shining egg

the last day

thank you all for your kind comments on my last post.  i was so teary - as i always am the night before i leave my grandmother - the other night, and my words just tumbled out.  i really appreciate all of your words of kindness and understanding.

this is a peek at my final day in israel.   

 

my cousin and i drove north, stopping briefly at the dead sea.

 

and then spent the afternoon in the old city in jerusalem.  i am at a loss for words to express the wonder i feel at being in jerusalem; it is suddenly so clear to me that i am but a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle. 

i'm home now.  so sweet to be here, in my house, with my little ones.  they had no school today, so we got to spend the day together.  a treat.

fish with a womb

my grandmother lives in a city on the red sea, in the south of israel.  

in addition to visiting my grandmother, my uncle, and my cousins, i've been visiting with some dolphin friends.

   

this is luna.  she's one of my favorites.

these dolphins live in the sea, in their natural habitat.  though their diet is supplemented, they're never trained for food or forced to perform.  you can read more about them here.  it's a very special place. 

 

dolphins are amazing creatures, i think.

and this is the view from the beach where the dolphins live.  at sunset.  sigh.

from afar

i've flown half way around the world to visit my grandmother.  i hadn't seen her for 18 months - which is a long time in the life of little children, and grandparents.

it's a very special place, this town where my grandmother lives.  this whole country, really.

tomorrow i'll show you the dolphins.

bits of the islands (and the end of the vacation pictures, ok?)

have i bored you to tears all week with these vacation pictures? i'm through now, for the most part. one or two might trickle out here and there over the coming weeks. but really, this is it.

today's pictures are from the 2 islands we visited. st. thomas and st. maarten.

you might remember that i love the beach in a sort-of-insane way, so these two stops were some of the best parts of the trip for me. the water was as blue as it appears in these photos. really. the sand was soft as powder. the ocean was the absolute perfect temperature. the air was hot. the sun was shining. (we have few burned shoulders to prove it. oops.) the people were friendly. perfection.

st. maarten was my favorite. oh my, how i'd like to go back there for a week. (or a month. are you reading this, dave?) perhaps the very best beach i've ever been to in my life was in a tiny town on the french side of the island. the beach was almost empty (we changed into our suits right there on the sand. it was that empty.), and the shoreline was filled with seaglass. i get almost giddy typing those words. i mean, can you imagine my glee!? to find this glorious deserted beach covered with sea glass? we were piggy about it, too. stuffing our pockets and our shoes with (mostly) green bits of polished happiness. (i'll share those treasures next week.)

those two island days were glorious. we swam, we sunned, we walked and explored and collected and ate and walked some more and swam some more. we enjoyed the local flavor, we saw a tourist spot or two. we remembered how much we love to travel, to explore new places. we discovered that our children can walk - really walk - through a town or a city or a beach; that they're suddenly big enough to be fun to travel with in a new and different sort of way. we had fun. so much fun.

and then we got back on the great big boat and sailed home. there's so much more of the trip that i wish i could capture in words. i've tried, but i can't. a blur of memories and photographs and a few short sentences to sum up such an adventure doesn't seem fair. and, on the other hand, it seems just the right way to tie up a whirlwind, you know? so that's it, then. it was a beautiful blur. a beautiful, beautiful blur.

lines, on and around deck 4

off to paint today. it's been four weeks since i've been in the painting studio. and i always wonder, after a break like that - will my groove be there waiting for me, packed away with my paints and brushes and my smock that used to be my fathers pink dress shirt? or will i struggle this morning, stumbling along as penance for my absence from the easel?

either way, i'm awfully excited. not only to have brushes in hand, but because i feel the window paintings winding down. i'm eager to see the end of that obsession - not that i haven't loved it! oh, i have loved it dearly, but i'm looking forward to finding out what will grip me next. today, i think, more windows. and then, we'll see.

the sun is shining here. the air is crisp. all things are possible this thursday.

circles on deck (and a snippet of conversation from my everyday life)

driving to gymnastics on tuesday afternoon, alone in the car with l. (age 5), we happened upon a fire truck and an ambulance and a car that had crashed into the side of the road.

l: what happened?

me: looks like that car crashed.

l: good thing it wasn't us.

me: yes, good thing it wasn't us.

l: because i'm not wearing such nice shoes.

of course.

sigh.

we're home. thoroughly spoiled by seven days of luxury. refreshed. a bit behind on the household management. and thrilled to have returned to the thick of the springtime - green grass, leaves on trees, flowers in bloom.

mostly pictures this week while i wobble through the re-entry period that follows any good vacation. i wish i had made journal entries just like andrea's so that i could share a taste of my days at sea. but alas, i wrote nothing during those seven days. not a word. i was too busy staring out at the ocean and dreaming. so my photos will have to suffice.

more tomorrow.

home, now

we've been visiting. sunshine and grandparents, a lucky combination.

