Life is a patchwork of moments. Happy moments. Sad ones. Angry, frustrating, gut-wrenching, despairing ones.
And then there are those unassuming moments, fleeting but beautiful - they creep up on you, work themselves under your skin, wind into your hair, grab you by the throat, take your breath away and touch your soul - visceral, animal, alive.
We have a new intern K at work and she is such a character that I find myself increasingly fascinated by her and her stories and her life. She reminds me a lot of myself at her age - ambitious, motivated and yet naive and enthusiastic.
Anyway, this post isn't about her but something she said a couple of days ago.
K decided she thinks I'm a blueberry. Yes, a blueberry. You know, the fruit.
Considering she just threw this at me while I was in the middle of a complicated excel sheet, I was a bit blindsided. Recovering my composure, I wondered if it was even worth my time to ask her what exactly she meant. Before I could make up my mind, she announced that she thought R, my boyfriend, whom she had met very recently, was an orange.
Now that completely threw me off course.
Because you see, blueberries and oranges don't go together.
Have you ever heard of a blueberry and orange smoothie? A healthy orange and blueberry salad? No.
Oranges are fresh, zesty and pack a punch. Blueberries are mellow, flavourful and squishy.
So, they don't go together.
Clearly I was reading too much into one offhand remark and yet, I couldn't get it out of my head.
We've always been different, Him and I. We work differently but we always work together. And yet, K's offhand remark seemed to stir up some unpleasant thoughts. Were our differences so distinct and our personalities so individual so as to make us seem incompatible?
On the train back home that evening with R , I sat sulking, trying to talk some sense into myself. And when that didn't work (which to be honest, it never does), I turned to R and said, ' Do you think blueberries and oranges go together?'
To his credit, his face didn't register any surprise, nor did he show any inclination to move very far away from this very crazy woman. He heard me out as I expounded upon my oranges-and-blueberries-don't-go-together theory in great detail and with all the gravitas of recounting a major life issue.
I ended dramatically with ' So, have you EVER heard of a blueberry and orange smoothie?'
And he said ' But maybe that's what the world has been waiting for.'
And there it was. Perspective and Poetry all rolled into one moment.
I don't know how he does it.
And then there are those unassuming moments, fleeting but beautiful - they creep up on you, work themselves under your skin, wind into your hair, grab you by the throat, take your breath away and touch your soul - visceral, animal, alive.
We have a new intern K at work and she is such a character that I find myself increasingly fascinated by her and her stories and her life. She reminds me a lot of myself at her age - ambitious, motivated and yet naive and enthusiastic.
Anyway, this post isn't about her but something she said a couple of days ago.
K decided she thinks I'm a blueberry. Yes, a blueberry. You know, the fruit.
Considering she just threw this at me while I was in the middle of a complicated excel sheet, I was a bit blindsided. Recovering my composure, I wondered if it was even worth my time to ask her what exactly she meant. Before I could make up my mind, she announced that she thought R, my boyfriend, whom she had met very recently, was an orange.
Now that completely threw me off course.
Because you see, blueberries and oranges don't go together.
Have you ever heard of a blueberry and orange smoothie? A healthy orange and blueberry salad? No.
Oranges are fresh, zesty and pack a punch. Blueberries are mellow, flavourful and squishy.
So, they don't go together.
Clearly I was reading too much into one offhand remark and yet, I couldn't get it out of my head.
We've always been different, Him and I. We work differently but we always work together. And yet, K's offhand remark seemed to stir up some unpleasant thoughts. Were our differences so distinct and our personalities so individual so as to make us seem incompatible?
On the train back home that evening with R , I sat sulking, trying to talk some sense into myself. And when that didn't work (which to be honest, it never does), I turned to R and said, ' Do you think blueberries and oranges go together?'
To his credit, his face didn't register any surprise, nor did he show any inclination to move very far away from this very crazy woman. He heard me out as I expounded upon my oranges-and-blueberries-don't-go-together theory in great detail and with all the gravitas of recounting a major life issue.
I ended dramatically with ' So, have you EVER heard of a blueberry and orange smoothie?'
And he said ' But maybe that's what the world has been waiting for.'
And there it was. Perspective and Poetry all rolled into one moment.
I don't know how he does it.
Very interesting comment! :) And considering you overthink, that was definitely food for 'overthought" :P
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