seeing the humanity and joy in our everyday
It was a hot summer’s day, it was school sports day, 8am and no school lunch. Or rather picnic lunch.
It was a hot summer’s day, school sports day, 8am, no picnic prepared – no problem. I was going to attend the day, and bring the picnic lunch with me.
Continue reading “The potato and the stone”
The same people every week. The blonde woman supporting herself on the raised stone wall. The smartly dressed man by the bench, phone light flickering on his face. Another woman greeting a neighbour. Continue reading “Community, Wonder”
A Christmas jumper is ‘a top pulled over the head to cover the torso, themed with a Christmas or winter-style design.’ Save the Children UK encourage people to wear a Christmas jumper on a specific day in December (it’s the 14th this year) and raise money for the charity. Most people wear Christmas jumpers outside of that one day, during Advent and Christmas.
‘It’ is the leftover lunch that is awaiting, unopened, on the school rack. It was abandoned since Friday, so it had a whole weekend to work its way into life.
This post is for you.
My wake up call came at 1am, that is, one o’clock in the morning. Continue reading “On World Mental Health Day”
My uncle, forever the erudite, would list clouds in their Latin names: cirrostratus, altostratus, stratocumulus; he might say something about the troposphere. My youngest daughter would ignore the question altogether and would quiz me on the lack of planes and helicopters in the sky.
Continue reading “On clouds … and how to keep warm in winter”
I have hand written letters to my best friend ever since I could remember.
I wrote my first daughter‘s birth story minute by minute, stage by stage.
Books in the mahogany bookcase, books in the vitrines, in place of figurines, knick-knacks and glassware. Books instead of side tables. Books supporting dressers and cabinets, books in wall crevices. Books in the wardrobe. Books in corridors, books behind doors, books on the kitchen table, books in beds, books on the upright piano, books on windowsills. Books at the entrance, books in the balcony.
It is the same day, 11am.
Let us piece the rest of the day, from various sources:
My feelings: of embarrassment, or rather pure terror. In my usual life, I smile and laugh a lot, especially in inappropriate moments. I was somehow convinced I was going to burst out with laughter, so pinching myself I sat, in a fixed uncomfortable position, throughout the ceremony. I remember nothing else.
Continue reading “Our wedding – PART II, or how to piece one memory from different sources”