Today was one of those exceptionally full days. There early wake-up, appointments, brunches and finishing jobs, starting jobs, car and home and car and home, and then even a Zoom seminar to top it all off.
No wonder I’m feeling absolutely spent. 🥱
But it was a good day, in so many ways.
I started off my day with a GTT test – the glucose tolerance test as a part of pregnancy. I had to spend two hours at the pathology centre, and contend with rising and then falling sugar in my system on a bare stomach, but the time actually went quickly, and I even spent the second hour writing on my laptop (which I brought with me, tee hee hee).
Fast forward to later on in the day, and our painting upstairs is done! That is super exciting for us, now we just need the blind people to come and install our sheers and blinds, which will be happening soon.
I got a parcel of belly cream which I placed on order not too long ago, and I ended the day doing a one-night Zoom seminar via the Australian Writers’ Centre, focusing on story openings. I think the tutor Pamela Freeman is amazing, having taught me before in another online AWC class, and I got so much from this one tonight on tightening and sharpening the beginning chapter of your novel, my head was absolutely swimming with information and trying to work out how I would make it work!
But perhaps the most touching and heart-warming parts of the day were very, very simple.
Sure, we had a beautiful brunch together, that was a family brunch, not a couple brunch, because baby girl is on school holidays…
And even though I gorged on food after fasting (mine AND theirs!), the sweetest moment actually came before that when I walked into the cafe, looking for them, after having left the house super early for my GTT, and found them at a table. Their smiles were so sweet, they were so welcoming, and there was something really lovely about coming in and finding my family waiting for me, it made me feel like home…
There was a face painter on the Main Street, and baby girl lined up after our brunch to get a face hand painting done for free, as part of the school hols…
And though that was sweet too, it wasn’t the best.
Standing in line with her waiting to get it done was the highlight. The face painter was actually her face painter, the woman we had recently for her birthday. She recognised us by name and asked how we were, and I asked how she was, and an unspoken agreement occurred between us, unsaid but felt and recognised by us and only us in the crowd and queue of people all around, because of the very personal conversation we had had that day of baby girl and mine’s party, right before we had announced we were expecting again.
So I was thinking of her while talking to her, and then this flute player, she had what can only be described as one of those traditional flute type instruments, but it’s not a flute, the instrument is wooden and has like 5 or 6 holes that you blow across and sounds like mountain music, and this person who was playing and just literally 2 metres away from us, starting playing an Abba song.
And as I realised the song, the meaning, the moment, who was there, all that had transpired, and where we now were in life, it all really got to me, and I got teary. The song has great meaning for me, and every time I hear a song like this on the ‘other side,’ I get super grateful as well as super emotional.
I’m counting all the happy times, ’cause God knows the Universe owes me a thousand rain checks.
🪄🙏💖✨
“Chiquitita you and I know
How the heartaches come and they go and the scars they’re leaving
You’ll be dancing once again and the pain will end
You will have no time for grieving
Chiquitita you and I cry
But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you
Let me hear you sing once more like you did before
Sing a new song Chiquitita.”
carcrashgratitude 