Waking up is like opening a book.
I woke up with this one idea, that waking up is like opening a new book. I spent about an hour thinking of how I can express that in poetry, but I can’t quite find a convincing opening line. “Waking up is like opening a book” sounded boring and carried none of the impact of what I wanted to say.
It’s like when hands touch the hard-bound cover for the first time, feeling the texture of it. You find equal parts carefulness and adventure in the slow lift, in the anticipation of finding something new, or maybe in remembering things you’ve already forgotten.
Perhaps for being dormant too long, the sudden stress applied to the spine might even make a sound. A sigh of relief after being stacked under a dozen or so other books, the crackle of joints stretched after being pressed-down-under too heavily.
Slowly, one by one, you go through the pages. How long you stay on a page depends on how much effort you want to give in understanding, in comprehending. Each page becomes an exercise in unburdening, of taking away what you would take away from the day — in the same way that it becomes an exercise in burdening, of adding new things to the long list of things you already know.
Maybe I shouldn’t see it that way; learning does not necessarily have to be a burden. In any case, it adds weight, it adds substance.
I find myself thinking of things I was never adventurous about. Like Japanese food, or a change in career. Of travelling to other countries.
Yet, at the end of most days I put the book away, having not taken anything from it, and not giving anything in return. There are times I wish that days can be as undemanding as this.
Not every day can be as linear and structured as a book, although most of them are. Predictable. Familiar. They can be mere reflections of books we’ve already read. Just like a mirror skewed slightly, shining new light in all of the pages you’ve already seen.
It may be rare to find a book so exceptional that when you find it you could confidently say, “Alright, this is something new. This is something I have never seen before.”
But there’s always tomorrow, and the day after that.
