Excitement

How exciting to watch the sun come up. That great orb of brilliant yellow and orange rising in the eastern sky. Being here to see the never ending miracle of light returning. I think of how for 80,000 years we all used to do this, before Edison.  

You are more beautiful each day.  Your hair dishevelled by sleep.  Your face relaxed and all those lines of worry from work and pressure gone in the morning as you rise to greet the new day.  A stoic. A warrior. A woman of faith and confident. Resilient with humor and grace. I love how the light bathes your sensual skin.  I am blessed to be with you.

“Is there life after death,” she asked, looking across at him over the rim of her first morning coffee.

‘We slept last night and we’re awake today.  What more do you need?”  He said, buttering the croissants for them, before sitting beside the rickety bamboo table they kept on the east facing veranda for just these mornings.

“But I’ve seen dead people. I’ve been to funerals. You know what I mean.” Her eyes twinkled as she peered at him . A late cock crowed as if the sun had surprised him.

“I am not them. I don’t know what they are experiencing. There’s an infinity of possibilities. I feel sorry for those who can’t imagine so reduce everything to their own perspective. I simply choose to believe.”  The old dog smelling food had moved from lying by the door to sitting down beside them at the table, lest they forget he liked croissant too.He put his paw on his masters knee.  The man knew he was there, of course. It was a game they played. He waited. They both waited. When the time was right, he’d respond.

“I do too.  Life’s an adventure and a journey.  I feel people who don’t see that think of it as a prison and death as an escape.  It’s sad really. “ The sun was now above the mountain where the pine and spruce were opening their stomachs to the radiance and food of light.  One bird song was definitely a robin.  The other was a chickadee. A crow was squawking too.  Morning news and comments. The cock crowed again preening itself and unapologetic for sleeping in.  

There was a special elegance to the way she lifted the porcelain cup of honey flavoured Ethiopian coffee flavoured to her full red lips.  He thought how little time there was to relish her.  To see the surface reflection of her infinite depth in the tiny movements she made.  Like now,as she put the cup carefully back on the flowered blue and yellow saucer and reached for the still warm croissant.

“I like to think of life as a gift and something to be thankful for. “ he continued. “Like a toy a child receives without instructions but meant to be played with and enjoyed.  The wisdom texts are the messages down through the ages of others who have found satisfaction in the game and shared their insights into the meaning and joy of this mysterious thing.” 

Now he broke off a piece of croissant with his fingers, passing it under the table to the waiting dog.  The dog carefully accepted it before quickly swallowing it, taking his paw from his master’s knee but waiting still for more.  Insatiable.   The dog loved being included.  Sharing the food at the table was as sacred to the pooch as sacrament at church. It meant inclusion in community, shared pleasure in sustenance for the body, heart and soul.  The dogs’ tail wagged. The master smiled.  Sympatico.

She finished her croissant taking a last sip of coffee before rising naked to walk lithely to the beach.  A pelican flew awkwardly overhead as her body transformed into a sleek dolphin  slipping under the soft lapping waves.  He joined her moments later waiting only to watch her fin cut through the souther tropical  sea that engaged the northern land.

  He became a walrus as he moved from the soil to the sand, bouncing awkwardly and manly after her. Looking back she stood high on her fin  laughing at him before twisting and falling into the wonder of water.  Seeing her grace and beauty he galumphed more hurriedly after her into the sea.  The dog barking happily, swam beside the master for a awhile. Then the dolphin and walrus swam together further from the shore into the reap. He turned and paddled back to the cabin to wait their return, curled up on the veranda beneath the bamboo, guarding the croissant crumbs he knew remained on the plate.

In the ocean deep, the walrus and dolphin cavorted.