It made me think of the person I was in love with at the time. It was the only thing that explained the attraction. They were on fire, and everyone else was a box of matches waiting to be struck.
I’ve lived a lot of life since then. I’ve fallen in love many more times, been through a divorce, and the demise of another long term relationship that felt like a second divorce. And while my loyalty has and will always be to the mystery- while my passing remains with my inner child in her exquisite wonder, her infinite creative capacity — life has taught me the fertile beauty of growing up too.
Life has taught me the stuff we are made of is refined by Tuesday-ness. And true love means not running from our own or another’s personal Tuesday, but rather is willingness to stay. To be with. To witness. As we do, we discover that within Tuesday is so much of our most tender, human mystery.
Life has taught me the necessity of Tuesday.
That’s not true. I don’t just mean necessity, I actually mean the integral glory of Tuesday.
I mean the casual side glances from Tuesday that seem to say, “Oh you find me boring? Maybe it's that you haven’t become interesting enough.”
Also? Sometimes the miracle comes wrapped in a Tuesday.
For almost a year, we’d been wanting a dog. But there were so many reasons it wasn’t in the cards. We needed a dog that was hypoallergenic. We needed one that was mostly potty trained. We needed one we could afford. We needed one whose temperament was calm and easy. We were not sure a puppy like this existed. But we were on the watch.
Then an extended family member bought two bernedoodle puppies and soon found out she could only keep one. She offered us the gentle, dopey, intelligent brother of the two.
We said yes. Yes to new love. Yes to new responsibility. We named him Tuesday.
Tuesday came to us as a miracle that made us gulp. And a duty we had to have courage to accept.
We couldn’t be more in love or grateful. We can’t stop marveling at all the ordinary work and pure love that is Tuesday.
These days, most days feel more like Tuesday. I’ve stopped asking whoever is in charge to stop giving them to me, and have instead embraced them. In doing so, I’ve been shown just how much of the middle mystery I’ve been neglecting in my pursuit of extremes.
Conclude what you will, but I’m tempted to whisper in your ear, if you’ll let me that it turns out
Tuesday is only so Tuesday-y when you forget you are the burning too.
Darling, you're the match, and the flame. You're the surface and spark. You're the duty and the revelation.
