I had just deposited my laptop with the the sullen techie and was riding my bicycle toward the center, but I had a moment where it was necessary to stop, look, and try to ascertain how I would get from point A to point B.
Sidewalk-blocked, Road-traffic running the opposite direction. Street-scary big hill. What to do, what to do, what to...until finally chose turning around and heading the opposite direction where I would find a better place to resume my path to the center and upon making my conclusion returned to pedaling,
NEEEE-YYYyyyyooooooooom a motorcycle came up so fast and so close, if I had sneezed I would have lost my arm.
"#*!!@#*!!!!@!##***!@#!*!.... I was screaming obscenities for the next seven minutes. (in English unfortunately. It was instinctive.)
So flustered was I that I went straight past my usual street to turn and took the next one over. When I told this story out loud to G he said, "You're always finding things by being in the wrong place!"
From the corner of my boiling eyeballs I spied something sparkly and immediately stopped. The sparkle was coming from a shop window full of watercolor paintings and embroideries, a store called "Angel Uvriel." Closed. I got off of my bicycle and stepped up to the window for a closer examination.
The paintings were done simply but the images were arresting. A snake. A turtle. A mask. A flower. All touched with a light hand and pure colors. The name of the store was tugging at my memory. It looked an awful lot like "Uriel"
an archangel that a mystic once told me about. She said it was a good idea to know who was protecting us.
As I was contemplating this, thinking of her and locking eyes with the paintings, a woman's voice cracked from behind me. "Hey lady!"
