Work might be saving my life right now.
On one side of the weekend, the happier side, I sigh and let go and sink backwards into a soft chair. But then I don't get up, not really. The loneliness and the depression are always waiting to welcome me back.
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
I wake up on Tuesday, the feet on my back and chest still there, the sugar comas and screens still fresh in my mind in a hazy sort of way, and it is with the usual Monday dread that I think of my office, waiting for me. I pull my sluggish self up, I try unsuccessfully to pray in the car, and then I unlock the door and turn on the lights. Amid the piles of papers and the blinking red light on the phone, what's waiting for me — again — catches me by surprise — again: relief.
Maybe I'm just losing myself in busyness, but I'd like to think there's something sacramental in the movement of my hands, the microcosmic rhythms of meaningful work, the ebb and flow of order and chaos. Either way, this is my balm.
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
As usual, the sun shades are pulled low over the windows, and I can only see dark shapes from my swivel chair. September did not feel like fall, but it was cold enough in my car this morning to turn the heat on intermittently, and it was cloudy enough to set aside the sunglasses. I hear the rain, sometimes, and I write October 6, 2015 on forms, and I think that "I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."
Hours later, the coffee shop next door closes for the day, sequestering itself behind its metal wall. The chairs are empty and the staircase is empty and there is no movement behind most of the doors. Real darkness descends beyond my shrouded windows, but I am not there to see it. Instead, I am in my windowless cubby of a file room, separated even from the idea of people by two sets of doors, and I am softly singing Christmas songs.
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
I marvel at what a difference twelve hours can make in reanimating ashes, turning back the clock to make live coals pregnant with promise once again. But maybe the clock isn't going backwards but forwards; maybe this is a resurrection.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
I am singing louder now, in my car, and it's yet another reminder of what music is capable of doing, how it fills and quickens and whispers. And yet it isn't music that is saving my life, and it isn't work. But maybe, just maybe, there is something in the pulse of both that holds the key to resurrection.