Joe Bunting

Awake

I had a fantastic time at the coffee shop on Monday night.  It was warm out.  I didn’t really need the red flannel shirt I was wearing, the one with the two bottom buttons missing and the hole in the elbow. 

Do you ever have moments where you are awake?  Moments when you notice the way the street lights make the buildings glow like a desert dune at dusk.  Moments when you realize how tall some of the buildings on State Street are, and how beautiful, palatial even. 

Do you ever have moments where you feel like a kid again, and every tree is a potential fort, even palm trees.  You think about how fun it would be to climb up to the top of one and look out over the imaginary jungle, and then go swinging from a vine to the next palm tree fort in your jungle kingdom.

Most of the time I don’t think like this.  I am caged in a world of my own thoughts, and I can’t even see the red bricks in front of me as I walked to Java Jones, let alone the cool Spanish, ivy-covered arch in Paseo Nuevo.  Monday night, though, I did notice, and for some reason, I get in this state of mind when:

1. I am listening or have just finished listening to really good music,
2. I am at, am going to, or have just left a coffee shop, and
3. I am feeling spiritually connected to God.

I don’t understand it, but every once in a while all these things come together.  In those perfect moments, I walk through town seeing.  Really seeing.  Like a painter sees a pink and orange sunset.  Like a musician hears the song she has just recorded and enjoys the perfection of each note.    Like a smoker feels when he has that first cigarette in the chilly morning.  The way he imagines he’s the Marlboro man, sitting atop his horse, gazing at the red horizon.

In these moments I think I feel like Jesus must have felt after he was baptised, when a white dove landed on his shoulder, the heavens opened up, and his soul leapt with the Father’s love.

Related posts:

The Palm Tree With Pinecones




At a coffee shop reading Seeds of Contemplation