‘days like this’

My first apartment after college was across Golden Gate Park, and one day while getting ready for work at an advertising agency in downtown San Francisco, I spotted a gang of seagulls flying around the trees bordering the park. Then Van Morrison’s ‘Into the Mystic’ came on the radio (it was 1990), and I was lost in the music.

My first Van Morrison experience, and I will never forget the feeling of, ‘oh this is what life is supposed to feel like’. I was flying out there with those birds, I knew freedom as it was meant to be defined.

And in case you are wondering, I was entirely sober, getting ready to ride Muni into the city and sit at my desk for more than 8 hours that day. Suppose that freedom feeling was the juxtaposition of those birds and my life… but it was simply a moment to acknowledge life’s amazing gift with the help of music.

PHOTO: jasmin chew @Pexels