Maybe convoluted, but not leaky.

We love Thai street food.

Sometimes I pick up little sticky rice treats for breakfast, but this morning I walked down the street to the place where the morning vendors have their doughnut carts. The vendors make Chinese doughnuts, breakfast food that is eaten with soy milk or condensed milk here. (They seem to be eaten in the evening too, but they're only sold first thing in the morning or in the evening.) They aren’t sweetened—they’re even a little salty, and have sesame seeds on them—and fresh out of the oil they are amazing with coffee. Every once in a while I pick up a few for breakfast, and this morning I looked at the cup of coffee in my hand and thought, “A doughnut would go great with this.”

I went to the man who always seems to be singing as he works. When I arrived, he didn’t have enough for my large order, so he told me to sit down and wait while he cut up and fried ten more doughnuts. There happened to be a woman already sitting and chatting with him, and the only thing odd about her was that she was holding a large rooster under her arm, stroking him to calm him down. We sat; the lady with the rooster and I, while the friendly man cut dough into long strips and threw it in oil so I could bring doughnuts back to my family.

*

Yesterday it rained steadily all day long, which means that the river has certainly risen and I’m concerned about the bridge that leads to our space. It was already damaged. It’s a simple bamboo bridge, built by the guesthouse owners across the river, and this year it had been fortified with iron to get it through the rainy season, but still, it wasn’t doing so well. I’m hoping that it will be replaced soon.

The rain brought snails and worms into the open, and Kenya showed me a chart she had made. The title was: Saving Worms and Snails Club. Underneath were two columns. Worms Saved: 1 / Snails Saved: 3

It was a very exclusive club, with just one member. Kenya is very proud of her worm and snail saving abilities, she tells people about all the worms she saves often. This morning she asked me if she could start a project about birds around our house, and was soon busy with the iPad, looking up birds of Thailand. Her love for animals of every kind shows no sign of waning.

*

The day ahead is a typical Saturday, with cleaning and organizing and work in the plans. I need to make this weeks meal plan and go shopping, sort through toys and get my room in order. I need to see to the gardens at the meditation space. I’ve been working hard on the second Journey Mama book and it’s nearly ready for publication! The only thing we need is a title, and the search for the perfect title has my brain in knots. The arc of the book is from traveling and arriving in India (and panicking) all the way through that first two years of living in India (and learning to love it) until getting ready to travel to North America for a visit.

Some contenders are:

Shores Wide as the Earth (follows the formula of the first book)
Falling Into Flying
Moments of Truly Flying
A Different Way of Walking
Greener Than You Can Imagine
A Home as Wide as the Earth

What do you think? Have I overwhelmed you yet? Chinua and I were tossing ideas around, and with a couple of them, I said, “These are too positive. I mean, it’s positive writing, but it’s still me, you know?”

So he suggested, A Convoluted and Leaky Black Brain.

Well. There’s no call to go that far.

I’d love for you to weigh in. Comments ahoy!