Welcome Autumn




I entered Union Station this morning to head first to NY and then on to Vermont for the Anusara Grand Gathering for the summer solstice. I admired for the several thousandth time how grand and extraordinary a space it is. As I looked up and around its lovingly crafted vastness, I thought of how we live in the samscaric wake of those who put their dreams, their hopes, and their pride in traveling from one place to another, believing that it was at the next place happiness would manifest. Then I thought, this is home and not just a place of departure and arrival. This grandeur is a space that is part of my every day.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
This was the kind of imagery lying around the rooms of the cool older kids when I was starting to form my cultural consciousness.
This morning I saw a pretty feather on the sidewalk while I was walking to work past the Senate office buildings.
I squatted to take a close up photo, but a breeze sent it flying before I could snap the shutter. I went after it, replaced it in a sunny patch for best light, and then tried again.
While I was still low to the ground with my camera phone out, a police officer on a bicycle came up to me and said that it was a pretty feather; I could have it if I wanted.
I said I would leave it there for someone else to enjoy. Taking and sharing the photo on my yoga blog would be enough. We agreed that it looked like a robin may have encountered a hawk.
The officer smiled and continued down the sidewalk on bicycle patrol. I resumed my walk to work.
I wondered whether the interaction would have been so pleasant if I hadn’t been a decently dressed (i.e, evidently middle class), small, middle-aged, white woman.