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i woke up this morning with a migraine headache. all sounds were dense and the light moved with a languid doubling. everything echoed and glittered, even the shadows in the corners of the room. i got up and dressed, went to pick up my laundry, came back, and resigned myself to not eating breakfast at home.
on the way to the train, i almost purchased an egg, bacon, and cheese bagel, but decided the peach yogurt and carrots would have to do. the train was stutter-start-stop-drip-drop all the way along the tracks. you could feel everyone silently seething with commuter's resentment.
after i got to work, my migraine had somehow skirted full-blown, but slipped along the left lobes and nestled in a tightly-wound throbbing warm knot in the base of my neck. such immediate and lasting joys pale in comparison to the gift of a migraine crouching in your musculature.
eventually i was overwhelmed by simple tasks and couldn't make anything properly come together. my conceptualization was sound, as was my photog skills, but my composite held me captive in layered distress well past the clock-out whistle. it was as if all day long, there was a test to it all, and i was the sole student failing each subject.
i felt like crumbling home, but alas, any way but by foot, wheels, bus, or train all look too suspicious to most. i got on the local train to drop off a roll of 120 b/w i had recently finished, and then purchase some printing papers. when i exited the station, the slow start of the earlier rain had evolved into a steady sleet.
the singular drops intermingled with the heavy slow flakes, and together they accelerated into windows, open mouths, eyelashes, and all manner of textured surfaces. after dropping the film roll off, and relaying the weather to the counter-person, him sighing a weighted slumpy shoulder droop, i continued through an alleyway.
and then, a moment of calm. soft fluttery flakes slowly and silently drifting on a lull of a wind-shift. the lamp-lights glowing orange illuminated their path earthbound, and all around you could see the softest thin layer of snowfall.
i took a moment and let everything take everything away. it was a moment of pause, a moment of cleanse, and a moment to remind me that there are things yet to experience.
as i emerged topside onto that one block which leads to my apartment, i could see that brooklyn had been blanketed in the arriving snow. i began to walk down the center of the one-way street, as i usually do, and reveled in the sounds of the weight of my body crushing and squeaking freshly lain snow under the broad plane of my shoes
after about 30 meters, turned around to find that a woman was behind me. i waited, and she caught up with me, then told me that she saw me walking, and decided to follow my lead. she said it looked fun. and she was completely right.
we walked the length of the street, crossed over to the next sidewalk and then wished each other a good night. there is magic in the world, in all of the simplest moments. in the wake of their occurrence, you can find cures for all your ailments, and a restoration to all of your ills.
tonight's homework:
make it a point to talk to a stranger, if the safe chance arises, and take a chance to make a connection, even a short one. people are interesting creatures, and we're all interested in what everyone else is doing.
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