A Lovely, Lively Day

Living with gratitude on Day 24 of a 30 day liquid diet. Today I am grateful for all the lively people in my life.

I had a poor night's sleep yesterday and woke up thinking of the 3 things I wanted to do today. Make it to church, visit my kids' Grandparents, and take my kids out to dinner. Would I be able to manage it all while feeling quite like a squashed cabbage?

My son had ordered Macs at 130am, and despite telling the delivery guy not to ring the doorbell but to call him instead.... the doorbell got rung. And I was woken up and I didn't get back to sleep till 430am. Up with the larks, as usual, at 630am, I made it to church for the 815am Mass. Popped by to visit Grandparents and stayed for 5 hours, and rounded up the kids later for dinner over a couple of hours.

Flying on steroid fumes and IsoCal/Resource alone, I have no idea how I managed all that with poor sleep. I realised that part of me was craving a quiet curl up away from the noisy world but that if I wanted to do all that I had planned, I would have to face the world, and all the lively people in it. And so I determined to get through it, one step at a time.

At Mass, I was surrounded by very lively types. A pair of ladies chatted beside me throughout Mass. A mother and her son chatted a fair bit right behind me, with Mum singing quite off key and son snorting through his morning rhinitis as if his nose was a blocked elephant trunk. In front of me, a family struggled with a disobedient youngest son who enjoyed taunting Mum and disrespecting Dad and smacking his siblings. Aiyoh. I could barely focus. Such a lively Mass, but this squashed cabbage decided to just accept it all in good stride and get to the next event of the day. Don't sweat the small stuff, especially if it isn't yours!

Visiting the kids' grandparents is always lovely. They are so old, and enjoy a good visit and company. Grandma can talk to me for 5 hours nonstop and so we almost did just that, except for 30 mins when she noticed my eyes glaze over and I attempted to snooze.

Enter the boy next door who decided right then to try and be a drummer. Lovely. Sigh. No rest for me, and so Grandma and I continued chatting. Truly lovely to connect and be available for someone in need. So much of my day passed surrounded by voices vying for my attention and I was glad to have these lively people in my life. Somehow this squashed cabbage was lifted from one moment to the next.

The last event was dinner with my kids. Such a beautiful outing to try Taiwanese porridge at Goodwood Park Hotel. Reasonably priced "eat a bucket load of food" buffet. A friend of mine wants to take me there some time so I decided to check it out with my kids. The kids stuffed themselves while I fantasized about coming back when I can eat.

We chatted, laughed and were silly. They were so lively, and I found myself caught up in it all too. My kids are my most favourite people in the world. I am biased, I know. I hung on to every word they said, imagining what it will be like once they are gone from my life and silence reigns. There'll be time enough for curling up in quiet then. I want to remember every precious moment that happens now.

And so I managed to get through a grace filled day surrounded by noise and animated conversations, was blessed and hopefully a blessing too, and tonight I shall enter into a blissful and well deserved sleep. Perhaps I shall dream of my porridge lunch in town with a friend this Friday afternoon, the actual end of my fast from food. I look forward to it. It's getting harder each day and I am so hungry. I'm almost there. I am grateful for the lively people upon whose voices I have wafted along today, and that the very presence and love of family has been reason enough to keep going. So blessed to have a lovely, lively day!

Thanks for reading,

Pav