I never thought I would be grateful for the fact that my precious daughters are growing up so quickly. But today I definitely am. I am grateful that time spent waiting around in international departures is such fun now we can do shops like Victoria’s Secret together. I love that Kate does pink and leopard and words, so I can do black.
Today I am grateful I’m not a cab driver. Well, not our particular cab driver from this evening anyway. He waited in the queue of cabs for apparently more than an hour, to be lucky enough to score our lowly $10 fare, with two very very heavy bags. He was understandably grumpy. But not understandably rude. Very very rude. It was a very very uncomfortable cab ride. I am very grateful I was empathetic enough to understand and not react. Even though by then I was very very grumpy too.
I was grateful today for a momentary pause, love and a private smile, during my chaotic day. Chaotic due to my own procrastination and pure avoidance of the need to get organised for a month away. I was bending over to pick up the bank statements I had knocked off the table (because I’m now in a panic) for the tax stuff our tax guy has wanted for a while now, which meant today was the perfect day for it (when I should have been doing everything but) feeling under pressure and quite irritated, yes at myself, when I spotted this little note Jem had left for herself. It made me smile and stop. And breathe. And catch myself. I am very grateful for that little moment today but I am also grateful (and proud) that I was able to stop myself from ignoring the very firm instruction. Until she gets home, that is.
I am grateful that my world has changed so much that B now comes back from Sydney bearing a gift of an apron …. but the fact that it is a marimekko apron shows how little my world has changed. I am grateful that we share, always have and always will, a love for the aesthetic.
I am grateful that at this stage of my life I have been blessed to meet a lifetime friend. We are all supposed to count ourselves lucky if at the end of our lifetime we can consider ourselves to have had three true friends. True friends. Friends no matter what. Friends who last the distance. “One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible”. I know Arienne will be one of them. I love that we are so different yet so alike. She is so supremely private and it appears I am not. She is so much better than me at knowing when to say no to more. I love more. But the two things I value above all else in relationships, trust and respect, we have. We have pissed each other off in the past, and we will in the future, because thats just life. But we can talk about it and we can laugh about it. She celebrates my good times, and shares my bad times. She shares my life. As do I hers. I know there is nothing too much to ask of her. Or to share with her. And I know she knows that too. I love that I see her most days, yet we still can find something to debate and discuss. At length. And always over a cup of coffee. Or a glass of wine. Or more.
I am grateful for the gift of an unexpectedly perfect rainy morning today. A parking at the surf club (not an easy score these days), glimpses of sunshine at the right moments, a 5km nonstopshuffle (not an easy target for me these days) in the exquisite National park with special friends, a perfect le Monde coffee with lots of laughs, and a few perfectly extravagant purchases at Askew on Hastings. I am grateful for unexpectedly indulgent mornings. Just perfect.
I am grateful for big girls who are still my precious little girls. The sight of Kate coming in to the lounge to tell me something clutching her iphone in one hand and Tem, her first ever teddy in the other, is just too precious. The teddy was a gift from B’s parents, shortly before his dad,Tem passed away. Tem is who both Kate and Jem choose to cuddle when either are feeling sick or sad. I am grateful for the love my children have for the grandfather they never really knew. But clearly do.
I am grateful for boiled eggs. On rainy days. Perfectly soft boiled eggs with white toast fingers. And the warmth of moments past. And also for beautiful Alessi egg cup holders. I am trying not to be so attached to stuff but nice stuff really does make even a perfectly soft boiled egg taste better. And sometimes makes life seem a little better. Even if just for that little moment.
Today I am grateful for fun family moments. And double-takes. B went out early, leaving me in bed on my laptop. He got back a short while later, walked in and started chatting to me still in bed on my laptop. I overheard him telling me to stop using my face cream because it had taken thirty years off my life. I walked back into the room, to see Kate in bed on my laptop. In exactly the same pose I had been in when he left. Needless to say B and I were in hysterics, while Kate just looked on, as if to say, lame. It was funny, I promise.
Today I am grateful for a smile from a complete stranger. It seems I belong to a club without meaning to. Most days I get at least a nod, or a hand wave. Today I got a lovely smile. Funnily just when I needed one. A smile from a fellow Jeep driver. Its like an acknowledgement of similar taste. Of similar uncommon taste, because there aren’t that many around here. Jeep’s are unique, robust, uncomplicated, fun and quite basic. Yet kind of cool. It’s funny, the only other time that used to happen was with B’s Landy. Not with the Discovery but the dinkum Landy, which was equally unique, robust, uncomplicated, fun and quite basic. It definitely never happened with the Volvo, which was none of the above. Maybe that’s why. Anyway, I digress … today it felt wonderful to belong to this club that’s not a club. I am very very grateful for that uncomplicated smile today.
grace and dignity 