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Around the base of this statue, it says this as one walks clockwise from the front right. And when done circumnavigating, and facing the same direction in the direction the statue of Mary McLeod Bethune, one can see down East Capitol Street to the Capitol Dome:
“I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I also leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow man. I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people.”
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.
I just returned from a trip to the Catskills for a long weekend of yoga, meditation, and a swimming lake in green mountains. I woke each morning before dawn and went out to be with the rising of the light. One morning dawned with a dense mist and fog. The doe was about to bound across the path as I was walking. She stopped short. I stepped back. Both of us equally startled. We looked at each other benignly curious. Then she ambled off and I did the same. On the way back to the guest house, I saw a porcupine run across the lawn. I understand that they are great pests, but I truly enjoyed getting to see one. I think I might like the porcupine as a spirit animal.