Open up your eyes
January 27th, 2004 byI close the gate behind me and stand still for a moment and observe the silent world that stands tranquilled in front of me. There’s a magic about winter that clouds and covers life and re-directs it, focuses it, to concentrate elsewhere, in warm houses, in fireplaces and in thick blankets. With summer, life exudes from each and every single pore, an over-abundance of la vie that should not cannot will not be denied existence. With winter, frozen life dances in its sleep, tingling at the end of each branch a dab of snow, clinging in the outreach of every bush a gentle sweeping brush of snow.
The work of the best of artists.
The coughing engine interrupts me, the smokey residue emanating from its back. It twirls, stretches, spreads, lives and dies in a moment of a few seconds, completely unnoticed. I trail my fingers down the spine of the car, a frozen trail of ice, snow and wet wet migrating flakes, from milky clouds above.
And each time I walk out, I re-live a life I can almost have.
Each visit outside, promises are made.
Each visit outside, beauties are marveled.
Each visit outside, ponderments are re-visited.
Each visit outside leads to a return indoors, to walls that hide reality, to bookshelves that present themselves appetizingly, to friends that demand to be laughed along with.
The instructions in the email were abrupt, direct and cunningly intelligent.
Fools laughed and they did. Intellects rejoiced, and they did.
“8pm, below the bell tower. Dress warmly. We’ll be sitting out for the evening, in the pouring snow. We’ll be opening up our eyes.”
I think it’s time to live up to that again.
January 28th, 2004 at 12:59 am
Enjoy yourself bro. Sounds like you need a good laugh.
January 28th, 2004 at 6:41 am
Hey, I’d need a good laugh, too, if I had the flu and all my weblog visitors somehow found it hilarious. mwahaha. Okay, just kidding. Really.
Great reminder, Waleed, to open up our eyes. I need to do that more often, too. Actually, it reminds me of a couple of incidents from the other day. I’ll have to remember to write about it. I’m trying to imagine sitting outside, watching the snow fall. Sounds like an absolutely beautiful experience.
January 28th, 2004 at 10:15 am
After spending 30 minutes cleaning up two cars from snow, ice and whatnots, I have decided that it has been a wonderful experience.
=)
But with the weather warming up, and frozen puddles still about, it’s worth a shot.
I’ll laugh yet Owl!
Muhahahaha *cough cough cough* hahaha
January 28th, 2004 at 10:32 am
i wonder what the life you can almost have is, the one that you re-live each time you walk out.
my favorite part: ..frozen life dances in its sleep..
I agree with Yasmine, that we all need a reminder to open our eyes, our hearts and minds, to the world around us.
January 28th, 2004 at 10:54 pm
when i first began walking to university here, those first ten steps outside hurt so much, hurt my eyes so much, all that light was so demanding and so piercing and so unloved, unloving,
now my hate’s abated, and the only reason i squint is because the snow reflects the light and the light’s not loved now, but it’s not hated. u don squint too hard at neautral love.
today, i ran in my girly sweater and my almost-lugz shoes in the snow, through the night, to my calculus quiz and arrived ten minutes late.
and i KNOW i looked like a fool. on wheels.
January 28th, 2004 at 11:44 pm
hey phatima, ten minutes isn’t late, that’s standard desi time. It’s even earlier than expected! Good job, I’m proud of you.
uhh… I guess I should be commenting on the post, but I forgot it now, after reading everyone’s hilarious comments. Owl’s in particular. khehehe.
but yah. SNOW can be beautiful, and winter is beautiful if you’re looking outside your window from INside your nice warm house! hehe jk.
It’s -50deg C here with the windchill… which in Farenheit follows the formula F=9/5C +32. (don’t ask). You do the math. It should be pretty similar though. and while I was shoveling the snow today and cleaning all the cars I thought, yes, alhamdulillah, winter IS beautiful, and somehow the bitter cold and piercing wind wasn’t all that bad either, despite the fact that it really was. I guess I was just having a jolly good time out in the snow.
I have to move. I must be getting delusional.
January 28th, 2004 at 11:45 pm
the italics was meant for ‘can be’
*looks away*
January 29th, 2004 at 3:48 am
yea but see, 10 minutes was 33.333% of the time allowed for the quiz.
and i was twenty minutes earlier than i would have been if i hadn’t realised i was going to be half an hour late for my quiz.
July 31st, 2005 at 1:36 am
such wonderful expression,especially after digging two cars out of the snow…