Tag: fun

The Joys of Hygge & Fernweh

We have all felt the pull of the universe against the warmth of ourselves. At times, the expectations of the outer world seem to be in sync with our inner worlds, and at other times almost discordant. Like the tree whose branches wildly throw themselves into the air – without shape or form, nor any apparent laws of Physics – skewed right, skewed left, center of gravity tilted.

Wild, and yet ensconced safely behind a fence. 

Could that be the human spirit on some days? The pull of society vs solitude. The pull of adventure vs comfort. The pull of this vs that. Here Vs There. 

Here & There – By Thea Lu

I read this children’s book, Here & There, written by Thea Lu the other day that seemed to encapsulate all these feelings through two different characters who experienced and belonged to this wild Earth in their own contradictory ways bringing home the fact that both our domestic and wild spirits need a home within us. Or maybe that was the interpretation I came up with. Regardless, it addressed a certain yearning for Fernweh – a lure for distant lands – that the holidays seems to awaken in us. A contrast from the cozy comforts of the home and reading by the Christmas tree that the very same holidays beckon one towards.

The book compares and contrasts the lives of Dan and Aki. Dan owns a cafe in a seaside town. He stays there – always welcoming new friends and visitors into his cafe, but firmly rooted in his space. His perspective widening, and mind broadening with every interaction with a stranger. Never once leaving his place of belonging.

Aki, on the other hand, craves travel and adventure. His life is colorful – he meets many people who have become friends during his travels. He has seen volcanoes erupt in the oceans, made friends with migrating whales, and shared a drink with fellow travelers in sea-side cafes. 

It is a beautiful meditation of all the different ways in which we belong. How we can broaden our horizons whether we leave a place or spend all our lives in it. After all, perspective, imagination, empathy are all fantastic human capabilities.

In Praise of Mystery – By Ada Limon, Illustrated by Peter Sis

Another book that I read in the cozy light of the Christmas tree also evoked similar feelings. This book, In Praise of Mystery – by Ada Limon, Illustrated by Peter Sis is a beautiful book about the poem that left Earth in 2024 aboard NASA’s spacecraft, Europa Clipper. Europa is Jupiter’s second moon and is believed to be full of water, similar to our own. So, this probe is meant to investigate the possibility of life on Europa. 

Ada Limon is a poet laureate and it is her poem that is inscribed on Europa Clipper. The book is illustrated by an equally illustrious illustrator. Peter Sis – is a MacArthur Fellow, Hans Christian Anderson prize-winning etc etc.

How it will be read is another question altogether.

This isn’t the first time we have sent our presence out into the universe either. Voyager’s Golden Record contains as many snippets of life as could be managed on the capsule – images, songs, and greetings in 55 languages are on it. Whale song, folk songs from Bulgaria etc.

Hygge Vs Fernweh

The message and book, In Praise of Mystery, speaks to that human yearning to find life outside our own planet. We have been sending probes to see if there is life outside, but here, right here on this beautiful planet, we can spend so much more time appreciating and protecting what we have. Sitting by the twinkling Christmas tree lights, warmed by the hot cocoa that is essential on such occasions, I thought of the world in Europa. It could be thriving or desolate. Cold or warm. The thrill of that extraterrestrial adventure is all very nice, but I was happy to be in my little home by the tree, enjoying the warmths of winter –  Hygge

The human yearning for Hygge & Fernweh can both be there, can’t it?

When Engineers Attempt Roofs

The Kind of Engineer Who

“I shall put up some tarpaulin on the roof, and this will stem the water flow from the rains till we find someone to fix it.” the husband declared. 

We had a leaking roof.

You know – how in the novels they tell you that you must show what happened, not tell you? I’ll just tell you and you will see. I slipped on the water pooled by the bucket by my feet. The rains were in and out of the house. Literally. There was a steady drip that was meant to drip into the bucket, but had managed to splatter outside the bucket. When the man announced his intentions of putting up the tarpaulin on the roof, I was attempting to clean the mess on the floor, and slipped. I barely managed to take hold of the stairs, thus saving myself from breaking my own neck. I might possibly have also saved my teeth from shattering. I count them all as wins.

Marriage makes you robust. 

