A Blip

It took me four months to step inside the art gallery across the road from where I live. It’s a contemporary gallery with striking colours angled across its façade, a little blip of artistry hiding in plain sight.

I wander past it each day, shuffling under its reeves to escape the rain, but somehow I had always been too busy or distracted or tired or oblivious to actually go inside – until now. Yesterday evening at 6:34pm, after walking past, pausing, swivelling, and being suddenly struck by the fact that the semester was almost over and neither of us had set foot inside, my friend and I finally ventured in.

Hunger, Vividness, and Magic

For a little while now, I’ve been looking for magic. It hasn’t been a difficult quest: I’ve discovered that it appears everywhere, even in the most unlikely places.

It’s in the sound of the subway door hissing shut behind you. It’s in the brown paper bag you bought from that cute cafe for breakfast, that you unwrap on a park bench. It’s in the maniacal giggle that comes over you at 3am when you’re three coffees in and still have pages of essay left to write. It’s at the bottom of the tea cup you sip absent-mindedly as you thumb through a book. It’s in the smile from the cashier, the rueful grin of others waiting beside you in a long queue, the ache in your shoulders from carrying your life in a small backpack. It’s in the late night bus ride with the skyscrapers behind you, and in the cooling of the sand under your feet as dusk sneaks in.

Calluses and a Worn-in Sunday Love

Why do we do this to ourselves? We tear ourselves away from home and comfort, safety and support, friendships and community. We take ourselves to strange places and, just when we start to feel the warmth of familiarity, our restless feet drag us away and bright eyes and tired faces find themselves starting again, all over again.

Transcience

Hello, she beams, from a mouth that says a lot and means it all –
Hi, he smiles back, with a warmth within his eye that never fades
(neither of them know it yet).