This and that.
Photo courtesy of Solo. Shopping with my kids is both fun and maddening.
It’s a beautiful cool morning after a long rain yesterday and I’m collecting my thoughts and thinking about the events of the last days. There has been this and that and lots of beauty. Lots of love for my family. I am well out of my anxiety crisis and feeling better daily, although my heart still thumps away when I’m running errands or shopping. Oh, who am I kidding, it always does that!
* I sent my manuscript out to some beta readers and have been wringing my fingers and chewing on my hands. I’m so glad to have it out in the world even a little bit, though. It’s time for that baby to be born.
* I’ll be showing you some finished paintings in the next couple of days. I decided to live one of my dreams and bring art back into my life, and I’m so happy I did.
* I’ve also been setting up for selling originals and prints online, which has been kind of fun, because it’s Thailand and I was running around Chiang Mai (heart thumping away) making orders for mats in Thai, measurements in Thai, perusing gigantic markets for the supplies I need. Outdoor markets do help the thumpy heart calm down. Target-like shops and malls- no.
* I can’t think of much that makes me happier than buying a new canvas or tube of paint.
* I made an appointment with a woman here in Pai for earth building at the meditation space, starting on the 25th of this month. We’re going to have walls! Just one full wall, two half walls, and about a meter around the rest so we can still see the beautiful hills. But we’ll be able to put our backs against the wall and be sheltered from the crazy hot afternoon sun.
* Also on my to-do list: find a really good concrete guy to make the countertops in the meditation space kitchen. Right now we have no counters and no shelf space. We need lots of work space so we can make community meals together in the kitchen with music and talking.
* Let’s not talk about my to-do list. It’s crazy.
* My children are delightful. I really, really like them. They’re quirky, too, and quirkiness is one of my favorite characteristics, so I’m glad about that.
Kenya in the car on the way home from Chiang Mai: “Daddy? You know how you say we should enjoy the short moment of having a cookie in our mouth? I feel the same way about a wiggly tooth.”
Chinua: “I get that! Free entertainment in your mouth!”
Kenya: “It feels so good to twirl it around!”
Hmm, perhaps it’s clear where they get their quirkiness from.
* One morning last week, I was sitting with my coffee and writing emails when my friend Kaveh came over. Isaac ran straight to him for a hug, which was beautiful because Kaveh had had a rough night. His wife had just given birth to a baby and there were some complications, so she was being treated at the small village hospital and Kaveh couldn’t understand what they were telling him about what she needed. He had come for help.
Off we went to the hospital, where we talked to the doctors and nurses and decided on a plan of action. Julie was in a general labor ward, so we got her in a private room and everything started to feel more normal again. I saw the beautiful baby and beautiful mother and felt the warm and happy feeling I only get when I am able to be present at the beginning of a little family— the warmth and confusion, the exhaustion and beginnings of falling deeply in love. It always reminds me of having Kai, of blearily watching Star Trek episodes with Chinua in the hospital and glancing down at our gorgeous baby thinking, “What just happened to us?” Having Isaac, in comparison, felt so normal, so easy to tuck him into our family, because we have a family with kids now and we know how we do these things. But that first child is very, very special. The little family is home now. I hope to visit with some love and food.
* The big rain yesterday flooded my storage room. How thrilled I am to clean that up! (Not really.)
* Our trip home fund is at 80 percent! I'm starting to allow myself to get excited about visiting home. Over the last years, every time I’ve thought of it, I’ve stuffed that thought away. “You can’t have that.” It’s one of the refrains of those who live far from where they originated. “You can’t have that.” You fold up the desire and tuck it on a shelf somewhere. But I’ve been unfolding those things and looking at them again. Some have crumbled to bits—it’s been so long I don’t even remember them, like foods I may have missed or coffee I wanted to drink. Some, like the driftwood beaches of BC, the laughter of my brother and sister, the red hair of my niece and kindness of my sister-in-law, the hugs of my parents, the welcome and laughter of Chinua’s family—these are intact, and I am holding them close to my heart. Thank you so much for donating and sharing.