The poetry site I belong to referenced Leonard Cohen today, and I thought to repost a piece I wrote earlier in the year...
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We do not expect to find magic in each day, and most certainly not in our workday. We perceive magic to be fleeting and capricious...feel ourselves blessed by the rare moments of enchantment that transcend the ordinary and bring joy to the everyday. Not for a second do we imagine we could engineer such a moment, but only count ourselves lucky if grace on occasion touches our lives to create something special.
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I was granted magic on my lunch hour today. Lured outside by the cloudless sky and soft air, I gathered up my iPod and settled on a bench beneath a tree. I could smell a faint trace of last year's mulch, mixed richly with the fresh scent of new green sprouts. The sun shot through the leaves, dappling my bare arms with twisting trails of light and shadow.
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Without having to think about it, I brought up a song written by Leonard Cohen and performed with breathtaking purity by k.d. lang. I closed my eyes, the better to listen with all of my heart and all my attention, oblivious to everything but the power and the emotion of the moment.
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At once melancholic, yet filled with the ache of possibility, this is a song that speaks of being totally and vibrantly alive...of experiencing life in all its glory and all its pain...the two poles forever indivisible in our time on earth. I felt its heartbreak like it was my own, and soared with joy that such beauty could be coaxed out of a voice and a soul.
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For a brief time, I was freeded from the petty and the mundane. The world was wide and wonderful...and I was dancing madly in the midst of it all.
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Hallelujah, indeed...
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