spinning gold out of straw
Whew! I’m back! Seems the days just fly by. I really do try to keep up with this blog, but it seems something more important always comes along (in the form of a small red-headed person) before I actually get anything written.
So here I am, blogging at 2:30 a.m. Seems the wee hours are the best time to work on any of the multitude of things that seem to fall by the wayside during the day. Tonight it was washing a load of laundry, brewing a new batch of kombucha tea, flavoring an aged batch of tea (strawberry-pineapple-ginger), trying to prune back the pantry shelves (do your shelves get as overgrown and crowded as a bramble thicket? mine do), washing a few dishes, oiling my lovely bamboo cutting board, doing my online ordering for the next few months, and of course, just listening to the beautiful silence. And of course, blogging- finally.
I’d rather be there for my girl during the day, and hash out my work at night (or I guess morning!) After all, I suppose blogging will still be here in 20 years…but my baby might not be. Like the song she sings about Cinderella, the clock will strike “meed-night”…and she’ll be GONE. And my computer will still be here, only it will probably fit on my thumbnail by then, and will probably type my thoughts for me as soon as I think them.
Today Z and I dug in the garden together all morning. We found and potted some flat-and-curly-leafed parsleys, chives, dill, and some other sort of herb that all grew back in the little weedy patch from last year’s plantings. She LOVES being outside, especially digging in the dirt, and of course got covered with giant mosquito bites. Meanwhile, Dadda worked hard enough in the backyard to compete with Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel Mary Ann. Only he’s building a fence, not digging a cellar for the new Town Hall. But you get the idea (or maybe you don’t. Google it.)
Later, Zia and I went and walked around Wal-Mart for a couple of hours. It was a very slooooooow stroll, met with dozens of smiles from fellow shoppers. You see, our shopping cart was rather small. Yup, we brought our own cart today, and it’s only 18″ tall. But it worked great, and all our purchases fit right in it just fine (we did only get 2 small items).
And of course, num-nums all throughout the day.
Sometimes I think I get a glimpse of just how strange and wild this life is. Days that feel so average now will someday be treasured, golden memories- gone forever, except in my mind’s eye. Someday I’ll long for all this again: these long aimless days of bouncing someone up and down on my belly just to hear her lilting laugh, of spinning around with her in the living room to her favorite hip-hop CD, of holding her close in the rocking chair, her arms full of half a dozen stuffed animals, one arm stretched straight up so I can give her “pit” (soft touches on her underarm), one bold, unblinking eye staring up at me as she nurses. Yeah, it’s not time wasted…it’s time caught, held onto, stopped…just for a minute, while the rest of the world goes on spinning.
It’s just me and my baby, spinning together.
