The Accidental Office Lady by Laura Kriska

Author:Laura Kriska [Kriska, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 2011-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

I was regularly commuting to work on my bicycle. The main roads were so familiar that I had stopped carrying the map. I had even started experimenting with taking shortcuts, doing what I could to make the ride more enjoyable.

On my way home from work one night I decided to stop and investigate the shrine that I had seen peeking over the concrete wall on my first bicycle ride to work. From a side road I found a driveway that led into the courtyard. It was still and dark. I leaned my bicycle against a stone bench. There was a faint scent of incense. The cherry blossoms had come and gone, but their fleeting visit had sweetened the spring air. I followed a concrete path that led to a row of red torii gates. Each torii looked like a symbolic door with no house attached—just two stilt-like legs sticking up from the ground with a single beam across the top. If I jumped really high I thought I might be able to grab the beam, but I didn’t think it could hold me. Half a dozen torii were lined up, each a foot away from the other, forming a kind of tunnel—a gateway of endless doors.

Near the steps leading up to the shrine, I saw a sign announcing daily meditation meetings. The dark wooden doors were open, but I could only see the faint outline of some statue or figure inside. I sat on the steps and looked at the sky. The moon was out. I slowed my breathing and let my body relax. The air felt warm and soft as I breathed in the mellow, burning aroma.

I was amazed that a place like this could have seemed so mysterious and unreachable when I had first seen it. Now I was resting here. I felt connected to Japan in a way I’d never felt before. I was recognizing and naming the contours of my life in this foreign place, finally making gestures toward ownership, not borrowed or visited, but making it my own.

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