The love of my life, Karen, has been reading The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain. In the following passage, Hadley Richardson Hemingway refers to her second husband, Paul, and fishing. The other fellow she mentions, Chink, was a wartime friend of Ernest’s with whom Ernest and Hadley traveled in the 1920’s:
“Late that afternoon, Paul and I took the long way to the stream and dropped our lines in just as the insects began to swarm and the light began to change. It was our favorite part of the day, this in-between time, and it always seemed to last longer than it should – a magic and lavender space unpinned from the hours around it, between worlds. I held my reel and felt the line list, and was back in Cologne with Ernest and Chink. Back at my first fish, knowing there wouldn’t be any fish without this one, and no love without the first one either” (p. 313).
As you may know from reading what I have posted over the past few months, this magic time of special light toward the end of the day is my favorite part of the day. The light feels just right to me at around four or five o’clock in the afternoon for most of the year. Borrowing Hadley Richardson Hemingway’s voice, it’s a time “between worlds” that, as she says, is “a magic and lavender space unpinned from the hours around it.”
This magic time of mine truly feels “unpinned” from other times in my day, and from other times in my life. At this time of my life, everything that I see or hear feels very separate from what’s come just before or, perhaps, what has happened many years before. And, also, I realize that in this time of my day, I see and hear all that’s come in earlier hours – with great clarity. With a grateful heart, I know: this time is lasting longer than it should.
It was such a blessing to have recently celebrated my 78th birthday with a clear head and a body that – although packed with a rich and challenging health history – is able to appreciate the unpinned, between-worlds, nature of this moment in time. I’m so very fortunate. I do not know how long this time will last; however, I know that I will cherish every moment of this magic time, this sweet time – while it does.
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What is your favorite time of the day?
Why is that time different from the rest of the day for you?
In what ways is that special time of yours “between worlds?”