so sweet and juicy

i hadn't had grapes in 6 months.  i've barely seen them here and they're expensive and usually don't look very good.  i've even heard of some people getting grapes as a Christmas gift. 

but today was my lucky day.  my friend brought them over as a treat.  what a treat.  because not only are they grapes- they are REALLY GOOD grapes. SO SWEET AND JUICY. it's the little things.
i'm sitting here eating them-and i'm pretty much in heaven.  thank you dear friend, thank you.

sometimes you don't even know you miss something until you taste it, or see it, or hear it again, then you remember.  and maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder, because grapes have never tasted so good.  that's how i feel when ever i land in san francisco.  as soon as i'm out of the airport and on the 101 heading into town and i see those hills and the light hitting them and the bay on the other side- then i remember.

life is found in these little moments- tizita- reflective nostalgia.  both creating those moments- opening the senses- taking it all in so we don't forget; and recalling them- sensory travel.

today i was part time mom- part time teacher and only one tiny part doctor.  this is my wednesday.  5:30 am- corralling of the boys into the morning routine, but this time i say goodbye and someone else drives.  i have coffee and prayer with mike.  i do some exercise- today it was yoga.  then i begin the zoe home school routine.  i will skip any annoying details and just say that after accomplishing a few things- like math and copy work and history- and minimal soccer/ spelling- we canned it and became crazy animal scientists observing wild red-tailed monkey behavior in the jungle of our yard.  we sat down in the hot sun and watched two little monkeys eat and climb and play and watch us right back.  and once i got over the inescapable, learned aversion to not sticking to our schedule, i was amazed at how cool it was that we were sitting 2 feet from these little guys with their opposable thumbs- that this is home schooling in africa.

so i stopped and i payed attention- to the way they held the palm nut they peeled, to the direction their fur swept away from their face, to their human like ears.  and i felt that hot hot sun on my arms, and i sat close enough to zo that i could smell her hair and then the smokey air of things burning near by.  and i let us be.

because it's the little things.