Lyrics to Live By

"The sky is lit up
Day will be richer than night"

Sometimes, everything clicks.  The right circumstances, the right actions, the right people, the right time of year aligning with new beginnings.  Even the right music plays along as a soundtrack, new lyrics, new sounds that perfectly describe both inner feelings and external events.  Everything is lit up.  Nothing is simple, or simplified, but the complexities hiding in long shadows have been exposed to the radiance of day, and the intricacies, once so frightening, are shown to be part of a luxurious weave.  Sink your fingers in.

"You show me the world as it could be
Through your kaleidoscope, it's beautiful"

Joseph Conrad wrote, "The human heart is vast enough to contain all the world."  When the world expands, do our hearts expand too?  Whenever I see a new place, meet a new person, or have a new experience, extra dimensions are added to an already multi-dimensional world.  Just over this holiday, I travelled to another country, met many new people, delved into the past, and celebrated traditions in new ways.  I explored Amsterdam with a Dutch family, spent Christmas with a supermodel, toured Rembrandt's house and studio, made the pilgrimage to Anne Frank's secret annex, celebrated New Year's in a truly Berlinesque fashion, set off fireworks, watched night melt into day, heard a first-hand account of journalism in Africa from a journalist not much older than me, moved into a new apartment, read a book about the White Rose, and discovered a brilliant new singer/songwriter (real musician) whose songs add vibrant colors to my expanding world.  Oh, also, my severe stomach flu and I spent an entire night throwing up into my former professor's toilet.  There's nothing like being sick all over somebody else's bathroom.  And then having that same professor standing over you in your misery, holding a glass of water and Tylenol, and with an evil gleam in his eye, saying, "Now you have to take back all the mean things you ever said about me, or I wont give you this!"

And I can't forget the Herring Sandwich Deal.  I'm lucky to know such generous, genuine, caring people.  And after all those essays too.  Well, it's clear who the bigger person is.  Which wouldn't be me.

"But I'm sure you're on your way
Yes I'm sure you're on the road"

A very exciting life I know of: Ivory Coast, England, Ireland, Berlin, Amsterdam, England, Congo

Me (I try): New York, California, Berlin, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Berlin

Amsterdam: winter evening, dark shiny sky, people everywhere, walking, biking, driving, lights reflecting in the water, in the river, in the canals, shimmering a glow of welcome, bells ringing, cobblestones and pavement, my suitcase in the basket, my professor on the bike, me perched on metal bars over the rear tire, hanging on for dear life as we swerve through traffic, puff over bridges, and catapult down the other side into inky blackness.

"And I've always known you're like a feather
You go where wind and fire melt together"

(land of wind and fire....)

Then: a wild (Wild) New Year's Eve party, full of English speaking Germans and half-Germans only a couple years older than me, a reunion of classmates from nearly 10 years ago - the camaraderie, the fondness, the continuance of shared experience was sweet, and I felt a little sad that I have nothing like that.  But the hosts made me feel welcome and wanted in the celebration.  From the 6th floor balcony, the night sky exploded with furious bangs and nebulae of flame for hours.  I burnt my finger on a fire-cracker, but hey, you gotta live.  Champagne, bubbly bubbles, overflowed glasses and spouted geysers over exuberant, intoxicated partiers.  This was no polite hello to 2007.  This was AWESOME.

And then, from a window, I saw the birth of the first day of 2007.  The new year doesn't really start at midnight.  It starts around 7:45am.  That's what you must stay up for.  Unless your New Year's Resolution is to start waking up early and being productive.

"Beautiful day, watching you as you awake
Morning stars in your eyes, your hand in mine"

Not all the complex intertwinings are illuminated at once.  Through the present glow, one can make out, far into the distance, the undulating outlines of weaves undiscovered - hopefully not made of thorns.  Mystery future.  Sometime, the light will be cast on those as well.  

Until then: wait.