Now. We have many talents in the house, but fixing leaking roofs, plumbing, electrical wiring, aren’t even remotely in the vicinity of talents we boast about. In fact, we barely manage to put up an assortment of holiday lights every year. But still, the husband has this undeniable faith in his capabilities on all these fronts. With a smile, he embarks – a few dashes to the hardware store, a few YouTube videos, and a hearty dose of laughter infused with optimism, and you will find the man attempting to do everything. 

One of our neighbors is retired and likes tinkering. He asked us what the husband was doing on the roof with a mild look of concern on his face. “Is he an engineer?” 

“Err…Software Engineer.” I said. To which the husband piped up from the roof, “Though many years ago, I also studied Electronics and Communications Engineering!” 

The neighbor still looked concerned. “So, not a mechanical or civil engineer then!” he asked. Sometimes, society is too polite. What he meant to say is, “So you are the kind of engineer who calls a mechanic or electrician to actually fix things, right?” 

Several neighbors came through the course of the day with concerned looks on their faces. Some laced it with humor, others with alarm. It was an illuminating experience.

The Benevolent Roofer

The man in question, though was undeterred by public opinion – he sat there on the roof, polished off a whole thermos of steaming noodles like he was on a picnic, and waved to the people below. ‘Benevolent Roofer’ is the phrase that comes to mind. Folks on walks waved back. Dogs woofed. Cats meowed. Squirrels scampered. Butterflies flitted. 

He then went on to spend 3 painstaking hours placing tarpaulin on the leaking section in hopes to stem the steady leak from the rains. We clambered up and down the ladder giving him a tile or two at a time to place on the tarp. ‘They are heavy!’ he panted, and I sweetly refrained from mentioning that they were actually only as heavy as the weights in our living room – the weights he’d bought to do weight training 5 years ago. I picked the weights up everyday to clean under them, but he never did. 

The rains came that night. The tarpaulin held on the roof – meaning it did not fly away. But it somehow managed to find a way to pool more water into the weak spots. The next day, we found that where we had 1 leak before, now we had 3. 

But like the children said to me when I said it will all make for a hilarious blog post, “Amma! Now remember! He is allowed to say he made it worse, you are not!” 

Fascinating

We caved in with the leaking roof, and had a pair of competent roofers come and fix the roof. 

It was fascinating to watch them. It had taken the whole afternoon for the husband and his support crew to place the tarp on the roof. He called several friends who all gave varying levels of moral support, advice and company via cellphone throughout the day. The man had the look of an astronaut in touch with his NASA team in Houston the whole time. 

The roofers, on the other hand. They came. No fuss, no jibber-jabber: the pair of them removed all the offending tiles, replaced the leaking area and put new tiles on them in far less time. 

What’s worse? 

One stood in our garden and threw 7 tiles at a time, and they were all deftly caught by the man on the roof. 

It took us a few minutes to stop gaping at the scene. 

Never mind

That evening we stepped out. The sun was shining. The leaking roof had no husbands on it. The house inside had no buckets to catch the leak from the leaking roofs. The birds were chirping, the leaves were all showing off that they were as good as their east-coast-fall-color relatives. It was all marvelous.  

“You know? I still liked that I tried to put the tarp on the roof!” he said looking far too pleased with himself. 

“I quite like having my husband firmly rooted on the earth instead of on rooftops.” I said diplomatically.

The husband went back to his code, and the roofers went to their van. 

All was well.

The Magic Faraway Tree

I loved the Inside Out 2 movie – the one in which the newly minted teenager has a new range of emotions available to her, and the old ones either have a tough time acknowledging them or making space for them. In the movie, Nostalgia comes knocking the door too, and the other emotions all tell her that she’s got time. Nostalgia is for when you get older. 

Well, guess I have gotten older. December has become the time for nostalgia.

While younger, the Decembers seemed far and few between. But as I grew older, I noticed a familiar lament in my December posts – “Where did the year go?” Did it really go all that quickly? Every year, I asked the same – only I seem to be asking it more frequently. It is all very confusing. 

A time for nostalgia:

When I was around knee high, it was the time I waited to clamber up the Magic Faraway tree in my imagination. Winter vacations meant lots of winds, and rains thanks to the North East Monsoons in Nilgiris. This was the perfect excuse to imagine going to visit strange worlds everyday over the clouds, and far away. I am really excited to see that the movie about The Magic Faraway Tree is finally coming in Mar 2026. 

