder woman mug, brought to me by a secret santa on a work night out. and i have a soundtrack provided by crookedshore. gillian welch's honeyed voice is drawing me gently into my day. and i just read a poem from the writer's almanac which i liked.
i have been thinking about incoming.
i like the word. i am not entirely sure what it means. there's the owner of the stable, opening the door to a very pregnant teenager. there's the emergence of symbolic meanings, of a baby, a star, some gifts. there's the incoming of christ into the heart of the sinner, in the evangelical version of events. there's the pace of chronos, of a new calender year.
yesterday i walked around the corner of my street carrying two cartons of tropicana 'smooth' (no bits) and a pint of milk in a plastic bag to see a coffin being carried through the front door of my neighbour's house.
incoming.
i started thinking about all the people who are not working hard to welcome symbolic meanings into their hearts this season but who are just trying to find a way to deal with the terrifying absence of someone they never imagined would one day vanish from their lives. whether that person stepped out of their world this year, or last, or the one before, or twenty years ago.
here's today's poem from robert bly.
Some People
Some people
ascend out of our life, some people
enter our life,
uninvited and sit down,
some people
calmly walk by, some people
give you a rose,
or buy you a new car,
some people
stand so close to you, some people,
you've entirely forgotten
some people, some people
are actually you,
some people
you've never seen at all, some people
eat asparagus, some people
are children,
some people climb up on the roof,
sit down at table,
lie around in hammocks, take walks with their red
umbrella,
some people look at you,
some people have never noticed you at all, some people
want to take your hand, some people
die during the night,
some people are other people, some people are you, some people
don't exist,
some people do.
::
we are some people.
may we find an incoming of rest in this season.
