Scenes from the South

Over the past week:

*As we leave the Hoover Library, a teen-aged girl in hijab whizzes by us on her Heelys to a waiting car.

*The Indian women who live one building over get out of their minivan, clad not in their usual Western garb, but today in gorgeous, bright, saris, one red one blue, the edges of the fabric glittering, reflecting late afternoon sunlight – perhaps returning from one of these events, I’m thinking.

*Little Michael and I are walking around Heardmont Park. Having done the too-short trails twice already we are bored but still need a little more distance (at least I do. Stroller Boy just wants to hit the slide), so we do a turn through the parking lot. We end up behind three Japanese women, just done with tennis, chatting in, well, Japanese. They part ways, each getting into one of three Honda Ridgelines, parked side-by-side.

*At Mass, an older woman begins the reading from Philippians, her voice low yet firm and rooted to this place –  “Bruuthahs and sistahs…”

Wonderful.