In Praise of "Time Zone Syndrome"
.... and the surprising gifts of jet lag
Two days ago I was on a 10 hour flight, east to west.
*Let’s be clear, this is not a complaint! Who gets invited to visit faraway, exotic, historic places with friends old and new? And who in her right mind would complain about that?
What was originally known as “time zone syndrome” is that tired/off/out of sync feeling you get when your circadian rhythm is off. Jet lag.
In my case, it means waking up a bit earlier.
And today, that means seeing a bright full moon in the early morning dark sky.
It means going out to try to take a picture and being startled and delighted by a crisp cool morning. (It also means learning that I don’t know how to take a decent picture of the moon in a dark sky).
It means suddenly my heart and mind “heard” my dad singing a song from my childhood: I see the moon and the moon sees me and the moon sees the one that I want to see. God bless the moon and God bless me, and God bless the ones that I want to see.
It means having a couple of bonus hours to read, think, breathe, write, wonder. If you know me, you know those are my favorite kinds of bonus hours.
It means savoring a cup of strong coffee and basking in the gratitude of both travel and homecoming.
It means seeing the morning light emerge slowly, gently, gloriously on this new day.
It means being here, being alive, being connected to this magnificent miracle of a new morning and knowing it is nothing less than a sacred gift.
It means birds are beginning to sing, and the dog is staring at me for his breakfast, and lots of kids are getting ready for school, and night shift folks are on their way home, and all our hearts are beating, and tides are rising, and the Great Love is inviting us – all of us – to this new-and-never-before day.
It means hope.
And I hope you embrace it. I hope we don’t take it for granted or grumble through it. I hope we – all of us – breathe in the gift and and share the gratitude.
Who knows? Who knows what this one unique and precious day might bring?
What a beautiful expression of life and its gifts, Becky! I love reading anything from you, and this was a real treat. I send you all my love and prayers for blessing upon blessing to brighten your present life.
Fran
Beautiful!!!!