Day 173: Carousels

The carousel goes round and around. Today I had a cup of tea with a dear friend whose wisdom, courage and fortitude I greatly admire. She balances lives and parents and kids and suicide watches and kindness like one of those amazing jugglers who keeps adding plates, and all with such grace and love. Did I mention kindness? 

This carousel of life has ups and downs and sometimes I feel that we don't know what animal we are going to be riding when it all stops and we have to get off. Or which animal, in the scramble for a spot, we will end up mounting. 

I am reminded, in the scramble and the hurly burly music and the dizziness, that these things are temporary. That there is actually solid ground beneath the carousel, and that that solid ground will be there long after the carousel has been packed up and moves on. 

I'm very grateful for that solid ground. 

(Finding our feet again. Living beyond this moment. Eternity in our eyes. Here's to friends and tea.)

Day 152 - Cracking an egg

Parenting teens is meant to be challenging. I have been warned. But I had no idea that an 11 year old could have a temper tantrum because he thought he had broken the yolk when he cracked an egg into a frying pan. But then, I also had no idea that I could fall over the edge because of an egg too. 

Hooray. Cracking eggs. Seriously?!

Day 151 - Careering off the tracks

17 days since my last post. Which was the night before Crumble (or involuntary school hols for 4... no, make that 2 weeks). And 151 days since my first COVID post. 

We watched "Back to the future" the other night. It's funny seeing what they thought 2020 would hold. Self-drying clothes, hoverboards, flying cars. Definitely not coronavirus! Or Beirut blowing up, the Mont Blanc glacier about to fall over, Trump's border wall falling over and let me see? Heatwaves in the UK, SpaceX taking the first manned US flight to the moon, unattended Grand Prix races or even the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima. It's all pretty wild. 

My quads are quaking after a gentle stroll up the Jeep Track to the dams on the top of Table Mountain, a snack, then a quick descent down Cecilia Ridge. It was a good 14km round trip. But darn, two days of "ouch!" and "ow" every time I sit or stand up. It's embarrassing! The kids are fine although the teen did zing her ankle a bit scrambling downhill. 

It's been a good long weekend for getting out - TM on Friday, Berg River Dam on Sat, pouring rain all of Sunday (we watched the spectatorless GP) and then off to the West Coast National Park tomorrow. No idea if we'll see flowers but we will see some friends. Those COVID bubbles seem to be expanding. And then kids back to school on Tuesday. 

2020 definitely hopped the tracks. I'm still confused. Looking for the custard to top off the Crumble. It feels like a lot of crumble right now. 

Final scrambled thought as today is Women's Day. You might "strike a woman, strike a rock" but no woman is a rock. We all crumble. Thinking of D who is brave and standing up despite a man who has betrayed her and a car accident last night. Praying for S who is living courageously raising daughters in a tough nation. Remembering all my precious C's.