riding the cah

I've been commuting by street-car, aka 'riding the cah', this week. It's slow. An hour to get home yesterday during rush hour and and an hour to get in today simply because it didn't show up for 25 minutes (they are supposed to run every 10 minutes during busy times). My best time for house door to office door has been 40 minutes - I have a 3/4 mile walk from each stop. I only live 3 miles from my office, so I could do the entire walk in 45 minutes to an hour depending on pace.

Why ride the cah? Because it is New Orleans and I get to feel the cool breeze and get some good people watching in. Yesterday, about half-way through my journey, a man wearing bottle glasses and overalls began tapping his foot, then patting his knee, then humming, before long he was singing "Wade in the Water," and suddenly he was up and dancing back and forth down the aisle of the car, kicking, twisting and waving his arms. The driver/ captain started yelling at him to 'Get off the cah!' - so, at the next stop, dancing man shimmied his way up the aisle, down the steps, and out into the grass. There he planted himself, singing about the water and looking off in the direction of his next ride...

deep breathing and focus

When anxious about life, I find comfort in wisdom passed on from others. Today, for multiple reasons, I am anxious about life.

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are." -Bernice Johnson Reagon

"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it." - Rosalia de Castro

"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

So, I read what those before me have written, and I know that their words are true to my life as well. As I breathe in and out while contemplating our present, which is quickly becoming our history, James and I grab onto one another and plunge our best selves forward.

22 days and counting - before 'Operation Po-boy' comes to a close and we return to FLA to regroup and plan the next