On, In and Around Mondays: Or I'll kick you downstairs

Sunday evening I took a tumble down the stairs in our house - the ice-packs and the cups of tea administered immediately by friends certainly helped. Mild shock followed and then a night's sleep cut short too soon by the alarm clock. So I awoke on Monday feeling older than my days. Stiff in the joints and with a serious case of the go-slows that has endured into my Tuesday.

I've often thought of falling down stairs as something that happens to other people - to over confident kids or infirm elderly people. The truth is I fell because I was trying to multi-task, to rush. Trying to put on a sweatshirt and hurry down the dimly lit stairwell in stockinged feet. In short, I wasn't paying attention. Sure the polished wood of the steps is slippery all the time but...

I think life is kind of like my tumble down the stairs. The way in front of us has hazards that are visible to us. We acknowledge them and forge ahead all the same. It's when we try to rush through, try to do too many things at once. When we stop paying attention this is when we stumble. This is when we fall along the way. Someone there with tea and a cold compress is helpful when life rattles me like this but where to from here? How to move forward? More slowly, one thing at a time, pay attention to what's there in front of me.

Here's my favourite version of "Father William" by Lewis Carroll - a great recitation is always enjoyable but I love the delightful singing and dancing in this version.

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"

Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!

Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?

Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs!"

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Button codes are driving me loopy - I'm code-illiterate. Although nothing seems to be getting jumbled in the cut/paste so... Anyway, feel free to join us here: http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com/

Counting anew: Multitudes on a Monday

Thankful this week for...

1. The list anew in this new year.

2. Friend-family that insist on dancing when I don't feel like it.

3. A chapter a day of Proverbs in January - I've done this several times before but keep discovering "new" verses that I don't remember reading before!

4. Self-expression through the creative.

5. House-guest who brings flowers and chocolate cake on arrival.

6. A new room-mate who may just sleep as heavily as I do.

7. Walking arm-in-arm to the bus-stop with a recently acquired friend.

8. Invisible mending skills - another way to serve the friend-family.

9. People that I miss - even though they're not here with me right now, I'm so glad I know them and will get to see them again (hopefully soon!).

10. Our understanding landlords.

11. Flatmate whose one comment helped me see the positive after a terrible job interview.

12. The heating coming back on.

13. Emails from my Dad - phonetically written just the way his accent sounds.

14. Shared accommodation where no cleaning roster is required. (Young women who look after their belongings, look out for those of others AND clean up after themselves.)

15. Safe delivery of friend's twin boys!

16. Friends who live near but stay over so often they keep toothbrushes here.

17. Getting along better with my only biological sister.

18. Pyjama-clad on the sofa-bed in front of the TV.

19. Jostling for mirror-space in the bathroom now that we are 4 chez nous - and glad it is these 3 with whom I get to jostle.

20. Realising that home-sickness is just heart-sickness and that sickness can be healed.

21. Blue skies in winter.

22. Necessities bought cheaply in the yearly sales.

23. A Saturday spent quietly - separate but still together in the house.

24. New books to read (& the upcoming Spring booksale - I'm already saving my pennies for this one!).

25. Not having to schlep my laundry to a laundromat because we have a washing-machine in our house.

26. Friends there with you after a tumble down the stairs - ice-packs and cups of tea in liberal supply.


(Yes, I'm aware that the button is not showing up below - I've tried to troubleshoot this myself but being code-illiterate I have currently exhausted my capabilities in this regard. My apologies - feel free to join us though at http://www.aholyexperience.com).
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On, In and Around Mondays: From my kitchen today

Our now-quiet kitchen, our more-than-an-apartment, the outer arrondissements of Paris.
Feels like the suburbs but isn't.
Orange feature wall paired with permanent paper party lanterns.
Feels like fiesta all year round.
Often echoes with the raucous of our friend family.
Feels like an open door policy in action.
Couch folds out to get to know so many folk as they sleep and dream.
Feels like a youth hostel or half-way house.
Table that welcomes more chairs than it was designed for.
Feels like always room for one more.
Smell of a hot meal cooking and hearing the wine cork pop.
Feels like family dinner night where we taste and see that.
Fruitbowl of oranges and evidence of oh-so-much tea drunk.
Feels like heavy feet soldiering on through their headcolds this week.
English and Frenglish and Spanish and French.
Feels like everyday communication for us.
Artistic touches speaks loud for the one no longer resident.
Feels like someone missing from us, for now.
Cosy on the couch all comfortable with hugs on the hard days.
Feels like home. And it is.

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