Perfect Moment: Early Saturday morning

It’s still a little gloomy outside. It’s barely past 8am on this Saturday morning; usually I’d still be sound asleep but today the cathedral bells woke me up. They ring once more to signal that it’s a quarter after eight now, time for me to get up. Lying around just because it’s warm and wonderful under these covers has never been a decent excuse.

I climb down the latter of my loft bed, still sleepy and starting to feel the cold of the grey room creep in on me. I left the heat running on low all through the night and thus, this morning, the windows are foggy.

I stumble into the bathroom, shivering and with my eyes squeezed shut. The tiles under my feet are cruelly cold, I let hot water run over my wrists because my mom always told me that’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re cold. It’s where the veins run closest to the skin’s surface and the hot water warms up the blood circling through me immediately. I don’t know whether this is actually true but it works every time.

I wash my face. Since I’m already up and miserably freezing, I reason, I might as well go take care of the groceries right now. However, the thought of going outside sends another wave of goosebumps over my night-chilled body.

I take my scarf, my winter jacket, my wallet, my keys and a tote bag and crawl down the stairs. I open the front door which leads me into the cathedral’s courtyard, and once more I am amazed by its beauty. It’s empty this early in the morning.

The air is clean and crisp. The sun is stroking the rooftops all around me, it’s there and it’s yellow and bright but I can tell that fall has arrived because its beams are not as warm. It is here and it shines a lovely light but it cannot fight the cold that has settled into these old stone walls.

I walk around the corner, slip through that narrow path between my building and the cathedral - and suddenly I am bathed in sunlight. My eyes are blinded and my skin is burned and I want to simply stand still and live in this perfect moment; embrace it and catch it, feel it with my fingers. But it’s not palpable or manifest, it’s just a perfect moment. A split second in time that has never been and will never be this complete again.