Heaven Sent Tempest

Weather Changes

The next day, the air of uneasiness dissipated between the two of them. They started talking more and even watched the news together. It was still raining heavily outside so they were still stuck inside the house. Liz tried busying herself with chores: cleaning the countertop, organizing the pantry, cleaning the tub, and other mundane tasks that could drain her energy.

Sebastian, on the other hand, was on his phone, trying to figure out how to make it work after it soaked in rainwater. He was able to get his stuff inside the trunk of his car but realizing that his efforts to revive his phone were futile, he placed it inside his bag. He then took out a book and opened it to read where he left off.

"So you like reading, huh?" Liz remarked when she walked out of the kitchen and saw him seated on the couch, deeply absorbed with the book in his hand.

"I mean, yeah...I like reading." he replied

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"The Course of Love by Alain de Boton... interesting perspective about love."

"Hmm... I haven't read that." Liz walked towards him. Sebastian moved to make space for her to sit.

"Listen to this" Sebastian started to read to her, "Maturity means acknowledging that Romantic love might only constitute a narrow and perhaps mean-minded aspect of emotional life, one principally focused on a quest to find love rather than to give it, to be loved rather than to love."

Liz nodded. "Yeah, sometimes we forget that love is not just romantic love. People are too focused on finding someone who'll shower them with it. But they don't realize that the love in their hearts isn't put there to stay. Love isn't love till you give it away...that's by Oscar Hammerstein, by the way."

Sebastian smiled. "I like that" he said. "Do you want me to go on?"

"Sure."

Liz found herself smiling and staring at Sebastian. He would look up to her every now and then as he reads. She tried not to meet him in the eye because she knew she would get flustered. His voice was mellow, hushed and soothing to the ears, at times soft and almost inaudible. She was distracted by how his voice held her in a trance to the point that she was not fully comprehending the words coming out.

After a few more paragraphs, Sebastian partly closed the book and looked at Liz, "How about you? You read a lot? I noticed you got a nice bookshelf there." Pointing at the ceiling to floor bookshelf on the left wall stacked with various titles.

"Are you kidding? I breathe in books.. you may have noticed the wall." She grinned. "I read a lot as a child because my grandpa loves to read too." Liz stood up and went to the bookshelf, "These are some of his books that I liked rereading." She pointed at the lower shelves. "And these are all my books" she gestured at the books on the rest of the shelves. "This is what I'm currently reading." She took a book on the shelves and handed to Sebastian.

"Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.. Hmm.." Sebastian leafed through the pages of the book.

"He's a concentration camp survivor who was able to build his own brand of psychotherapy." Liz offered. She took the book from Sebastian's hands and opened on the page she remembered, "One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it."

"What do you think?" Liz asked

Sebastian considered his answer for a while. Then sighed, "I guess the meaning of our lives depend on what we do with it."