Enlightenment

by Sarah Perry

I have found the proper motion of the stars a comfort. It reminds me that we are all in motion, and we’re never unchanged. Often it seems we stand still and lonely, absolutely solitary on the turning world. But all the same: we move.

Real humility is submitting with wonder and gratitude to being loved—real wisdom is understanding how amazing it is, how improbable and really absurd, that she was summoned out of nothing as we all were, and happens to breathe this air when you breathe it, and see this world when you see it, and that out of all her billions of fellow travelers it is your word she waits for as she sits alone in her room!