The Magic Faraway Tree | Official Teaser Trailer | Claire Foy, Andrew Garfield

I would love to see what they do with a generation of adults who all were enthralled with the stories, and are now trying to convince their children to try it out. But those of us who grew up loving the stories of Moonface, Silky, Saucepan Man and the many lands above the tree can relate to the term ‘life-changing’ being used for this series. I confess that when I gaze up redwood trees and tall giants,  I wonder about the lands above the clouds.

A time for resolutions:

We live in an era of social media. I don’t think there is any escaping that. I don’t know where we go from here. But what we thought of as spheres of influence etc are fluid, and not at all easy to understand. 

So, I thought about grand resolutions like ‘No social media’ etc, but I wanted to do something that wasn’t the equivalent of sticking my head in the sand and hoping the storm would blow away. 

It occurred to me while watching the trailer for The Magic Faraway Tree movie. It is a bold move to try to capture the magic of what a generation of adults felt as children in movie-form. After all, it was our generation that was enthralled with Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree. I know I have had to convince my children to read the books, because they had Harry Potter growing up. 

How easy is it to judge or critique someone? So instead this year, I am going to try and appreciate all that goes into making bold moves. The adults who grew up loving The Magic Faraway Tree will be the bulk of the movie-goers. Many of these adults would have navigated life for a few decades now – some world weary waiting to see if the world still can bring that touch of magic to them, some cynical to the point of wondering whether there is anything good left in this world, some still hopeful and loving – nurturing the soft wondrous parts of life in them. The movie has to kindle magic in all of them. That is a bold move.

What are you nostalgic about and what are your resolutions for the New Year?

Humor is Serious

I was hoping to read a feel-good book, a laugh out loud funny book. An author like P.G.Wodehouse.

Read: P G Wodehouse on nourishncherish

That’s when it occurred to me that the comedy writers have all moved to other venues.

Screenwriting

The writing in sitcoms is excellent. No chance for a joke is lost. The jokes themselves are honed, and planned, every episode polished with alpha groups/ beta groups, and by the time we get to watch them on our little televisions at home, the humor is top-notch. Starting with Seinfeld I suppose (personally, my humor sitcom experience started with Friends), Everybody Loves Raymond, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Young Sheldon, and our personal favorite, Corner Gas.

I love it. I love the way a joke lands. I love the way the story’s narrative is held behind the scenes with out-loud laughs and merry chuckles along the way.

Standup Comedy 

The snap humor in the standup comedy is there in reels, hour long stand up shows – it is everywhere. Talent is bursting at the seams, and it is all available for us to laugh. Instantly. The variety and availability of humor from comedians who are able to weave social messages with humor is truly astounding. Trevor Noah, Alex in Wonderland, Aiyyo Shraddha. Who are your personal favorites?

Book Series 

But for a bibliophile who is looking for an equally funny book experience, it simply isn’t there anymore.

P G Wodehouse is credited with coming up with the first versions of sitcoms. P G Wodehouse himself acknowledged that many times he had wondered whether he should move towards who-dunnits instead. He was a big fan of Agatha Christie, and the money was really in the Mystery section of the bookstore – even then. But I am so grateful he stuck to humor. #ThanksgivingGratitude

Humor is one of the hardest things to write. So, I am glad to see the humorists moving to arenas where they can really be paid for the most difficult things. But the book world is really lacking a P G Wodehouse of modern times. Nobody has the time for a book anymore. Humor writing takes a long time, and is really quite difficult. Humor is a very serious business.

So, I understand why the humor writers have moved from books, but I miss it.

I miss books like those written by R K Narayan, Gerald Durrell, Miss Read. There are a few that still cater to simple pleasures and joys in living like Alexander McCall Smith.

If you recommend any really funny authors, please let me know. Comedy of Errors, Comedy of Manners, Comedy of Society, Farce, Satire- but in book form please.

Novembers Blues and Joys

Describing a Blue Sky

It’s hard to not fall in love with rain-washed November mornings in California. I remember once as a child being asked to describe a sky of indescribable beauty and getting frustrated. The sky was blue. But it was a blue that was not just a color, it made you feel happy! What was the color of that blue?

