The mundane beautiful.
Sunday was a lovely, lazy day. I did wake up early, because I’m trying to do a bit of writing every day these days, but it was a sleepy, gray morning with a second cup of coffee. The rain poured straight out of the sky, completely vertical, it was not fighting rain or blowing rain. It fell, it gave itself up to gravity. I tried to cease my striving as well.
Kenya made a doll, hand sewing stuffing for the head into a piece of cloth she dyed at our homeschool co-op. I made a note to help her find some tutorials. The kids lay around and read, watched Ninja Go, played games on the computer. I made noodle bowls for lunch. In the evening, I had a circle at the garden with Nay and Ro and another dear friend who is reading the Bible with us. In the dusk we swatted at mosquitos, ate passionfruit and mangosteens, drank rooibos chai, and read the first two chapters of Philippians. As the sky grew dark, the mosquitos lessened. I find myself aware of the beauty of the Bible in a new way lately. It is something I return to from my own frail attempts at depth and beauty and truth, and it is always home.
Monday was gray as well—we are in the month of gray, drinking the cool rain. It was a school day. I helped with math, read aloud to the kids, cuddled and tickled a very grumpy Isaac. For lunch, I loaded up on curries from the local vegan restaurant for lunch, as well as the vegetarian fried chicken (soy protein) at the request of my vegetarian son. My favorite was the green curry.
Our other friends from the community are away for a week and a half and there were big goodbyes as all the Ford kids basically attacked the friends, hugging them, trying to keep them. We’ll miss them. I’m trying not to panic, but to think of the extra time to catch up on things I’ve been putting off at my house. My dear Leaf is away as well, one month down, only three to go. I miss her.
In the afternoon I went to the market. I bought three kilos of tomatoes for spaghetti sauce in the next days, as well as fruit and avocados. The steamed buns were tempting, so I bought a few of them as well. We ate bean bowls for dinner and the kids played Simon Says. I walked into the room to find Isaac as Simon, instructing his very large siblings. It was adorable. We watched an episode of Chopped before bed. Isaac leapt from my lap to the floor, dancing and hopping from foot to foot, barely able to sit for any amount of time.
The rain pours steadily this morning. Birds woke me; bulbuls and spotted doves, roosters and mynahs. The white flower tree in our courtyard is loaded with flowers, and the yellow flower tree down the street fills the neighborhood with fragrance that makes me dream. I’ll work on some editing soon. There are a thousand mundane, beautiful things to fill the day. Cleaning, cooking, sweeping up the white flowers. Stay, I tell myself. Stay.