(as a note, i am not receiving any comments in my email inbox lately. nobody seems to be able to fix this problem - not typepad, not yahoo. this is why you haven't heard back from me, if you've left a comment here in the last few days. hoping to resolve this shortly, one way or another.)

november 2 (how did that happen!?)

oh, these last few day, they have been intense.

on tuesday night our travelling man returned, much to the delight of two small children and one tired mama.  his trip to china and hong kong was successful and inspiring.  and he returned with suitcases filled with gifts for all.

there were the dress up clothes and the paint brushes and the chinese doll, the tea and the painting paper and paints, there were the bits of fabric, the maps, even the pocket change was received as treasure.  we were, all of us, thrilled to be reunited - just in time for halloween.

the purple pumpkin costume was finished over the weekend, and i'm happy to say that it met with the approval of the pumpkin herself.  i was so proud of her - for imagining this creative idea, for sticking to her choice when her friends were dressing up as princesses and fairies and angels (oh, i do hope this four-year-old self-assurance lasts her whole life long).  and i was just as proud of myself for executing her design.  i wasn't able to get her to stand still for a proper photo shoot - what with candy calling, and all - but you can catch a glimpse of her here.  [i just re-read this post and realized that it sounds as though i object to fairies and princesses and angels.  not one bit!  it's just i was glad that she stuck with her original choice and was not swayed by peer pressure.  that's all.  really.]

and her brother, the fierce chinese warrior (wearing a costume brought home in a carry-on bag, just in case the luggage was lost - what a good daddy!), he came down with a fever and had to come home from school after lunch on wednesday - missing a neighborhood halloween party and trick-or-treating.  a major disappointment.  luckily, the sad little warrior was not deprived of candy.  the purple pumpkin, she's generous and shared with abandon; and the parents, they made an extra trip to the store for a bag of chocolate bars and peanut butter cups just to be safe.  (of course, i ate the majority of the peanut butter cups and now feel ill!)

in the midst, there's been a bit of drawing and painting, and even sewing, too.  all of which i'm eager to share next week, along with some deep thoughts swirling around in the back of my head.

but for now, on to the weekend.  i'm hoping to do some yard work, preparing the garden for the winter.  and some raking, big piles of leaves for jumping.  and also some simmering, hot cider on the stove. 

a wonderful weekend to all of you.

fragments

i am home.

i have been AT home for two days already, but finally, i AM home.  i have slept in my bed, showered in my shower, unpacked (mostly), washed and dried and folded laundry, sorted out the few trinkets i purchased on the trip (photos later, maybe), filled my bird feeder, embraced my camera (and my husband, of course i embraced him first), thrown my melon rinds into the compost, uploaded my photos, sorted my seashells, breathed the springtime air, watered my flowers and herbs, and finally, i am home.

the trip already feels like a dream (does that happen to you - you get home and suddenly it feels like you haven’t been anywhere at all?).  i found my grandparents no worse than expected.  as complicated as they are (and they are oh-so-complicated.  but then again, aren’t we all?), they are my grandparents and being with them is familiar.  and medicinal.  and watching them with my children is like experiencing my childhood all over again.

my aunt’s absence was palpable.  this was our first visit since we went in a hurry just days after she died.  she was so conspicuously not there in all of the places we’re used to being with her, it was odd.  though comforting to be in her places.

we spent almost every waking moment with my cousin.  as gigantic as the void left by my aunt’s passing is (and it is gigantic), i feel incredibly grateful for the evolution of my relationship with my cousin - a bond that emerged during the formation of the void.  we share a history, though we grew up on separate continents, a decade apart.  we share our grandparents.  we share our lost parents.  we share an appreciation for life that grows out of loss, i think.  and though we talk by phone almost every single day, it was uplifting to spend seven days together.

we spent the last day of our stay on the mediterranean sea in the north where my cousin lives now.  this particular stretch of beach consists of a series of coves, sandbars, and even a small island.  the sea was gentle.  the seashells were plentiful (and you know how i feel about that!).  we explored the island, the peninsula, the excavated ruins of an ancient city.  the children played with popsicle sticks and seashells to make boats that they sailed in the surf; they ran from the waves; they collected shells.  we sat, we ate, we drank lemonade and beer, we savored our time together.

and now i am home.  it feels good to be here, finally at home, after two months of travel, travel, and more travel.  i do love a good journey, but i am grateful now to be here and to be still for a while.

with so much motion lately, it’s been hard to find time for any creative pursuits; something that i feel the effects of daily.  i’m settling in now, and looking forward to painting and much more - and to sharing my creations here over the coming weeks.

inspiring me right now is this tray filled with treasures from that last day on the beach in israel.  not sure yet where this is going, but we’ll soon see...

by the way, that contraption i mentioned was amazing.  the very best travel accessory i have ever purchased (and i’ve purchased quite a few over the years!).