Last night I awoke to the most spectacular rainstorm we have had yet. It sounded like rivers streaming from the sky and drowned out any other sounds. I laid still for about half and hour and just listened to the sound, carefully looking for a change in pace, water volume, or drop intensity. Straining to hear, you could make out the sounds of the rain falling on different objects – the banana trees in the yard were lashed and submissive, the leaves being torn by the heavy drops, the rhythmic thudding of the balcony downspout on the pavement 3 stories down, and the metallic spring of drops bouncing vigorously off the tin roof over the carport. All these rains sounds wove together to create a cocoon inside our mosquito net – at that moment there was nowhere more secure, cozy or peaceful to be.
- The countdown. It is literally one month until we embark on a 4-week vacation that feels like it just can’t come at a better time. The 4 weeks will be blissfully free from work and allow me to remember just how amazing Nepal has been. So, forgive me, while I not so silently jump for joy each morning when I look at my countdown clock on my Google homepage and see the numbers ticking down…such power those little numbers hold…I may not be living as directly in the moment as I may like, but I sure as heck have lots to look forward to!
- Finding the lesson, despite how deeply it might be buried. With enough distance from my stressful and rather confidence defeating past weeks, I have had enough time to gather my wits and regain perspective. And buried near the centre of all the junk is what I like to call the kernel of wisdom. My kernel from the last weeks has been: don’t assume that lack of interest is equivalent to lack of caring.
- The smell of fresh guava. Not the prettiest of fruit but certainly the most intriguing. Walking down a muddy alley in Kathmandu I could smell what seemed like a some rich and luxurious Parisian perfume – heady top notes of super sweet and fragrant fruit – like a strawberry married a pineapple. Much to my suprise the smell was wafting from a precarious looking basket of rumpled yellow-green fruit. The guava season had arrived by smell alone. They are not the most delicious of fruits – in fact I would discourage you from going out of your way to find them for their taste value. Oh, but the smell…the smell alone is reason to seek them out. They permeate our entire apartment with their fruity, flowery, and steamy scent. They smell like seduction, passion, and intrigue. I think small animals, insects, and birds must be seduced by them too – it is a bewitching fruit. I have since used them to make a rather perfumed sauce with honey and a raspberry tea bag which I hope to serve this weekend with a chocolate cake. And true to Nepal, the fruit seasons just keeping bringing the most delightful surprises – wistful goodbyes to mangoes – flared nostril hellos to guavas! And it probably wouldn’t surprise you to know that guava essence is a central ingredient in many perfumes too!
- Cooking my way to good mental health. There is a term in our house that R and I use, particularly on weekends, when I emerge from a state of intense cookery…we call it the food coma. Sometimes it is induced by eating all the fruits of my kitchen labours, but other times it it simply the coma from channeling every last drop of creativity and soul into making something tasty. But I actually do believe that cooking has become an important mode of expression for me. An outlet from some frustration, a chance to capture feelings on a plate. Nothing better than expressing myself and ending up with a delicious plate of food at the end of it.
