Home from a pleasant Christmas lunch at Ian's – excellent food – and sitting in the living room, with the tree glittering. And a beautiful strophic folk song by Chris Wood playing; and pulling out the tarot deck, to do one of those bottom-of-the-year readings. And seeing on the computer news of the Marshall Islands, where climate change is starting to strike: people flooded out of their homes – the islands of the world will be the first to weather the storms.
And, somewhere among these tiny fragments of experience, I suddenly am given that eerie Olympian awareness of time, space: of sadness and joy, of many, many people, and places. As though I see myself dealing the cards on my living-room carpet in the light of the tree, and it all slows down, as though in a film: and time slows and moves choreographically, as I become one of many tiles, many spaces and movements, weeping and happiness.
So much time, so much space: everything has such depth and beauty from that point of view.
But, I suppose, how could we ever live here?...
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