day 40
hod inside yesod
All day the winds howled and i read and slept and wept. Coming to the end of a book that has been read with such pleasure is a fragile condition and I’ve been going to sleep with this fabled saga of a Lebanese clan for over a month. picked up ‘The Hakwati’ by Rabih Alamendine on day 10 of this journey, in Sonoma. 30 days later I’ve gotten deep inside Beirut, flew on magic carpets, and learned about the art of courtship and seduction in a 1,001 ways. Amazed again, and awed, at the seductive power of a good book, a great storyteller, the pleasure and purpose of story for the soul. ‘Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life’ – Alamendine quotes Fernando Pessoa somewhere in the book – problematic quote but i marked it – speaks to this experience of being lost in a book. Lost – and found? what’s found in the pleasures of the fiction is a deeper sort of learning and personal growth – another glimpse inside the human condition, another subtle, noble reminder for compassion, for the simple, patient pleasures of every day life.
day 40 is a checkpoint before the final stretch. Start to wrap up, just like the last few pages of a book, the ones we savor and sometimes devour. From the distance I can see the mountain, getting closer. What is yet to be learned on this journey. how ready am I for night 50? time to revisit the goals, the intentions, the purpose of the count and the prayers for what awaits at the summit. attention all counters, captain has put on the seatbelt sign, we’re starting our ascent.
10 to go.