Little Things
Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.
(Dream in Dream Country (The Sandman), Neil Gaiman)
The world can be vexing sometimes. Just as you are about to beat your breasts and rail at that cloak of ugliness we call reality, it chooses to provide you pale glimpses of its real self, like snatches of paradise from a latticed window. And you think, perhaps I shan’t talk of ugliness after all- ugliness is like a lie- the more it is talked about, the more it convinces itself that it is the complete truth.
Perhaps I shall tell you of reading a verse in a poem which made my skin tingle in tiny, delicious waves, all starting at the base of my spine and breaking at the top of my head. Perhaps this is what a snake feels like when it sheds its old skin for a brand new one, like shedding old lives for new.
Perhaps I shall tell you of seeing a glimpse of a ray of sunlight being filtered through a window and landing, softly, on a red brick wall. Perhaps this is why painters choose to paint, because even a thousand words would be insufficient to describe the way your eyes, pained by anger can be suddenly healed by the joy of that one dancing beam.
Perhaps I shall tell you of the sheer delight that is a baby’s gurgle, and the way your mouth wishes it had not forgotten to make that sound of complete mirth. Perhaps it is that sound which makes us forget the despair of a baby’s cry, and to remember instead the amount of possibilities contained in one chubby, little finger.
Perhaps I shall tell you of the utter contentment that is a cat’s purr, that deep rumble which is the epitome of satisfaction. Perhaps this is why cats are their own creatures you think, their contentment with life seems to lie solely within them. They don’t rely on dreams, or hope, or destiny, and you almost wish you could be a cat too. Then you think of dreams, of hope, of destiny.
Perhaps, it is the little things that matter after all.
nads went at 17:12