{"id":2042,"date":"2010-03-31T08:48:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T14:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2010-03-31T08:48:33","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T14:48:33","slug":"a-haifa-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/archives\/2042","title":{"rendered":"A Haifa morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning was a Haifa<\/em> morning.<\/p>\n

I stepped outside and the air smelled like (home), like stone paths, the bay, flowers, and a breeze off the mountains and desert that lifts you up…<\/p>\n

Warm and cool, the kind of cool that only requires a light sweater. Full of excitement.\u00c2\u00a0 The gardeners watering plants as I walked up the mountain, past the wall of flowers, the silent woosh<\/em> of doors as I stepped into the cool stone corridors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The kind of morning where I would bounce into work, 8:30 am, ready to do what I was meant to do.<\/p>\n

It is a little different here, this new home, my new place. My car transports me to work past elegant Victorian homes, antique shops, schools, and the train.\u00c2\u00a0 The streets are wider, and I can’t see the water from here (but I know it is close).\u00c2\u00a0 After the last few years of being able to sense <\/em>the water nearby, it seems odd to ever consider living away from water again.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether the Mediterranean or Lake Michigan, it seems right to base my orientation on the water.<\/p>\n

I wanted to hold onto the feeling of a Haifa morning today, just walk with my eyes closed, pretend that I was still there.\u00c2\u00a0 Pretend that the stones were digging through the thin soles of my shoes, that my flatmates and I were rushing out of our apartment to get to work (service), that I would walk up a flight of stairs to the lunchroom at 12 pm and the same old crew would be sitting at a big table.\u00c2\u00a0 That I would take a walk around the Arc with a friend, would stop by the Food Center for an afternoon snack, and walk\/slide down the steep slopes at the end of a long day to pray in the Shrine of the Bab before going home.\u00c2\u00a0 Every late night conversation with my friends, staring out over the lights of a city on the mountain.<\/p>\n

This is Chicago, though, I am half a world away and this is life, now.\u00c2\u00a0 Some things are the same, and I still drink too much caffeine during the day, and I am working in a job that I love.\u00c2\u00a0 This is my life, now.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t write or speak using British English anymore, I’ve reverted back to American.\u00c2\u00a0 There are no hills or mountains here.<\/p>\n

I am holding close the feeling of a Haifa morning, and feel grateful that I remember what it feels like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning was a Haifa morning. I stepped outside and the air smelled like (home), like stone paths, the bay, flowers, and a breeze off the mountains and desert that lifts you up… Warm and cool, the kind of cool…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,5,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bahai","category-chicago","category-haifa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2043,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions\/2043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}