Silences and Sounds

In Abu Dhabi, where I was in transit, the sun rose while a bus took us from the plane to the airport terminal.  After Bombay, with its tropical air and its intense colors, this landscape seemed to belong to another planet.

This lone bird, on the plane I was about to board in Abu Dhabi, appealed to me.

After I returned from India--where I had been in big cities, moving quickly, making the most of every day, and talking with many people--I needed to turn inward, slow down, and be silent.

My partner, Marilyn, had returned a week earlier, so I made the long journey home alone.  For those twenty-four hours, I didn't have to speak to anyone except airport personnel and the flight attendant. The solitude was blissful--and striking because I was surrounded by people the entire time.

The shoreline of Chicago appeared as we flew in over Lake Michigan.

Every year, I plant this strawberry jar with a different combination of flowers. 

Marilyn nurtured this pot of geraniums over the winter, and now it lives on our deck again  Red geraniums are among our favorite flowers.

After returning home to the Midwest, I have spent time in the garden, deadheading flowers from the pots I planted and stripping dried lavender from its stems to make sachets. I have watered the hostas and filled the birdbath. I have listened to cardinals and doves instead of to honking cars, and I have spent hours being silent.

The twins played with the spinning tops I bought them in India.  I have a small collection myself. 

Now our nephews, nine-year-old twins, have arrived for "Aunty Camp." The quiet has been replaced by giggles and questions, knitting lessons and pillow fights. Sometimes, we stop to read in perfect silence.

As I washed dishes the other night while listening to the twins squealing in glee in the next room, and later, as we watched videos I had taken in India, I was struck by how all these worlds, all these silences and sounds coexist in my heart.

Fellow Feminist in Abu Dhabi

While my partner and I were in transit at the Abu Dhabi airport, unsure whether my jetlagged body wanted dinner or breakfast, I ordered an Americano.  As I waited at the food court café, a striking Arab woman in a black headscarf and abaya came up to the counter to pay for a small Caesar salad.  As we smiled at each other, we heard a crash from near the espresso machine. The flustered barista, a young, brown-skinned woman probably from Southeast Asia, bustled apologetically. 

“It happens,” the Arab woman reassured the barista.  “Don’t worry.”

“Are you okay?” I asked the barista, as she started again on the Americano.  Turning to my fellow customer, I said, “Dangerous work!”

She nodded.  “And they are under so much pressure.  Long shifts, and they have to smile all the time.”

“I was just thinking that,” I replied, flashing back on the promotional videos about Abu Dhabi I had watched on the Etihad Airways flight: smiling African or Asian faces greeted guests at luxurious hotels and clubs. “They smile all the time as they serve people, but they can’t afford the luxuries they are serving.” 

The barista set my Americano in front of me and gave me change for a twenty-dollar bill.  “I’m sorry,” she said again. 

“No problem,” I smiled at her and at the woman with the Caesar salad, which she paid for in local dirhams.  As I sipped my coffee, I noticed her at a nearby table, talking on her cell phone. 

A little later, she came over to the table where I was sitting with my partner, held out her hand to shake ours, and said she had noticed us taking photos.  “Would you like me to take a photo of the two of you together?” she smiled. As she handed the camera back to me, she asked how we were doing and where we were headed.  When my partner asked, she told us she was off on a two-day business trip to Doha, and then, leather tote bag on her shoulder, she went down the escalator toward the flight gates. 

Our paths are unlikely to cross again, but I will look for her the next time I am in transit in Abu Dhabi.  

Looking down from the food court at Abu Dhabi airport

Light and glass decorate the airport in Abu Dhabi