EPISODE DESCRIPTION: What if we could see those different from us the way I see my early morning "fairy girl" who graces my walks with her barefoot stoicism? We would live in a different (and kinder) world, that's for sure. 

Episode Theme Music ‘A Christmas Story’ by Emmanuel Jacob

TRANSCRIPT

Hey there. Happy Monday. 

I hope your week has started off on a great foot. 

Speaking of, I do a walk slash run every morning for about an hour and a half, and I walk the neighborhood. As some of you know from listening to previous recordings, I run the hills. That's here nor there, actually. 

Fortunately, I live in an area of Austin where I have both nature trails and really beautiful neighborhoods I get to walk around in.

Now, I have a very meandering approach to my walking regimen. I try not to do the exact same walk every morning. Kind of like, I try not to drive down the same streets all the time to get a feel and experience more of this beautiful city I live in. 

So one of the things that I encounter not every day but often is a young girl who, to me, she reminds me of something that, like the druids or the ferries that you'd see in fields or forests of Celtic regions like Ireland or Scotland,

She's always dressed in the same flowing skirt, a long skirt down about her calves, and she's always barefoot. The only thing that really changes about her is the top she wears, and that's probably because some days she'll have a jacket on because, like today, it's chilly, or she'll have a tank top on because we have sweltering summers in this city.

But pretty much on the days that I see her, I can count on a few things. One, she has the same skirt on. She is barefoot. She is carrying an iPhone, and there have been times I've seen her and actually watched her videoing butterflies on a bush or zooming in on a really far-away hawk sitting up in a tree. She's very, very focused on nature every time I see her; when she isn't just walking past, and when she's just walking forward, she's often doing it with like a deadpan look in her eyes as if she's not really fully in her. 

But despite this deadpan look and the fact that she's kind of in a faraway place, I say good morning to her. Every morning I see her, and again, I don't see her every day, but I do see her often, and very few times she will acknowledge that I'm even in her presence. 

She’s, I believe, in another world. And beautifully, I think it’s a world that really suits her. Like she's in her mind somewhere that I'm not necessarily welcome, but every once in a while, like today, she will look my way, and she'll give me, it's kind of a peripheral flash of her eyes, right? It's not this straight-on look me in the eye, but she'll look dash her eyes to the right or left, whichever side I'm coming up on, and she'll smile.

It's kind of like she's saying, “I acknowledge you, but I can't really look at you because you're not supposed to even exist in my world.” 

So today, that happened, and it fills me. It's so sweet, and it's happened probably in the last year that I've seen her maybe three or four times. And again, I don't see her every day, but I see her at least twice a week, probably.

So if you count the ratio of good morning acknowledgment she's given me, it's pretty, pretty slim. But what's really beautiful about it is how it affects me. I have no idea what Micah Morning does for her. Probably most days. It's annoying to her because she's just trying to hang out with the rabbits and the butterflies and the.

I do it not to be annoying but because I wanna acknowledge her presence, and I really do want to wish her a good morning because she does something to mine. She fills it with something that's different from anything else that happens throughout my day. She's varied. She's, I don't know, colorful and creative, and at times, maybe awkward.

But she does something in my morning walks. When I get to see her, I get excited that she's coming toward me. Or if I'm going a different route and happen to be like coming up behind her, I get excited cuz I know at some point I'll get, she'll either meet me coming toward me, or I'll catch up to her and be able to say Good morning.

And I think she also represents something that I wish we had more of. Right. Especially. I think if we could look at one another, the way that she and I look at each other, especially people that are different from us that we don't understand or in some way make us feel awkward, or if we could look at each other, you know, and really see one another.

The way I get to see her every day is colorful. It's like I said, it's rare. Like a fairy, a fairy in the morning. If we could see people that are different from us that way, right? As a kind of a bright light or a like, even an odd or fantastical way. Like I think about. I don't know. This is, seems like a, this is a very stereotypical comparison, but I think of like somebody that's really like a staunch conservative, sees this flamboyant boy with pink hair and purple nail polish and you know, instead of going and making a face or vice versa.

The flamboyant boy with the pink hair and what, I don't remember what color? Nail polish. I said Purple nail polish sees the man with the eagle and the American flag on his t-shirt. And if we could see each other for the oddities that we really are and the unique things that we really are, yes, we're different from one another.

Thank goodness, right? Who wants to live in a homogenous society? If we could acknowledge and see each other and get excited or even just, just come out of our comfort zone a little bit, I think that would be such a beautiful thing. So this girl gives me a lot in the morning, and again, she's awkward.

She, for all practical purposes, would prefer that I did not exist. I wonder sometimes when she sees me coming, like I'm all like, "Oh, yay." I don't know her name. I know her in passing, but days like today when she turns, you know, her head slightly toward me and her eyes come toward me to say, “Hi. I see you, sort of.”

And then she smiles. She's never said good morning. She, I don't even know if she can speak, but she acknowledges the good morning on occasion. Four different times she's done it. Maybe three, I don't know. But this is my, as my walks, my meandering conversation about this little druid fairy girl that I see who lights my morning up, and I have no idea what I'm doing to hers.

And again, it doesn't matter because all I do is wish her. Well, would I like to talk to her? Sure. And mostly because I'm just curious mostly why she doesn't wear shoes. Like, I mean, it, it doesn't matter what the weather is. This morning it was 58 degrees and drizzling, and she was just there in her little skirt, flitting about with no shoes on.

And anyway, my, this whole diatribe is to say I wish we could all see one another coming and say, “Isn’t that colorful?” or “Isn't that interesting.” Or, “Isn't that rare?”

Instead of, “Oh God, look at that dude,” or “Look at that girl,” or, “Oh brother, there's one of them.” 

I don't know. She gives me hope.

There's something beautiful about what she adds to my life, even though I don't understand her. 

Okay.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

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The podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jenée Arthur.
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