Early Monday Morning

I woke at first light as it softened the night's edges of my guest room walls. Usually in the morning, I putz around... my exercises, a bit of reading, the morning rituals. But today, as I was pulling out my book, I thought of the monks and that I MAY be in time to watch the morning alms walk. Clothes on and I am out the door in under five minutes. I start up the sidewalk to the main road across the street. It's not too late! Up the stairs and at street level, the monks walk in a line along the sidewalk with their saffron robes and their large egg shaped bowl at their hip, held in place by a shoulder strap. From where I stand, I only can see one local couple at the side of the walk handing out rice, but the monk's walk here is only a bit of the long one they take each morning. Each alms bowl is opened and a bit of sticky rice is put in. The monks walk barefoot on this cool, quiet Monday. Thong would tell me at this time of year, his feet would get quite cold as he walked in the morning on the red brick sidewalks of Luang Prabang. Monks will do this walk throughout the city each day. This is their food for the day. Thong told me that sometimes the temples will exchange one food for another. If one temple only got only rice the neighbor temple may share other things that they received. He said that sometimes they do not get enough food. What then? I asked. "We must suffer" he told me. "I drink some water." "Maybe in a day or two we will have some more food." The young men that are walking are the novice monks who are between 10 and 18. There are monks at the temples also that are their teachers and leaders, but the novice monks far outnumber them. The monks are down the road so I cross over and head to the river to see if I can see them walking back to their temple. As I walk by a temple fence, a monk calls to me.. "Good morning, How are you? Where are you from? How long do you stay?" I smile and answer. I am reminded that this is one path to get to school for a novice monk. Each of Thong's friends have a sponsor... one from New York, another from San Diego, California, another from the Netherlands. I watch as the last line of monks heads back to temple. Down to the river side... I take a look out to the river. Smoke is rising from a small cluster of houses across the river. Riverboats move along the edge, mist hangs just above the low trees on the hill, chairs are being arranged for the days business at the riverside restaurant, bike riders pass by, a lone tuk tuk motors by, wood in the pot burns to boil water for the day's rice as the street vendor gets ready for the first meal to sell. And so the morning in Luang Prabang on this Monday begins....