Sitting at my table, six chairs surround it all. Who will come to dinner tonight, what shadows mark my wall? Fear, disappointment, happiness, or joy? Worry, lonliness, or laughter? Who will take the floor? They take turns knocking, sometimes they overflow. The only thing I’ve found to do is let them have their say. Then at last they take a bow and kindly fade away.
But to make the space and time for them is often hard to come by, so they run amuck inside my head until I say enough! Tonight I’ll entertain the ones who will kindly take a seat. Show your face, pick a place, kindly wait your turn. Now which of you has been interrupting all my precious sleep?
Six chairs tonight, I take up one, not enough left for everyone. It’s standing room only, so be quick you simple ones. The longest attending one I see sits across from me. I know him by a few names, his face and place constantly change just as the sea. Sometimes he sits so close to me. He smothers all the others. It’s on these nights his breath is heavy and he blows out all my wicks. The wicks that light the dancing shadows that move along in time with a song known as hope. Those nights I know his name as Lonliness, he threatens in the dark.
Other nights, like tonight, he takes a seat afar. Sitting opposite of me, he shares in the entertaining, of all the other attendees as they dance and cry, or yell. He never really ever leaves, a companion in the flames. On such nights as these, he calls himself Contentment. He sits with me, secure in all the noise of quiet bliss, while other voices sing their song, and shadows dance upon my wall. We sit and listen in the space, to the feelings that grace my place with the presence of their face.
Who will come to dinner tonight? What voice will represent? Longing, joy, excitement, pain, or bitterness with regret? Laughter, sorrow, worry, dissapointment, wonder, or the one we know as fury? Love, kindness, nostalgia, peace, or harmony? Melancholy, passion, zest, or grief? Terror, lonliness and shame, or frustration, desire, hope? And still I wonder, do these guests I know have dinner at your table?
The Fish Eye 