On Thursday I walked with a friend to the beach at Tennessee Valley.  It was finally cool enough to be outside during the day and perhaps people didn’t realize it because we were almost the only ones there.  What’s stayed with me is three women I watched start down the path. One was conservatively dressed in black, and the other two were completely covered in black burqas with only their eyes exposed.  

We passed them more closely on the way back as the trail was narrow, and we all said hello to each other as we passed.  Their voices were young and sweet.  I had no idea of their age before that but their voices were clearly young.  

Even though the weather had cooled, it was still hot, and they were enclosed, and I’m not sure why their voices have stayed with me, but they are here with me this night, with a crescent moon alight in the sky.  

Tonight I listened to and watched Anne Lamott and Mirabai Starr speak at Book Passage.  Since I can’t see to drive at night these days I watched online.  They discussed Mirabai’s new book, Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground.  

In the discussion, Mirabai, raised Jewish, pointed out we’re in the Days of Awe, the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and yet, my sense of her book is we’re in moments of Awe when we are awake to them.  

Anne Lamott ended the evening by reading Rumi’s poem “The Guest House”.  It is to honor the guides as they come, and depending where we live, enjoy the moon and meteor showers again tonight.