I was on a mission: Finish teaching the ESL class at a nearby high school, hitch a ride back to Tufts, see a professor about registering for her class, run downhill to grab the tripod from my dorm, be at the info session at 3pm …
So I’d jumped out of the car and ran across the road, and was ready to race up the stairs to Paige Hall. I was running late, had missed a previous chance to talk to the professor, and needed to get lots of work done before dance practice that night. Lost in my flurry of thoughts, it took me some time to realize why I was still stuck at the foot of the stairs, instead of racing up them: A woman, past middle age, in a long skirt, was making her way ever so slowly up the stairs, inching up one step at a time. Concerned, I wondered if she was okay, or if she was some kind of pain, and wanted to help, somehow. Just then, she turned around, looked at me, a little startled, and exclaimed: “Why hello there! I’ve never seen anyone use these stairs before; usually, I’m the only one here.”
I said a quick hello, mumbled something about this route being quicker, and looked over her shoulders up the stairs, still thinking about what exactly I was going to say to the professor I was trying to meet.
With an air of the most graceful, unfazed calm, the woman I met then gestured at the leaves that were over our heads – I learned that they’re called the “burning bush,” the same plant that makes a few cameos in the Christian bible.
I looked up: The plants weren’t very tall, but they were all adorned with the most brilliantly red and pink leaves. “Aren’t they beautiful?” she exclaimed, turning this way and that to fully take in the gorgeous hues, the last bursts of life we’ll see before winter descends upon us.
The woman went on to tell me that she teaches a class on religion here at Tufts. She and her students discuss how the exact locations of where events in the Bible happened have often been disputed. She likes to joke that “you see the burning bushes all over campus? Significant evidence suggests that it all happened right here, at Tufts!”
Now, in the middle of another crazy day, that seriously cracked me up. Maybe all that stuff didn’t exactly happen in Medford, Massachusetts. I do know for a fact, however, that I spent the rest of the day going slower.
Dear Peggy from the Religion department, you are wonderful, and your eyes and heart make this community so much more beautiful. Thank you for reminding me to slow down and be present. I really needed the little moment that day, and have since been walking around campus (and moving through life) at a slower and certainly more appreciative pace – allowing the incredible beauty of this little corner of the world to wash over me.