Incense

You experience a city in a unique way when you wander the streets in its early morning hours, before the stores open their doors and before the streets begin to bustle with traffic. On our first few days in Hanoi, adjusting to the 12-hour time difference, we would leave our hostel at first light. Having already been awake for several hours, we searched for that first shop ready to pour us a dainty porcelain cup of caffeinated bliss – a dark brew of Vietnamese coffee beans, syrupy thick with a generous amount of sweetened condensed milk. We watched storekeepers slide up their doors to open their shops to the street. Several took a moment to pause in the morning light, holding burning sticks of incense and bowing their heads to the dawn. Would my ordinary days be different if I welcomed them with an offering of gratitude twisting up towards heaven like a ribbon of smoke?