Early to Rise

“All shall be well, and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well.”
--Dame Julian of Norwich

Downtown Minneapolis in the 6 o'clock (a.m.) hour is an odd place. A hush has fallen over its bustling precincts; there are people around, but they hurry on their way with heads bent. Even the hiss of espresso machines in skyway coffeehouses sounds strangely muted.



Perhaps it seems weird to me partly because anywhere I find myself before dawn feels a bit surreal. And yet, there's a certain charm in walking the wide corridor of an empty skyway while headlights burn a transient path through the shadowed street below.



In those sleepy moments as I make my way through the maze with my coffee mug in hand and my office shoes not yet ready to remind me that they haven't quite broken in, I am so very glad that all the struggle of the last two years has led me to this life I have today, to my new job and my little apartment-kingdom with its fine patina of cat hair, to old friends and new, to that still and quiet place inside myself, and to the endless possibilities strung out before me like the glowing spheres of the streetlights along Nicollet Mall.



I am remade. I am new. I am filled with wonder.

I am happy.