Peculiar changes in the geist over the last few days. Friday, as I was working, I was watching a massive storm shroud the mountain behind the city in darkness for a few hours. Odd dreams, the usual. But over the last day or so, the mind when reading has been, not distracted, precisely, but focused in different ways. Large festival in the city over the weekend, apparently coinciding with a set of commencement exercises at the centuries-old (and seriously royalist) university. Missed the big concert in the piazza this evening, as it was a small paragraph in a 30 pp. PDF schedule, starting at noon, and omitted from the website schedule, but actually a slate of national singers whose songs were so well known that I could hear the massive crowds singing them from my rooms in a completely different part of the city, the concert going well into the night. Oddness.
Given the exorbitant prices for the tall Americanos in these parts (almost $5), I've strictly limited my consumption. (Well under $3 in Belgrade.) Had the first this afternoon, after making it to Mass just in time for the closing blessing. (Technically, there is no binding church law on the amount of the Mass that must be heard in terms of the obligation, to my knowledge, though historically most confessors' manuals require the bit between the bells. But, not wishing to rest my defenses against condemnation on casuistry, stayed for a good bit of quiet meditation, including a visit to the baptistry to gawk at the medieval mural of the two swords.)
Very, very peculiar few days in terms of inner experience. The reading especially. Lightened the load today and just read a CS Lewis novel. (Incipit of the sci-fi trilogy. Rewarding if you imagine the chapters being read to the Inklings, and try to suss out what really might have been being said.)
Odd shifts in the Force. As if a considerably deeper river were crossing the stream at a certain point.
"I am not for all waters." Nor, for that matter, against any given one of them. Carefully, jovially, and gently on.