I felt that way this morning too.

The blue made me feel the opposite of blue. No one who has experienced this blue would attribute sadness to ‘feeling blue’. So what gives? When language is not enough, maybe the fluttering of the golden thrush is enough. For that’s how it feels – to swoop and dance through the air.

The leaves are beautiful, star-shaped, hues of green, yellow, orange, red and maroon with little sunbursts through their leaves sparkling and shining to uplift your day. Peering through that riot of color to the blue sky – how does one describe that?

Prized Priceless

That’s when I noticed the helicopter flying low, and I peered up at it, and feeling like a toddler asked to point at the helicopter in the sky, waved at it. Of course, it was at that very moment that our empty suburban streets produced neighbors walking on the streets. I smiled sheepishly at them, and said, “A day that makes you want to wave at helicopters isn’t it?”

They exchanged a swift, almost imperceptible look of concern, and then being the kind folks they are, arranged their features to polite interest, and said, “I think there is a police chase going on. We saw several police cars earlier today.”

Oh.

If people ask me at the beginning of the day how I plan to make a prized fool of myself, I am not sure I could tell you. These things are not planned. There is an innate talent to these things.

I didn’t know what to say to that. I goggled a bit at them, and felt my cheeks brightening to match the color of the maroon leaves through which the sunbursts looked splendid.

“So! Have you seen what they are planning to do for the park?”

Adulting in November

I recovered and walked home, though, the nincompoop before this little social chat might’ve skipped home. Really! Sometimes being an adult can be very restrictive. I thought of Anne of Green Gables – I felt for this girl so much just then.

“Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it… yet.”

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Just before I closed the door though, a beautiful butterfly and am engaging hummingbird seemed to understand what I was feeling as they flitted around the flower patch, and the trees nearby.

I watched them go, and then grateful that I got to step out at all, headed inside.

Feeling blue? Take a walk and wave at passing helicopters will you? The November world around us works like a charm.

Napolean in my Kitchen

Napoleon is in my kitchen making noodles before starting on his evening conquests. As far as conquests go, this one seems to make the emperor happier than a few hectares of land in medieval France. 

There is a knock on the door, and I head outside.

A unicorn is needling the scary pumpkin outside while her super-hero brother stands petrified at the sound it makes periodically. So, I gingerly step past the moaning pumpkin and offer him candy. He beams in relief and gives me a look that says one day his superhero journey may save folks from moaning pumpkins – just not today. He takes one piece of candy politely, then looks seriously at the bowl. He considers the one in his hand, and switches it out to another one before shyly saying ‘Thank you!’ 

 I wait for the fairies and princesses to come, my heart giving a little bump of joy every time the doorbell rings. One evil sorceress said that she was looking forward to ringing the doorbell when I opened the door before she did. I heard the pattering of steps and the squealing of voices long before her little group got to the door. So, I told her she could still ring the bell, and she smiled – vanishing all traces of an evil sorceress from her visage.

It is Elementary, Dear Watson

Halloween is here, and I found myself feeling a little wistful. The morning had been a reminder of all the wonderful years celebrating Halloween with the children. I drive by an elementary school, and Halloween mornings in an elementary school remind you that life’s best moments are in the silly and the spurious.

A duck and dinosaur, (a tyrannosaurus rex, the brain supplies from the recess of time)  the same size are best friends chattering and crossing the road with a Duck Xing crossing. The lack of a T-rex Xing sign doesn’t seem to offend the dinosaur in the least, and good-naturedly the pair of them make it across the street.

The parents are all parked, scrolling on their phones, while waiting to see their children in the Halloween parade before heading out to work. One poor lady was on her laptop – reminding me of an irascible boss I once had. I remember this boss as the vampire sucking joy out on Halloween. Maybe this lady’s boss isn’t a vampire – but I don’t think so. Her pinched expression show how dearly she would like to close the laptop and take in the Halloween parade wholeheartedly, but cannot. Those of us with children have all tried juggling seemingly ridiculous things like this, but somehow I am still glad we did. All those years of elementary school parades seem to have swished past so swiftly. 

