A Hall Filled with Echoes

Life-changing experience ... is what I'd call living in another country. I love learning other customs, and these were especially colorful in West Africa where we lived for three years. It was customary, when visiting another home for a meal or just a greeting, for the host to walk you down the road as you left, sometimes half way to your own home. And the next day, if a meal was involved the evening before, it is a gracious custom to return to the host's home to thank them in person for the meal the evening before.

I think of this often when we visit my mother. It's a long hallway from her apartment door to the exit door from the building. And even though she does not walk us down the hall, she always comes out of her door to wave us off, every single time. I know she is watching as we walk down the hall to the door. At the junction we always turn, and there she is watching, ready with a smile and a wave.

Photo of the view from my mother's door to the junction where I turn and wave.  If I listen carefully I can hear the echoes of little nieces when they visit great-grandma, as they scream and giggle while running up and down this long hall, over and over, feeling very free, and never, never getting tired.