Morning Call to Prayer

Out my 2nd floor windows, I get to watch Duncan's garden come back to life.


The sunny tulips from dear Anna Kohler.

Lee is on a two week Spring Break. He needed it. Apparently I needed it too because I got the most ridiculous cold which migrated into my sinuses and set up a small city there. Now, I was feeling rather pompous about not having been to a doctor (okay, except my wellness care - get your PAP smears and mammograms, girls) since the summer of 2007. I have been going to an acupuncturist, almost monthly for what I call my tune-ups, since then and have been well. Until two weeks ago.

When...I caught this bug. I had gotten lazy about washing my hands in NY, especially. And, really, does anyone want to imagine the critters that camp out on the posts and railings in a subway? So, I dragged around like a toddler's overloved stuffed monkey, shredding at the seams, for 12 days - then said, "Enough" and went to a doctor and got antibiotics - and I am on the mend. I know it because I am happy again after being miserable for a week.

It is 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday. My apartment is clean. There is this tender cool breeze coming in my second story window. The light is glorious. My friend, Anna Kohler, came to visit last night and brought me a voluminous bunch of sunny tulips that, at this moment, look lit from inside.

Because it is Spring Break here in Minneapolis too, the streets are deserted. Even 50th Street, usually filled with Volvos and vans with kids and sports equipment, is empty. I can cross leisurely on my walk. Lee commented on the silence. "This is like a retreat. It is surreal." (Of course, this is a man who has been in New York since last August.) One of my neighbors has hung a low-toned chime. The sound has lulled me to sleep for the last few nights with windows open. And, when I awoke to it this morning, I felt called to rise - as if to morning prayer.

So, that is how Spring in Minnesota feels on this morning. I feel called to prayer, one of gratitude - for Lee, for the many friends that we have spent time with this week, for my apartment, for my family, for my work, for this day.

Happy Passover and Easter.