Napoleanean Conquests

Back in the evening, I saw the unicorn fairy leave, and felt a pang. Halloween isn’t the time for time-travel, but everyday can be a capsule for time travel if you let Google photos have its say. I sat and watched photos from 10 years ago, 7 years ago, 5 years ago etc.

Later that night, Napolean showed me his candy stash and said with a politeness that stems from an excess of candy, “Please don’t throw these away! I will eat them – slowly a little everyday. Today’s haul was good.”

I thought the emperor would be buzzing on a sugar high, but apparently when you walk around the neighborhood for hours while eating candy it is good for the sugar. Huh! A few minutes later, I found his room lights on, and he was sleeping soundly, candy by his bedside, a book on his pillow, and a contented look on his face that said, ‘Today’s conquests complete!’

I smiled. Hope everybody had a good Halloween!

🦢🦢🦢 A Pod 🦢🦢🦢, 🥁🪘🪵 A Drumming 🥁🪘🪵, and a  🦅 ☕🦅 A Kettle 🦅 ☕🦅 

It isn’t often that one feels like the poet, Mary Oliver. The October mornings are starting to feel crisp, and then one remembers that this is California – so we have a beautiful mix of windy, cloudy, frosty, and this year, rainy days. 

🥁🪘🪵 A Drumming 🥁🪘🪵

The vibes that morning seemed to be around the themes of: Ready to bear moisture, and don the colors of autumn. Some trees had started turning orange, and the little family of woodpeckers I stopped to observe on my morning walk had me enthralled. There is something about the morning sun through the orange leaves, and little downy woodpeckers flitting and pecking their way through their morning that has to be experienced. They are called a descent of woodpeckers, or a gattling or a drumming of woodpeckers. I like the last term more – suits their percussion band theme. 

The trees reached and yearned for the blue skies, the birds tittered and chattered. I couldn’t say they sounded happy exactly, but they sounded content. The Earth around me at that point felt content to be part asleep, part awake. 

🦢🦢🦢 A Pod  🦢🦢🦢

Thinking of this and that, I made my way to a little spot I knew was favored by pelicans for their spot of morning fishing. Watching pelicans do a spot of coordinated fishing is one of the best experiences of nature. For all these men and their wars and their power trips, they should learn a lesson or two from a pod of pelicans. 

Glide, swim, swoop,

Glide, swim, swoop,

Glide, swim, swoop,

Glide, swim, swoop

Ballerinas and group dancers they are – It isn’t a rhythmic time-based swoop, for sometimes, they glide, glide, swim, and then swoop. 

Community creatures they are, and so totally in sync with each other, it is a joy to watch their companionship. Maybe they are territorial with their nesting and breeding grounds, but they also have an immense sense of taking care of each other.  

https://nourishncherish.org/?s=coordinated+fishing

🦅 ☕🦅 A Kettle 🦅 ☕🦅  

By the time I came home, my spirits were soaring with the kettle of hawks overhead. Hawks really do have a musical cry. They swooped and cried high in the skies, and really, they could be called a Swoop of Hawks. The agility!

Musical cries, percussion bands and group dancing is more than a morning’s worth of excitement, don’t you think?

A pod, a drumming and a kettle put me in mind for a hot cuppa tea, and I bustled into the kitchen full of purpose. A few minutes later, I sat sipping my brew content in the knowledge that mornings like this are not easy gifts. They are meant to be savored one precious breath at a time. After all, poetry, music, orchestra and words can only try to capture beauty.

Anticipation, Joy and a Surprise!

Is it raining yet?

I could barely sit still. Excited. Like a puppy waiting for a run around the park. Every few minutes, I found myself peeking out at the skies, and wondering whether the predictions were true. You see? We had been promised rain. The skies however did not seem to realize that our weather apps had predicted a 95% chance of rain. I genuinely do not know how they do this, but many times if it is a 30% chance of rain, the clouds may bother rolling in to salute the weather gods, but don’t want to go through the trouble of pulling on their grey robes, and just flit away.

This time they did not even bother rolling in. 95% chance of rain. It has to come – dance, spring, skip to the window. Nothing yet.
Sunny skies. D,s,s. Nothing.
A little breeze. Nothing.

When people tell you to keep your child-like outlook in life, I don’t think they realize how much disappointment goes with that. “We’ll go for a walk!”
When?

“Ice-cream?”
“Later. Once I’m done with work.”
“Done? Still? Not yet?”

