The New Day!

I retired at the end of 2019.  Anticipating a life of travel and adventure, I did not foresee the coming pandemic or the isolated life I would experience for most of 2020.  I have been fortunate to avoid contracting COVID-19 and have led a relatively sedate and pleasant life for most of the year, other than worrying about the state of the world and the political turmoil that has seized our land.

My routine quickly became well-defined and consistent.  I awake each morning around 6:30 or 7 without an alarm.  Either Karen or I walk into the kitchen and turn on my espresso machine.  I wait 10 minutes for it to warm up, lying in bed and enjoying the sensation of the last moments of slumber departing from my body.

As I head to the kitchen to begin my cappuccino ritual, a quickening of spirit begins to animate my mind and body. The caffeine preparation is my first creative act – grinding the carefully weighed 18 grams of coffee; tamping it into the hefty portafilter; firmly positioning it into the machine; watching as the golden liquid emerges and fills the cup; carefully positioning and adjusting the milk pitcher under the steam wand to produce that perfect balance of milk, froth and microfoam; pouring a random, free form latte art.   An almost giddy anticipation possesses me as I carry the two cups back to the bedroom and take a first sip of the sublime nectar I have adored for so many years.  The new day has arrived!

No matter what has transpired in the previous day or days; no matter how well or poorly I have slept; no matter what worries or joys have burdened or lightened my mood;  the new day brings hope, optimism and excitement in a bafflingly resilient manner.  Like the dawn sweeping away the night’s darkness and foreboding, the new day is my daily resurrection.  It is filled with possibility, and opens up like a fresh canvas before me, to be filled with anything that I have the courage and energy to undertake.

Some days I will quickly be bogged down in a quagmire of insubstantial activities that diminish that initial feeling.  Other days I will be swept along in the ever-expanding delight of some new project or enterprise.  But no matter what happens on any single day, I have only to submit to the nightly seduction of sleep, whether deep or fitful, and some hours later I will magically emerge from my slumber with the most precious spiritual treasure in all the world – the new day!