Bedtime Story Conservatory 97 24/07/2020
Good morning everyone,
I don't think I've ever experienced a thunderstorm in the morning before, but as I was reading today, the thunder cracked and rumbled, and is still cracking and rumbling as I write this.
I think that this project, as it crawls towards the number 100, will change in some way or another. I'm not sure how, i'm not sure when, but that is the nature of this project, one day at a time, kind of ebbing kind of flowing with the experiences of each week, day and month.
I love you, it's been a while since this project started, but hopefully in receiving this email, it is proof that you are still here and kicking.
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Yesterday, I was sat in a garden with a friend on a bench. I was talking about something that has been upsetting for me in the past, and I felt those feelings once again rising in my chest. As I spoke, I spotted this duck leave it's flock (or it's 'team', 'raft', 'paddling'), and make it's way across the pond towards where we were sitting.
We continued to speak, and I continued to mull. I looked towards the duck again, and saw that it had reached our side of the pond. Stalling for a moment, it then pushed it's way through the green algae which was sitting on the surface of the water. As it moved through the scum, the algae gathered around it's smooth underbelly, rippling and folding like fabric.
The duck approached us, and although I assume that it was looking for some sort of snack, I felt calmed by it's presence. It sat within a metre of me, just staring, and I couldn't help but fall, without guilt, into the self-serving belief that it was there to make me feel better.
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Today's reading is Auggie Wren's Christmas Story 1991 by Paul Auster (1947). Auster is an American writer and film director, who's work is characterised as 'concerned with the search for identity and personal meaning'.
Auster was asked by the New York Times to write a short Christmas story, and today's reading is the process of Auster not wanting to write something sentimental, and finding an unlikely story in the colourful character of Auggie Wren, who works in his local cigar shop.
The song attached to the reading is Portofino 1 1999 by Raymond Scott.
Links:
Warmest wishes despite the grey sky, and warmest love,
Sam