It really requires enormous amounts of resilience. I salute you children – I really do. So, I peered out, sipped tea, and peered out some more. Nothing. So, I decided that the best thing to do was to be apathetic. Act like I didn’t care. Because I don’t. I mean, if it rains, I am sure, I’ll come to know.

Just as I thought the meteorologists really had messed it up this time, the rains started. I didn’t notice the dramatic shifting of the skies. The thunderous clouds rolling in. Like an efficient theatrical crew, the whole thing happened in minutes.

Then, the show started. 

Oh! Was it good? It was amazing! I sat on my patio dancing away from the lashing rains, enjoying the sound of the water pouring down – beating against the broad leafed plants, and dripping down the pine needles. I watched the roses get drenched – rose petals with fat water droplets on them have to be one of my favorite things.

The son was equally thrilled to go to school that day. The biggest highlight was that his cross country runs would not be cancelled for something as trivial as rain, and he wanted to run in the pouring rain. I tried to make noises a responsible mother ought to make, but found myself excited for him. How can one not be excited about running in the rain with your friends?

I set off for a walk with an umbrella in hand, listening to the soothing sounds of the pouring rain, and getting a thorough drenching from all sides except the top where the umbrella tried its best. A friend of mine stopped her car to chide me, but refrained because I looked ‘far too happy to be scolded‘.

Plop! Plop! Plop! Surprise!

Later that evening, the son and I had both dried off and looked very pleased with ourselves with our little rainy day adventures. That was when I noticed. The roof in our house. The same one that leaked and had been repaired last year (but was never quite stress tested afterward) was not fixed. The pouring rains meant we had a puddle on the floor, and I found a little of my soaring spirit subsided somewhat.

But so what?

The first real rains of the season were well worth it! The sunset the day after was even better. So there! Happy rainy season fellow beings. May the Earth make a pluviophile of us all!

An Enchanted Adventure: A Journey Through Children’s Books

Mystique & Intrigue for an Adventurer & Explorer

“I am going to indulge myself in something that I haven’t had the chance to do in some time!” I said – throwing it over my shoulder casually in a manner intended to intrigue and mystify.

“Going to the library? Good job ma!” said the son, and I moaned. Mystique and I. My foot. 

I guarded the time I had between a drop-off and pick-up session like it was precious (because it was) and headed towards the library. I fended off requests for the grocery store, deftly ducked under an amazon return order request, and dodged an enticing offer to search for missing documents in the house. 

When finally I walked into the cool library that hot summer evening, I felt something like an adventurer. An explorer who found their way to treasured lands. It was beautiful.

The display stacks groaned with new children’s titles, the popular books section assured me that the authors displayed there had been continuing to do their good work of broadening children’s minds. 

I cannot adequately state how marvelous it all is. 

The hot evening outside meant I picked up books with illustrations with cooler themes in illustration. Sleepy dreamers, cozy woodland creatures, forests in fall, the gleam of windows in the night, the beautiful shapes of the stars in the night sky. The here-and-now of long summer days has us all yearning for these themes, I suppose. 

As I gazed down at an illustration in the book, Every Color of Light – by Hiroshi Osada, I closed my eyes for a moment thinking of the evening we went in search of the stars. Specifically, Delta-Cep in the Cepheus constellation. 

Version 1.0.0 – from Amazon page

Delta Cep in the Cepheus Constellation

The son was bemused at how enthusiastically we wanted to help in this particular homework assignment. He, of course, in the innocence of youth cannot understand our childish enthusiasm for learning new things, finding out about new things. “Did you know that if we scale our universe, if the solar system is a football field in California, the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is in the East Coast of America?” 

“Really?”

See? Amused at the awe shining like Alpha Centauri on our faces. 

Anyway, he said it was difficult to find Delta Cep in the summer skies because of the light pollution in city areas. It isn’t the brightest star system.  The husband asked his talented photographer friends for the best places to go, and off we went. For half an hour, we forgot about all the travails that seemed to be whipping our daily worlds. Maybe Delta-Cep had a better time of it. A place where peace and harmony prevailed. A star-system in which the greatest turmoils were mild-summer-breezes that rippled through their atmospheres. 

