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Saturday
Feb282009
Four: Lamps, treelight, and a free ride
February 28, 2009 
1. Since there were power cuts last night that had the kids up and crying at three AM, (they hate the dark) they slept in until 8:30 this morning, giving me tons of time to write before they woke up. Beautiful.
(Sidenote: I don't know if you grow tired of hearing about my book and my writing life, but I will blather on. It occurred to me today that it is taking me precisely the right amount of time to write this book. I have moved past loving the book for the sake of being a writer or hopefully being published and now love it for the story's sake. I feel that I have to finish it because I love the story and the characters, and don't want to give up on them before their story is told. These fictional people in this fictional world where I spend a lot of my time. I wasn't here two years ago. I was still thinking too much about what a writing life should look like. I am now a bit more practical, and so I commence writing in the morning when it is just me and the ants, and there is not a candle to be seen, nor a flowing pen, nor a cabin in the mountains. Just dishes from last night.)
2. Mendhi on the kids. On their hands and whiskers on their faces. A beautiful woman who came over for lunch yesterday took the time to doodle on everyone with henna.
3. I've been taking Saturday mornings to go off by myself, sometimes for a ride on the scooter, or sometimes for a walk on the beach. I need it after a week of school and community life and work. Today Becca and I went for a swim together and then we lay on the beach for awhile, which I've never actually done here. It was like heaven.
4. Jocelyn, a girl from Canada who has been with us for three weeks and now is going back to Canada, sang a duet with Chinua at a concert tonight. There were people sitting on pillows and lanterns everywhere, dim light that lit the faces up all around. I love Jocelyn's voice and her music and the two of them sounded beautiful together. (By far the most talented people there... cough cough, did I say that out loud?) I wish she wasn't going home. But she's in a band called Treelight Room, and they're doing this mildly important thing called "touring" when she gets home, so. There's that.
5. And then, at the point in the concert when Leafy was so tired that he was dropping, and Solo was wide awake in the sling for a few too many hours, banging his little head against my chest, I called my landlord, who is a taxi driver, to see if he could get me home. I walked to the concert, but didn't feel like I could make it back with the sleepies. He came, and drove us home, and then he didn't charge me. Grace!
Reader Comments (7)
We've had fun doing mendhis on ourselves here lately too - looks a weeny bit outta place though;-) Glad to hear you're finding a bit of Self Time to rejuvenate in your week.
We do not grow tired. Please blather on. Lovely henna pic and your friend has such a deep soothing voice.
I'm really enjoying these posts!!
Me again. I'm sitting at my kitchen table helping my daughter with an essay she is writing on "Pride & Prejudice" and Fay Weldon's "Letter to Alice - On first reading Jane Austen" and I came across this in the latter:
"Writers deal with their lives as best they can, and their personalitites, and the family and century into which they were born: they do what they must with their day-to-day existences, and build in the City of Invention."
I just thought you'd like that, because your blog writing is your "day-to-day" and you used the metaphor of "building" a book only the other day. I imagine that your City of Invention is wondrous.
Sounds like you're having fun! Love to frolic on the beach with you. Glad you are being encouraged by so many people participating. I'm glad.
I have I told you how much I love reading about your life? Reality and Grace all rolled in.
I love hearing about your writing. I generally love hearing other writers talk about their writing because I also write (although not as beautifully or proficiently) and I enjoy getting another person's perspective on it. Please, blather away!