A Day and A Life

Yesterday I took a walk to run some errands and enjoy the beautiful fall day. The rain and darkness can get you down, or at least it gets old. The weather was warm and there was a wind the was tunneling through the buildings downtown. I was sweating a bit, I could have gone without the vest as my sweater was enough. But the day was perfect, a nice time to check out the water and look out to the bay which my city sits on. It's a nice time to clear my mind and realize the universe and everything. To actually visualize the little ball on which we sit zooming through space, our quaint ever-expanding galaxy with the sun and the moon keeping it all in check. It's a nice place to lose yourself and come back to after a bit of inner-self exploration. Because if you're one of the lucky ones that walk this earth truly awake you are in a constant state of amazement. And that sounds pretty cool, a little like jazz out in the open air.

Although I wanted to check on the water I decided to call my sister and hangout with her instead. After catching up and sharing my day we parted ways, she was off to a birthday party and I needed to go home to maybe catch some zzzzzzz's, it had been a long week with long nights and little sleep due to early mornings as usual. I walked back through downtown toward my home, the streets were wearing new clothes and there was a new beat driving the traffic to club doors and happenings all around. Hot dog venders taking advantage of the evenings revelers, some already too drunk for their too high well-heeled feet. I felt out of place in my day clothes - keep it tight! - there was a commonness about me that followed until reaching the business district. 

As I headed into my neighborhood I saw a gentleman in suit and tie loose his footing in this world, his feet literally sliding out from under him as he stood and then tried to regain his grasp of uprightness. The struggle continued until he was on hands and knees bending toward the ground as if in prayer. And as quickly as we had noticed he was up and moving away with an embarrassed look taking root. So we watched him more, maybe he was dealing with a demon larger than anyone of us could imagine. With this image still fading I walked on to overhear some passing strangers commenting on Charlie and The Chocolate factory, the crazy song sung while in the nightmarish tunnel - something about dreaming. In the background the dance studio across the street could be heard playing Salsa, couples walking toward me carrying their dance shoes.

The streets were alive, but I was looking forward to going home to maybe watch a movie and drink some tea. The day had been full, a nice slice of what is out beyond my courtyard. Now I was ready to settle in for my own time alone. But I wasn't alone. As I was stretching out for the evening a spider as big as my hand crawled out from some hidden corner to scare me into letting out a pointed yell. At this sound the creature stood still feeling out the situation, I debated leaving it to it's own. Then I remembered that leaving it to live in my house could lead to a spider bite later, so I threw a shoe at it. I missed the first time, but killed it the second time. I felt bad about it and really scared to go near it, so I didn't clean it up right away and went to bed with it's body still lying crumpled in the middle of the floor. I chose to just ignore it and worry another day about this life and its death.