Good "Soul" Day.

You know how sometimes the world can have a way of bearing down on you to the point that your sense of self, your soul, shrivels into a raisin, black and wrinkly and sticky but somehow you don't give up on it because of the remembrance of what it once was?

That's the way I've been feeling lately.

My first sight of today held no hints of its restorative qualities. After all, I'd been up until three in the morning, and had to get some stuff done before some appointments, so sleeping in wasn't an option. To say that I wasn't exactly "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" would have been quite the understatement. But I got up and got moving and once the water hit me, I figured I could "play human" today.

But it turned out so much better. Today gave me "Me" again.

The first appointment was to return an artifact we'd borrowed for a display. I'd been looking forward to seeing it (a portrait) in its rightful home, a tea room on the Peninsula, and the idea of travel by water, however brief, was something I was looking forward to. Well, not only was it a treat to finally meet my contact with this group in person, but after spending a couple of hours there, it felt like I had come home. I was surrounded by "good people" who took me in and I was one of them, and suddenly I no longer felt the orphan I've been feeling for a month now. I felt, for the first time in weeks, like I could take a deep breath again.

Coming home, I took the Millidgeville ferry, rolled down my window and just let myself get lost in the feeling of water. The new ferry is faster than the old one was, but that ten minutes still feels just as good as the old fifteen did. Once off the ferry, I was completely undecided as to where to go next, so I just let the whim carry me where it would. Before long, I had the idea I ought to head to Dollarama to pick up a couple of composition journals to play with, and so that's where I headed.

I had just placed my items on the counter in front of the cashier when I spotted an old friend walking in the door. I sought eye contact and got it, and before long we were playing the "What Have You Been Doing the Last Ten Years?" game. He's a very exciting person to be around, one of those people who vibrates with creative energy, and gives you his complete, undivided attention when he's talking to you. As we talked about his most recent project, it felt just plain good. Being around him, talking with him, has always put me in touch with who I am, at my very core, and it's a side of myself -- the writer, the dreamer -- that I haven't reached in so long that she probably thought I gave up on her. But talking to my old friend again, I realized she was right there, just waiting for me to remember her name. She turned to face us as soon as he called her.

As much as I grumbled, I am so glad I got out of bed today. It's like I got in the car and went on a journey to find myself again. As if the heavens somehow aligned and the past eight hours were planned specifically to put my pieces back together.