Happy Mother’s Day mom! We hope you feel better soon.
Paul wasn’t feeling well last night, and his walking buddy was having the identical issues. They both bought watermelon on the street after their Friday walk, that’s the only common denominator we could find. It becomes a bit of a game here, to try to figure out what may have caused one’s gastrointestinal woes. It’s a game with no decisions and no one ever wins.
Paul left at 5 am for the airport. He went into town to catch his shuttle. I watched him walk down the dirtroad and across the makeshift ghetto bridge with his little bag. With a funky music soundtrack the scene could have been the ending of some indie movie. Before he left he gave me a beautiful blue jade ring for Mother’s Day. My fingers have become smaller and my rings slide off, so he bought me a replacement wedding ring that I can wear while I’m here. The longer we are together, the more easily he can nail my taste in jewelry. It’s unique yet simple, and most importantly doesn’t catch on stuff so I don’t ever have to take it off. Sweet ring.
Madi made me breakfast in bed, she never misses an opportunity to make someone happy, that one.
I dropped off some flowers to a friend for Mother’s Day. She invited me to come for a walk with her, which seemed harmless enough. I was wearing flipflops, jeans, and a non-workout volume of deodorant, but didn’t think much of it. We ended up doing her regular Sunday morning spiritual trek up a mountain which overlooks Pana. When I thought we were ready to turn back, she points to a little rock filled dirt path crisscrossing up the mountain and said, “This is where we go up.” I almost pulled a muscle in my neck looking up into the sky, “We are going to the top of that,” was all I could eek out since I was already breathing hard.
Even with all the walking I do daily, I thought I was going to die before we reached the top. If only your heart and lungs had a little meter like the temperature gauges on cars with the red section warning before the engine shuts down from overheating. One of those would have been helpful. But every time I wanted to quit, I would look at my friend’s elderly Huskie dog and say to myself, if that furry old gal with one eye can do it in that coat, so can I. That’s right, competing with an almost dead, half-blind dog is what got me to the top of that mountain. I’m not proud of it.
When we got to the top, we walked along the crest through the brush. There were little fields of green beans and corn planted in small clearings. Magical really. There were a couple of large rocks popping out of the fields for us to sit on. The view, spectacular, spectacular (to take a phrase out of Moulin Rouge). We were perched above the entire village of Pana, beyond was the lake then the volcanoes. The words stunning and breathtaking don’t do this view justice, I wish I had different words. This was the kind of view that makes one feel in tingly awe on a cellular level. Wow, wow, wow.
We meditated at the top, what my friend always does once she reaches the summit. Following that we had a spiritual conversation, which is often too rare among adults. The only sound coming from Pana was the circus pickup doing its daily rounds promoting the circus’ last day on the loud speaker. It’s been “hoy, el ultimo dia” the last day, for weeks now.
As we sat on different rocks in our silent chapel in the sky, wild parrots flew past in small flocks. Perched above the town you can easily see our house on the river. Being up there gives a different perspective–naturally encouraging me to step back from my home, my village, my life, to be silent, to listen. I’m convinced that creating more deliberate pockets of silence in my life makes me a kinder, gentler version of myself–like meat tenderizer for my soul. Ha!
My friend, said she rarely shares her mountain with others. I felt honored. It is a little slice of heaven. Now wasn’t the time to say her mountain was now also my mountain.
After returning to ground level reality, besides having the unexplainable urge to go to the circus, I was excited to see the girls. Felt like I’d been away on a major retreat, but the entire mountain trek took less than an hour.
Now that Paul’s away, I have to take back feeding my minions. When he’s here he does the shopping and cooking–gotta love those type A perfectionists who have high standards for well balanced and tasty meals! I doubt Moses was thinking about what to cook for the kids when he came down from the mountain. Oh wait, there really aren’t any parallels there except for the mountain, and the fact that I was as overheated as a burning bush. Nevermind.
I went to the grocery store and bought more groceries than I could comfortably carry home post mountain trek in flipflops. There are always tuk tuks waiting to take you from the store, so one of the tuk drivers helped me get all my bags in to the tuk. Then he said that he had to make a “little change” to his tuk, and proceded to change a tire with me sitting there in the tuk. I asked him how long this was going to take and he said just a little bit of time. Then he jacked up the tuk with me in it and it rolled off the jack and started coasting toward traffic. That’s when I opted for a different tuk. I don’t know if that made me an impatient gringa, but so be it. I wonder if an indigenous person would have just waited for him to fix it. There is a culture of the indigenous waiting and not asking questions or complaining about the situation, no matter how absurd it would appear to us.
When I got home I told Madi that I just came down from a mountain. She replied, “Mom, only you could set off for the market for mangos and end up at the top of a mountain.” I decided to take it as a compliment.
Next I spent a wonderful lazy afternoon with just me and the girls. Really a perfect mother’s day to me. Everyone was doing their own thing, Cali was making her little fashion creations out of paper and ribbon, Madi was reading some novel about infectious diseases, Kier was taking a nap since she was out late with her friends–all is as it should be in my little girlworld.
It’s triple minutes day so I need to buy more time on my phone. I also saw a necklace I want to buy Kier for graduation. I will do both of those on my way to the afternoon service.
Mother’s Day is my favorite day of the year. Quite simply because I’ve always told the girls I don’t need presents, I just want them to make me a card. Each year they seem to get more and more elaborate, creative, articulate. Love, love, love my folder of Mother’s Day cards from years gone by. It’s the one thing I would rescue if the house was on fire. I have permission to share the cards from the younger two girls. Madi actually made me a beautiful “Mother’s Day Coupon Book: The Unlimited Version.” Coupons include unlimited hugs, unlimited kisses, unlimited popcorn making, unlimited dishwashing (kid you not), unlimited I love you mommy’s, unlimited walks down Santander or anywhere else, unlimited wuv from da Madi. Cali’s card went like this, “I love you mom so mutch that if I jumped of a cliff, I would still be alive because I’d still want to be with you. Happy My Mom’s Day.” Can’t find that one in the Hallmark store. Kier painted me this incredible watercolor of the lake here, with a sunset. I’m going to frame it. The inside was poetically beautiful, profound, and private. She also gave me a circular wooden jewelry box made out of two contrasting kinds of wood. Her gifts have become rather sophisticated and thoughtful. I melted.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who pour yourselves into your little treasures daily. Let’s enjoy every part of the ride.