I like watching people open their doors for business in the mornings. And now that I am on the road, many roads actually, and many days before 7, I get to witness this all the more often.
No matter the type of business, no matter the location, no matter the person’s race or gender, age or physical appearance, when hands unlock a door hope has been declared. Or that’s what it looks like to me.
I think about how the person must have felt initially to make this business their own. No matter how run down the office or the shop, the person had to have at least a moment of delight when added a physical address to their vision. I like to think it was a passion, to open whatever the place was, and from passion came vision and then deliberate effort, and voila. Doors could be opened.
Even for the worker who may not own the store, but whose job it is to open up, a transaction of validation is made. I like being the first one in to a work place. I like the quiet. I like the idea that it is something of my doing, my creation. And though it may not have been my ideal job, still I imbue upon each hand I see turning doorknobs with the excitement one gets at hearing they have a job. There is nothing more energizing.
When I see the openings of these doors in the wee small morning hours, I choose not to see their tired faces. The lines that may have moved into foreheads from fear over finances. I choose to ignore the sometimes-vacant look as I glance quickly toward their eyes, and I try not to wonder if there was some other plan that they might have had for their lives other than this one. I try to stay with the hope and the pleasure that initial opportunity brings to each and to every one of us. So that when I open my own eyes and feel the impossible reality sometimes of these early morning to-do-lists, I can remember. I can conjure the doorknob I saw and entrust it to my story opening every day a new reality.
in peace and gratitude,
michelle
Our practice is as scheduled this week:
MONDAY 8:30-9:45 am
WEDNESDAY 6:00-7:00 pm
