morning at the pool
It's funny how being up before dawn becomes comforting habit, signalling that all is right in my world. Yesterday, while my swim girl swam before the sun was up, I swam too, covering 2.4 km in an hour, which is exceptional for me. (Though not even close to exceptional for her -- plus she swam for an hour and a half, and did drills like 25 yard dolphin kicks underwater, and other things I could only dream of being able to do, as I crawl back and forth, slow and steady, in my lane.)
I've been thinking about what comforts me, how there are particular places I visit, stored in my memory, that bring me happiness and calm. I mean actual places that no longer exist. There are specific things that I associate with happiness, with peace and safety, like shag carpet, and barn beams, and a double bathroom sink, that belong only to my own private catalogue of good associations. I wonder what associations my children are absorbing, and where their happy places are.
new bed
I was thinking about stuff on this morning's dog walk. How comforted I am by the things that surround me. And yet how frivolous so much of our stuff is. How so much of what we think we need, we don't, and paradoxically how a certain perfectly placed object can set the mind at ease.
no good photos were taken on this outing, either
Yesterday, I took the family out to celebrate the German deal. We went to Beertown. Kevin and I drank German beer, and the kids drank root beer. The food wasn't especially German, though I did order schnitzel, just because. Afterward, stuffed and dozy, we decided that we're going to have to start cooking some of these celebratory meals at home. I'm not quite ready to make official announcements, but the news from the Frankfurt Book Fair has been exciting, and I can tell you that more internationally-themed meals are forthcoming. To celebrate the UK deal, we'll do fish and chips out with Kevin's family this weekend (it seems apt, as his parents arrived in Canada, by boat, from Scotland, just before he was born), and then I'll get creative in our own kitchen. And then I'll take pictures and share them with you, no matter the quality of the photography.
girl runnerLabels: career, family, good news, kids, photos, publishing, rituals, The Girl Runner