A Day That Never Ends

 

Aria woke to the blast of her alarm-again. Here of course the red figures had a nasty way of staring 7 00AM, just as before the previous days. This seemed to her at first a case of deja vu, but when her coffee spilt again, in the same way, and her neighbour waved his hand at the same moment, she realised that something peculiar was afoot.

No matter what she did the day started all over. When she missed breakfast it came back. When she phoned in sick at work, it came back. The clock still rebegan at midnight even when she ran out of the city.

Initially she was frustrated. She passed a lot of time crying, shouting, even walking on the edge of danger but the morning brought her back to her bed at 7:00 AM. Then, gradually, it occurred to her that the loop was no jail--it was a challenge.

She began to pay attention to minor things: how the elderly man in the grocer store groaned when nobody addressed him, how her colleague Maya was more cheerful when she got a compliment, how her mother was kinder when she said that she missed her. In the loop, Aria was taught to listen, care and live deliberately.

The repetition each time brought an opportunity to fix what had gone wrong, to attempt kindness where indifference had been, courage over fear. She played piano in the park, told a friend about her feelings and laughed her ribs out.

One night her clock struck midnight, when she whispered, with her thankful heart, a word of thanks to the universe. This time no alarm was rung. Instead golden sunlight fell in, warm at its best.

And the circle was gone astray Yet Aria understood the teachable moment: all of our days, no matter how brief, contain the potential of an infinite number of decisions--provided individuals and human beings are brave enough to live their days to the fullest.