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    “What Is It?”

    As I squatted on the brick sidewalk to take this photo during my lunch time walk, a nice-looking older man stopped and asked “what is it?” He was quite tall and standing at an angle that would not have showed the shape as well as from where I was positioned.

    “Stand on this side; what do you see?” I asked. He looked from my perspective. “A leaf,” he said with a quizzical expression, wondering why a dessicated bit of English ivy would have captured my attention sufficiently for me to take a photograph.

    “Look again,” I suggested. “Can you see anything else?”

    “Ah,” he said with delighted recognition: “it’s a heart.”

    “Yes. I see them and other interesting shapes in all sorts of things–litter, blackened chewing gum, the pavement itself.”

    “Everything has more than one form,” he rejoined. “You are blessed.”

    And thus we went our separate ways, having brightened our day with this small connection. If he lives in the neighborhood, no doubt we will recognize each other enough from this encounter, at least to smile and say hello.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    How to Wear a Sari

    I just got an email telling us things I need to know about wearing a sari and related dress and grooming items. Today, I saw a demo on the bus:

    Shoulders covered–check
    Chest covered–check
    Ankles covered–check
    Hair pulled back and kept secure with bobbie pins–check
    Gold necklance–check
    Gold bangles–check
    Handbag tucked into sari–there could be another bag under there, but this is DC, so it may not matter.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    Keeping Things in Perspective

    We were holding at New Carrollton Station. Ten minutes or so passed before there was an announcement. The first announcement said that there was a “medical condition.” The second, perhaps five minutes later, referred to a “medical emergency” and that we were waiting for medical personnel to arrive. The third announced a “medical situation” and that we were still waiting for “appropriate medical persons” to come, but that we would leave as soon as they arrived. The final announcement let us know that the medical personnel had arrived and that we were about to depart for the next station. That we were leaving immediately upon arrival made it most likely that the person who was sick was leaving the train to go to the emergency room

    Sure. I sent a text to the friend scheduled to pick me up on the other end of my trip and wondered how late I would be. Mostly, I took the experience as a reminder to be grateful that I was merely going to be late to visit friends and family (who would be perfectly understanding) and was not suffering from an accident or sudden illness. I spent a few moments in meditation, holding this stranger and those human beings who lives were just shifted by being in relationship to a greater or lesser degree to this stranger. I contemplated how those 15 minutes of waiting may have been of extreme pain and fear.

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