Skip to main content

Little Ghosts (Fingerpaint)



My life isn't extraordinary but I wanted to share yesterday morning with you.


I have to get up early on Wednesdays to make it to class on time. I ride the train, one hour each way. Usually I do homework on the train, and usually I'm kinda stressed about getting to class on time by the time I arrive, but this time, my laptop died halfway through the ride and there was nothing I could do about it. I plugged in my headphones and listened to Promise by Ben Howard. It was snowing that morning, a lot, and as we humans jostled out of the train onto the platform in a silent herd, it flurried around and between us. Little sighing ghosts escaped out of everyone's lips and nostrils, eager to go out and haunt the world--little pieces of our breath. As we all pressed forward, silently traveling the same direction, I reflected that of all the social animals, humans were sometimes the least social. I knew nothing about the lives of these human beings that surrounded me, I didn't know the reason for which they boarded the train early that morning and later exited at North Temple street like me. They had jobs or school or business or something that took them where they were going. Why had they taken the train? What had brought them here? What did they hope to find in their journey that day? With what thoughts and dreams and worries had they drawn their ghost of a breath before expelling it back into the snowy air?
The snowflakes lightly burned tiny pinpoints of icy fire on my face as I lifted up my eyes at the gray slate sky, and smiled. Winter winds are generally not gentle things, but this one stroked my neck and cheeks softly. Almost like it was grateful to be noticed and appreciated and not just resented. Ghost after ghost rose into the air and it made me smile to think that, although I didn't know the faces, souls or stories of those around me, we were all breathing the same smelly city air and traveling through the same lovely flurry of minuscule frozen flowers. And releasing the same little ghosts into the atmosphere.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wanderers in a Strange Land

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." ~C.S. Lewis   Recently, it hit me in a totally new way, and has continued to do so, that we as human beings really are other-worldly creatures. We are not made for this world. We are wanderers in a strange land, poor wayfaring strangers here. We're equipped for this world, but it's not our natural habitat. What makes me think this? There are many things that have brought me to this conclusion. Let me list a few. Desires which nothing in this world can satisfy. There are so many of these, are there not? We hate goodbyes, whether that goodbye is temporary or long-term; we want to be with our friends and loved ones forever. We also want friendships that go so much deeper than is humanly possible. I don't know if I can describe this desire, but hopefully you've felt it and you know what I'm talking about. We want to...
8 comments
Read more

This is for You

My dear friend, I'm about to tell you something important, something true. Something I know from the bottom of my heart. it is not a painful truth, it's a happy, awesome one. It will make your life better when you know it, too.  But you are not going to believe me. You have self-conditioned to disbelieve what it is I am going to tell you. It's not that it would be painful to accept. It would, in fact, be wonderful. You don't accept it because you can't see it. But faith is believing in things we can't see. So I am asking you to suspend your disbelief for a minute and be willing to believe what I am about to tell you, because I KNOW it's true. And here it is. You... are beautiful. I'm serious. You have no idea. Girl, you're amazing! I know you can't see it in yourself, but even the most drop-dead, unbelievably beautiful people can't see it in themselves. And I'm telling you, you are so beautiful! Don't you dare disbelieve me! ;)...
5 comments
Read more

The Path

I feel like one of those characters at the end of an epic movie who finishes their quest in the exact same place as it started. The place looks the same, and so do other people, but they know they will never be the same. They cannot be.  The girl stands, looking up at the place where it all began, knowing she is not the same. She takes a deep breath. Runs her fingers through her hair. Sighs. But instead of end credits rolling, she turns around and realizes there's a path before her feet. It's foggy and twisty, but it's a path . She doesn't know where it goes. She takes one last look over her shoulder at all that she can see of her previous adventure. Then she turns and, without looking back, follows the path. She has no choice; she can't go back the way she came. So she goes forward, into the fog. She knows that somewhere along this path, someday, she will come to a place... and look up at it... and go inside... only to come out a different person. And she'll ...
6 comments
Read more