READY TO RECEIVE

Sometimes you wake up at four-thirty in the morning with a surge of energy and no cows to milk. Wide awake at this ungodly hour, you lie in the dark and try to figure what this time is here for. If you’re lucky, some part of you will know what to do, but it’s not the part that thinks it’s steering. Maybe you are a writer. Maybe you finished something yesterday, something you’d been working on for weeks. You thought it was complete, but when you read it again, hours later, you could sense an absence, not a shadow exactly, maybe the ghost of a shadow. Something both existing and missing behind the words. You already know that absence is as palpable as presence, but that’s no help at the moment. Your mind is wandering all over the place now, lingering here and there. Something precious you lost hold of, lost sight of, is coming near. Don’t try to think this through. As it approaches, be ready to receive. Because that’s what this gift of time is for. To tip your hat. To give thanks. To pay homage.