January 9. The Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Monday afternoon. I’m sitting here in the middle of my chaos trying to tap out some words for today’s post. The dishes are not done. The pot of turkey soup is still sitting on the stove. But I have had my ski in the park. What I know for sure is no matter how tired or rotten I feel, a ski in the park can do wonders for my well being. It can build me up so I can tolerate the slings and arrows coming my way.

I got my cup of tea. I’m ready to write, but wait. Oh, darn! I have to hang up the load of laundry I did this morning. It’ll be just a few minutes and I’ll be back. And so it goes. Life can get better than this. I am sure but right now, I’m still struggling

I am doing the best I can. I am doing damn good actually though I do have my quirky moments. I haven’t been fortunate enough to have a ready ear when I need it but I am that ear that listens. It’s not a bad thing. I must be a good listener. I hope so. I’m lucky I have this space to tap, breathe and revitalize. The keyboard has been one of my best friends. It’s been talking and breathing for me for a long time. It tells my stories and stores them in a memory bank. Thank goodness for that. It’s keeping me afloat for this writing challenge. Here’s another memory from Ghana.

LAST DAYS –April 16, 2011

And so…I’m having one of my quirky, restless moments.  Often, it doesn’t help to talk with anyone.  Most times, nobody is at home. And when I was messing with FB and my mouse, I ended up with friends I didn’t think I asked for. I had to use the remove button.  I wonder if anybody noticed.  Ooops!  I didn’t think I was that discerning, afterall, don’t numbers matter…the more friends, the better?   And so here I sit, with my glass of wine alone on a Saturday night.  Does it matter at this stage in one’s life?  I’m remembering all my self-help stuff and thought:  Now is the time for it ….. The Four Agreements.  The fourth one being, always do your best, no matter what the best is at the moment.  My best for this moment is to wine and write away my quirk.

I did not fully appreciate or use the beach at Escape Three Points in Ghana till the end of my vacation. There was this day when there were no guests and everyone else had gone somewhere else surfing or some other place.  I was alone for a few hours with only the workmen working on the foundation for a new chalet and girls in the kitchen.  The beach was empty….my moment had come.  I waded into the shallow pool between the rocks and sat down.  It was not an easy process for the rocks were uneven and rough on the bottom and the water was quite buoyant.  I bobbed up and down a few times before I could get myself set down.  The water came up to my neck.  It felt wondrous.  After awhile I thought maybe I should give swimming ago or at least float on my back.  But I was ALONE. I thought I better not fool around with an ocean and no life jacket.  The surf can be very strong, even though I was protected by the surrounding rocks.

Instead I started jogging up and down the hard sandy part of the beach.  It felt a bit eery as I was totally alone, under the African sun.  I ran up and down the beach.  When I got hot, I ran into the water and let incoming tide cool me.  When I got tired, I waded into the pool and sat down, sometimes hanging onto a rock when the tide got strong.  Then I got up and did my jogging again, and so on….Towards noon, I headed back to the chalet, got my buckets and headed to the well to draw some water for a shower.  I just nicely got myself showered and laundry on the line when the sky got dark and I experienced my first real African rainstorm.  And did it rain!  I got the laundry inside, lowered the grass blinds to keep the rain from coming in through the screen only windows.  I climbed up to the loft to move the mattress away from the rain splattering in since there was no blind for the upstairs screen.  I collected rain water.

The storm did end and so has my quirkiness.  But I better clean the house like a storm.  Back to work too soon!