Extra Days

What would you do if the universe suddenly handed you an EXTRA DAY?

Extra days can be metaphorical – I mean, actual EXTRA DAYS are few and far between.  But if one landed in your lap – what would you do?

I was thinking about this question today.  I was handed a literal EXTRA DAY by the universe, and it is today.  We were confused on what day our flight home from vacation was.  We had written down on the calendar for FRIDAY.  We had the right airline, right flight number and times, but put it on the wrong DATE. 

And it wasn’t until the automated email from the airline popped in on WEDNESDAY night urging us to check-in for our upcoming flight that we realized the mistake…  After over an hour on hold with the airline chat system (and the same amount of time with the airline phone recording playing the same hold music over and over…) – we finally got a chat agent who graciously moved our flight (with no change fee!) to the day we mistakenly thought it was, Friday.

Extra day.

We spent the first hours of it (midnight to 3:00 am) binge watching the show we are currently enthralled by, “Orange Is The New Black”.  Then I slept away hours and hours of the extra day.  When I finally rolled out of bed, we played a new card game I got for Christmas.  Then, the beach.

As we walked along, listening to the waves crashing, I pondered EXTRA DAYS. How often to they magically fall into our laps, but we do not notice?  Or when we DO notice, we (and by “we” I mean me…) work SO HARD to justify their magical-ness that we fill them with glitter and rainbow and sunshine from sun-up to sun-down – rushing and doing and dancing and celebrating, without ever taking a breath.

But maybe the MAGIC of an extra day is being given the time and space to ponder the extra day?  Could that be?

As we walked the beach, I noticed a couple.  They were dressed warmly – pants and jackets - even though it was around 70 degrees and sunny.  The woman walked with a cane, not an easy feat on sand.  They put chairs down and after they sat awhile, her sweetheart went back to their condo to get her an even warmer jacket.  The image was so lovely that I snuck a photo.

They were beautiful.  They were not aware that we had spied them, and they turned to one another and kissed.  It was a long, lovely kiss.  He had to hold the top of her flappy sunhat up to be able to reach her mouth.  It wasn’t the messy, passionate kiss of junior high love birds.  It was a delicate, seasoned kiss of two people whose souls had bonded.

So as my partner and I continued our walk on the sand, holding hands, I thought, THAT.  THAT is what a person should do if given an EXTRA DAY by the universe. 

They should plant themselves squarely on the beach, or in a field, or a meadow, or a library, or under a tree, or in a theatre.  If they are extremely lucky, they will have a life partner to join them.  They should breathe in the air.  They should hold hands and kiss.  They should read a book.  They should tell a story.  They should rest their eyes.  They should live.

I approached the couple when we got back to them and showed them the photo I had snuck from behind.  They smiled big, broad smiles.  David reported that we had spied them kissing, and that made their eyes shine with delight.  While we talked, their story came out – they were new lovers.  They had known one another 50 years ago, but it wasn’t until 5 months ago that he reached out, they reconnected, and became a couple. 

I imagined them both widowed after long, happy marriages.  I imagined her delight in receiving his, “Hello, do you remember me?” email from out of the blue.  I told them that they looked like a perfect match, and she said that she could tell that we, too, had a special bond. 

I got brave and probed a bit and my assumptions were wrong.  Turns out they are both divorcees.  And her divorce will actually become final while they are here on this trip.  You see, her EXTRA DAY came in the form of an email from a man in the past.  She said, “I wasn’t sure what would happen with this relationship, but I knew I had to get out of the 26 year marriage I had been in”. 

So many people stay in situations that do not bring them joy.  Some are painful.  Some are unhappy.  Some are dangerous.  Yet people stay.  It feels impossible to leave – impossible to change. 

But if not now – when? 

Seize the extra days.  They are few and far between, and they are gifts. 

EXTRA DAY