Violet Cow

Our weekends are usually cut from the same pattern: sleep indulgence once free from the tyranny of the alarm clock, a few requisite errands to maintain order, a movie from the Film List, leisurely conversations over beers,  etc.  This is how we recharge and we are very fortunate as a couple in that, even though he is a total extrovert and I am an introvert, we naturally fall into the same daily rhythm for our free time: sleep + music/film/literature + booze + conversation.  That commonality is not a requirement for a happy couple, but it sure is pleasant.  This weekend was especially great, not because we did anything out of the ordinary, but because the awareness of our good fortunate was heightened.  It's funny how something like the drudgery of work can be thrown over perception like a wet blanket.  For whatever reason, all those distractions were brushed away and we could just experience how happy we are.  Things are of course far from perfect, as they always will be, but it's amazing how different your life can look from two different angles: focus on money struggles, job less than perfect, friends and family far away, missed opportunity in your career, a plan falling through, buttons missing from your coat versus being newlywed to your soul mate, employed in a difficult economy, living in a pretty apartment, having two great families, blessed with wonderful friends, inspiration.  It's amazing how much that can change your perception.

I browsed through my blog from five years ago and found this Chesterton quote from the William Blake biography that is just perfect:

Impressionism is skepticism. It means believing one's immediate

impressions at the expense of one's more permanent and positive

generalisations. It puts what one notices above what one knows. It

means the montrous heresy that seeing is believing. A white cow at one

particular instant of the evening light may be gold on one side and violet on

the other. The whole point of Impressionism is to say that she really is a

gold and violet cow. The whole point of Impressionism is to say that there

is no white cow at all. What can we tell, it cries, beyond what we can

see? But the essence of Mysticism is to insist that there is a white cow

however veiled with shadows or painted with sunset gold. Blessed are they

who have seen the violet cow and who yet believe in the white one.

~William Blake by G.K. Chesteton