The Ace of Cups

Everything in their life is tuned to the key of C Major, ring the water glass - C - the wine glass - D - the Snifter - E - the Decanter, at three fingers more than half full - F - the champagne flute - G - the china cup - A, and the saucer finally B.

This is not by accident, this is the careful tap and drumming of teaspoons upon garage-sale crystal to the bemusement of the vendors; he plays it again, wets his finger and circles the rim, listens to the penetrating hum, he does this from time to time, she listens, awed, the tone resonates long after the finger has been pulled. 

Lift it to your mouth, and with various expressions of astonishment listen to the tones penetrating your body, lift the glasses, set them all a whirling, the notes in and out of phase, chime the silver, again - knives at C, Tablespoons, D, Forks, E, and so on and so forth. 

She listens, she hears, but she does not recognize this. It is a small miracle of his own contrivance. 

Happiness has found them ill-prepared. 

How often, wonder, does it find you and you miss it in the moment, fail to realize when things are perfect, we go to concerts, museums, for that space in our mind to appreciate perfection or beauty, yet how seldom do we pause to find that beauty or perfection has overtaken us?

The hours after work, when they are together and the sun streams through the window, the green promise of distant hills and adventure. Look out the window, at the blue sky and blackening clouds, at the crepuscular twilight rays that break between the clouds, a t the waning light that dapples the darkening fields and meadows,

Marvel that somehow, through idiocy or blind chance or perhaps through honest good intentions happiness has found you, only you didn't stop for that moment to gather your wits and appreciate it. Thank god that you found pause, a moment to breathe, 

Or even passed us by while we look upon it vanishing in the distance, gone now forever? OR does it run on a schedule? Will it return?

He has found more than he was ever looking for - more, his expectations have in every manner been surpassed, exceeded, these moments of perfect harmony, convergence, when all the clocks in the house begin ticking together, when his breaths matches hers,  syncopates, in opposite rhythms or beats, quicker, quicker, his in, hers out, they are breathing now one another, equilibrium,  yin breathing in the yang and out the yin, their every thought and gesture mirrors the others, one breath begins what the next will finish, when to ask for more would be the very monster of ingratitude, and so used is he to writing of anguish and loss that to write of this, now, this superfluity of joy, seems impossible. He lacks the vocabulary. And he sits at his desk and the blank page looks back at him. 

He is blessed. The value of all pleasure lies in the sharing of it with another who might appreciate it. In her he thinks he has found the one. 

For her it is simpler, this is the expected, she takes it for granted. When did she have this before?

For him, it is complex, what right has he to this happiness? 

And he questions this, how fortunate he is, and how so, and he wonders, goes into the quiet garden alone in the cool night air to look at the stars and wonder how perfect is this? And how to hold on to it? For she was made for him, of this he is sure.

She, she remains silent, smiles elusively and changes the topic. 

Maybe he is the one. Or maybe we make love where we find it.

Music, the Tibetan Throat Singers, Bulgarian Woman's Choir, the classical stylings of Wim Mertens and Philip Glass, the more contemporary Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, the haunting, offbeat lyrics and melodies of Joana Newsom, these, they bring them together, they discover these listening at night to what would become a favorite radio program, a favorite DJ, a raconteur, a playlist that sufficed and then they would both perk up, listen, their ears twitching, they had found something new, worthy, added to their playlist, a rabbit hole to be gone down, a new artist, quirky, novel, and they would enthuse about it until the next time they heard something equally transcendent.

They built a library of shared experience, discovery, their lives together.