Category Archives: Motherhood

Marvelous Moments

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Reading through my journal, 2014 has already brought so many wonderful new experiences.  Our time living abroad feels like life is on fast-forward,  so we really try to be present and feel thankful for these kinds of moments:

  • sampling new  Swazi and South African dishes: impala, pap, warthog, and ox tail
  • the moving, resonant, and harmonic voices of just six people attending an evening church service; their sound burst through the silence with gorgeous, powerful, a cappella song that filled the room
  • A hippo and crocodile cruise in St. Lucia’s iSimangaliso Wetland Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and sleeping under mosquito netting in a cabin that feels like you’re in the jungle
  • the concept of the lodge “honesty bar, ” where you drink what you like in an outside lounge area, write it down, and get charged when you check out
  • playing with our toddler in tidal pools formed by the  Indian Ocean, watching the joy of his daily discoveries, wonderment of life, and reminders to all of us to be child-like and PLAY
  • fragrant Victoria St. Market in Durban; a maze of beaded sandals, wooden carvings clothing, jewelry, painted ostrich eggs, and woven baskets
  • being treated like family at a coffee roaster in a litchi orchard in Salt Rock, South Africa, where they are “mad for a gorgeous cuppa”
  • the adrenaline rush and phenomenal views from a first micro flight over Ballito
  • Driving on highway R541 called “The Genesis Route,” tied to the origins of our planet and the idea that all humans share an African heritage. 3.5 billion-year-old rocks in Makhonjwa mountain range are amongst the most ancient in the world. (let that sink in for a second. Wow, right)?
  • Discovering Vetiver grass roots, which smell divine, and loving the beautiful nests into which the roots are woven
  • Visiting Jane Goodall’s Chimp Eden, a bit disappointed not to have time for a tour, but then heading back to the car and spotting a group of  giraffes (called a “tower,” which seems aptly named, as they do tower, and grandly so).  Just free roaming, wild and out in the open.  Stunning.

A Tale of Two Cities, a Toddler, Some Tea…

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Hi! It’s good to get back to blogging after a little summer break!  So much to catch up on. Took baby Ramsay on a two-city tour of Tucson, Arizona and Columbus, Georgia to see family. It was so much fun to watch him with his grandparents, and so good to get hugs and feel taken care of.

Too many random thoughts for any cohesive writing lately, so here’s a summary of things I am grateful for lately through photos:

The ritual of making tea with loose tea leaves

How baking makes the house smell good. (And the deliciousness of devouring Madeleines).

Quiet time in the evenings to read, and to collage some “mail art” and create with molding paste, which is a fun, new medium I’m learning about.

Discovering what interests my son:  especially the color yellow, and shoes in general.

Surprises and beauty in nature, architecture, and daily life:

Hope your summer is going well, and there are many amazing moments in each day.

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Serendipity on a Winding Path

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IMG_1375When I saw this mixed-media necklace at our local Art Fair in historic Occoquan recently, the word JOURNEY called to me.  We are all on a journey, a winding path of moments and days.

Lately, the days on my journey have felt longer, and a bit emptier.  My sweet honey got orders to work overseas until Mid-August. I miss him terribly, and so does our little fella, who teeters from room to room in our house, calling, “DaDa?” “DaDA!” and it’s heart wrenching not to be able to explain that Daddy is far away, but we’ll see him in a couple of months.

We made time for a date night before he left, and had dinner at Central in D.C.

IMG_1360   The Oysters Rockefeller were divine, and I loved the artistic display of herbs and spices on rock salt on the platter.  IMG_1351Thank you for paying attention to detail, chef Michel Richard!  It’s all in the details… I love details, especially artistic ones.

So, do you remember in my last post when I quoted a Shel Silverstein Poem about the girl who would not take out the trash (Cynthia Sylvia Stout)?  It was an odd coincidence that this poem (that I first read in the 70’s, and had not thought about for years), popped up on my radar at LUSH (homemade bath products) a few days later as the name of a Shampoo. Ha! IMG_1300 Don’t you love it when something random appears on your radar and then unexpectedly resurfaces again soon after? (Am I  the only person amused by this sort of thing)?  Serendipity? Chance? Fate? The law of attraction?

Are you familiar with Paulo Coelho’s book, The Alchemist?  It’s one of my favorites, and I am drawn to his idea that the universe teaches us (brings things to us) when we are ready.  I bought a small original watercolor in Rome in 1999, and when I asked the artist what inspired him, he told me about this book. When I returned to London the following week (where I was working at the time), I read The Alchemist cover to cover, and suddenly, it seemed everyone I met was talking about it. (It had been published almost a decade earlier, so it wasn’t new on the scene). Have you had something similar happen?

Wishing for you lots of serendipity in the coming days.

Cheers,

Starry