That is the power of story-telling isn’t it? The ability to transport us to realms other, feelings exalted, and wholesome?

Farmhouse Menagerie

I picked up the book on cozy woodland creatures, Woodland Dreams – by Karen Jameson pictures by Marc Boutavant

What whimsical names would you give our fellow creatures? Karen’s names were fascinating: Fox (Swift Legs) , Fish (Shiny Scales), Deer (Tiny Hooves), Woodpecker (Strong Beak)

Come Home – Swift Legs

Furry Schemer 

Red-tailed Dreamer

  • Karen Jameson, Picture by Marc Boutavant

The lyrical poems she gives for each creature was enough to bring a smile.

It got me thinking: What would you name some of your fellow creatures? I have always loved listening to the names people give their pets. The daughter had quite the list, and I must say, some of them made me sit up and listen. The menagerie she had in mind for her horses, dogs and cats, reminded me of the little girl whose stories as a girl all involved moving to the countryside, and a horse in the stables revealing themselves to be a unicorn only to her. There is a sweetness to thinking like that. A simple yearning.

The feeling of a children’s book

And so it went, a little reverie of my own every time I picked up a book. It was the rare book that disappointed. Most children’s books had a sweet emotion it evoked – warmth, beauty, companionship, safety, love, growth. 

It only seemed right that I finished my stash for the evening with the book, Grow Grateful – – By Sage Foster-Lasser and  Jon Lasser, PhD. Illustrated by Christopher Lyles

“So, how was it?” said the son as I picked him up. 

“It was amazing! I wish you could’ve come!” He beamed. “Yes, next time. Tell me which ones did you like the best?”

I told him about all the ones I had read, and we chatted about them all the way home. He listened, an indulgent look on his face, and I felt a pang – he was growing and children’s books seemed childish to him just now as a newly minted teenager with a reputation to grow into.  I hope he’ll come back to them one day like C S Lewis said to his niece for whom he had written The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” C S Lewis 

A Timely Prank

“We have all been a little low on sleep lately!”, I whine to the brother who is asking me why I sound like a cactus.

His brows raised in question. Well. May have. But I know his facial expressions well enough. When his foliage moves, it means he is conveying something.

“Well – your little nephew has gone and joined the Athletics Team, which means he opts for the 5:00 a.m. practices on some days. So, there I am moonwalking at that godly hour!” A loud laugh startles out of him at that, and it takes me a minute to realize the unwitting pun there.

“Literally da! I slept only by 1:30 after my nightly reading etc, and was up again at 5 and walking under the divine light of the stars!” I said.

Remember the prank?

“Huh! Life does come a full circle. Do you remember us doing the same thing to you once? Oh! Remember the prank?!”

I didn’t. Sleep deprived. Cactus-like symptoms. Also old.

The son, on the other hand is agog. “What is it Maama?”

“Well – your mother was always getting up early to go and train for athletics. Wouldn’t let any of us snooze in. 6 a.m out in the fields. Very annoying. So one time, we decided to prank her. Remember this was the time before smart phones. We relied on clocks – wall-clocks, alarm clocks and grandfather clocks for the time. So, we changed all the clocks. And woke her up at 2:00 a.m. “ He stops to chuckle at the memory. I am beginning to remember it now. The knuckle head.

“She got ready, wore her shorts and tee etc – not once glancing out of the window. It is only when she steps outside with her shoes that she realized that it isn’t dawn yet. No pinkening of the skies. No birds chirping. Nothing.”

The son looks far too pleased at this reminiscence. “That’s awesome Maama! That’s so cool! “

“Yep!” The smug Maama in question preens at this. A satisfied baritone to his voice as he says. “It was truly priceless. She was too tired to be angry, too sleepy to be anything, and she just fell asleep – just like that with all her athletic gear on. “

Careful!

I smiled at the memory. It was coming back to me. That was funny!

“Serious respect for all the work Maama- changing the clocks! Staying awake.” The awe in the son’s voice. Goodness!

“Careful! I might do the same to you one day!” I said in my most threatening voice, and they both laugh. 

How easy it is to flit between decades? There is something comforting in the rhythm of life and circle-of-life and all of that isn’t there? The son skipped to school, satisfied with his morning story from maama, still chuckling at his yawning mama. 

I need a nap.