HINT OF HEAVEN

There I was this morning as is my wont these days, kneeling in the driveway in the light rain after a night’s heavy rain (as to the why of it, no spoiler here, but as any fan of baptism knows, the rain washes away the surface of things and reveals the hidden). As I edged my way purposefully up toward the house, carefully scrutinizing the ground, I was suddenly bowled over into purposelessness by the rich fragrance flowing from the jinchoge (Daphne) bush, whose blossoms had for a few days now been lightly perfuming the upper air where I normally reside; but here, down where the earth is, where the cool air and rain were heading and the moment happened to find me, the whole river of jinchoge was flowing as it must in heaven, and I was awash…

I breathed deeply and again, to take in that scent with its whisper of lime lineage, that trace of orange connection, a touch of gardenia in the family perhaps, and then the modicum that makes it jinchoge. Then the heavy rain returned, so I returned into the upper air where we all live, where there is a hint of heaven.

But now I know there's more.