Under the One Roof

Indeed a new month has rolled into view and taken up residence on the couch - you know in the one spot that has the best view of the tv and the hallway and the kitchen - the spot the alpha person in the house takes. That's where May is sitting right now. It is just a guest, so I'm letting it go.

There's always been something very comforting about a positive communal living arrangement to me. Possibly due to being raised in rural environments where it is hard to see the roofs of ones neighbours, let alone easily interact with them, and so whoever is under the roof where you are is the sum total of what you've got to deal with. The idea that there might be people of my age or who share my interests under that roof rocked my world when I moved out of home and continues to do so. Sometimes I wonder why I live alone now. But nothing is absolute (except maybe for the rule that nothing is absolute).

Yes yes the internet means we can all be under the one roof, and of course at a very fundamental level we are all part of the great oneness .... but as these things remain somewhat intangible in my moment-to-moment reality. Actually physically seeing people and sharing meals and laughing at spontaneous convergences of personality, circumstance and wit remains a delicious pleasure that simply cannot be replicated in any other medium. And like a child, I still try and glut myself with it, and in doing so trigger the need for withdrawal and reflection to balance it out again and feel whole, both myself, and a social self and only in the gentle repeated mixing of aloneness and togetherness does this blend mature and rise and become some very tasty bready product that I love to be and share and be again.

Ah. I am feeling the concrete of the path and the dirt of possibility and the walls of protection and the sky of opening and the joy of being held and the lure of the quiet room. Perhaps I need another coffee before I deal with May. It got one day in under my guard, but I've got my eye on it now. A bleary, unfocused eye but it is all I have to offer.