What I remember about Sri Lanka
As the New Year has started I have become more reflective than usual. I find myself looking backwards, which is rare for me. I am amazed at how quickly time passes. This has been especially true over the past 4 years as we have lived in 3 different countries. Where did the time go? Didn't I just leave Delaware with my two small babies to start my overseas life? It all just melts together: sand dunes, sacred cows, and indoor ski slopes. Where did I see that?
Axel and I were walking through the mall yesterday thinking of our next post. I haven't a clue when that will happen or where we will be going, but it then dawned on me that Qatar will, at some point, become a distant memory. Sadly, it won't be a detailed memory. Instead, it will be simply a flash of eating breakfast in my kitchen, watching my kids play outside on the street, or eating at a Thai restaurant with Axel for date night. The specifics will be blurry even though right now they are vivid and mundane.
The mundane moments are always what parents seem to talk about when their children grow old. It is the scraped knees, the kisses on the forehead, and the laughter outside that parents seem miss. I am trying to relish in those moments and hold them in my heart. (The only memories I am ready to give up are throw up and poopy diapers. Those you can keep.)
The truth is we have lived in this house for only a few short months, and life has become quite ordinary. It doesn't take long for the ordinary to set in, and when it does, it is welcomed. I like the ordinary because I know it is those days that I will reflect upon with fondness. It is watching Sedona run on the trampoline with her little boyfriend Zachie; it is Asa chasing the neighborhood cat across the road; and it is Xavier and Heavah racing to the bathroom right after the bus drops them off from school. Those are the pictures I will take with me to Timbuktu, even if it is just a flash.
3 comments:
Lovely post. Where does the time go?? It FLIES and I'm striving to savor every minute. Mindfulness is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I love the reminders to be mindful. Thanks.
Bonjour! I have no idea how I stumbled on your blog, but I love glimpsing into your life, which is both similar and very different from my own.
Even when you feel like you have nothing to say, I hope you say something anyway, because then I can read it!
I hope you have a great day, even if it is mundane and ordinary!
I thought you already lived in Timbuktu! :) I loved the way you wrote about this - something I have thought about a lot and tried to capture in poems or essays. I have an obsession with harnessing the simple bliss of everyday epiphanies.
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