Water pours onto our bodies, we lather our arms and chests with soap, sometimes surrounded in music; sometimes in silence.
A thought comes to me through the warm mist, then another, and another. Mostly about food; turkey sandwiches with whole-grain bread. Then I wonder, who else could be showering at this moment? What are they thinking about?
How many of us are caught in a moment of repetition, the neverending circle, the bountiful procrastination? A sudden melody strikes from nowhere; it’s an alarm, it’s coming from our phones — it’s time to wake up.
We stumble into the bathroom and collapse into the bathtub with perfect form; we’ve done this a million times. The soap, the shampoo, the water, the rinse. Then tomorrow comes again, followed by the abrupt melody, then the masterful collapse, the shampoo, the rinse. Is this fate?
I’m jealous of the ones who have escaped it. The ones who have decided that today will different. The ones who recover from the tragedy and parry its blow. Who know’s what they know?
How many have chosen their path, ignoring the negativity, the naysayers, the boundaries in favor of hope? Because it can’t always be like this, can it? Something has got to give. And I believe it does, eventually.
They wash their faces, straighten their posture, and breath a full belly of air. Life.
In a way, it’s like karma: what you put out determines what you receive. If you’re comfortable, why leave? Why do anything differently? Who would sacrifice comfort for the unknown?
If on the other hand, you wake and see it all as too familiar; the same melody, the same soap, the same song, then perhaps you aren’t comfortable at all. In fact, your in pain because your back hurts, your head hurts and you want something different.
Maybe you just need a new alarm or a turkey sandwich.
Originally published at Medium on November 16, 2019
