on this day, like any other

I am drinking very strong black tea in a dimming apartment, just home from the adventure of my first day teaching downtown. Everything is quiet and simple, which is an illusion, or at least only a very momentary state. My mind is full.

Stepping into an empty elevator today, I was deliciously surrounded by someone's perfume-shadow. No one got off the elevator on my floor (the ninth floor), but somewhere in the not-so-distant past of that little box of tile and wood, a woman wearing beautiful perfume had stood. I stood surrounded by her scent, and smiled.

Last week I watched a Fed-Ex truck pass a UPS truck stopped for delivery. I watched the Fed-Ex truck slow down, and I watched the two drivers give each other the thumbs-up sign.

Tonight I will warm a bowl of black bean soup, and I will pull out my highlighters and my binders and my books, and I will Get Back To It. I will light a candle and pray for healing in our world. I will move about in my own little life, hoping, because that is what we do.