This week:
It's great to resume a normal work and school schedule. I feel up and down - some days are strong and I do a couple of loops on the morning walk. On others, I have limited zip so I take it easier. I skip our mountain walk again, hoping to join next week.
Wednesday
In the afternoon, John drops by for a visit and we go down to Ehnic for an early supper. We want to make sure we're gone before sundown and the deluge of customers who will be feasting. The restaurant courtyard is beautiful.
Streetside, a mason is hard at work, covering the massive stone wall he mortared together in the past months. The owners have chosen the facing stone. Most pieces have to be cut individually and puzzled together.
A friend is eating only egg whites so offers us the egg yolks. I use 6 to cook chocolate pudding and creme brûlée. Yum.
Most neighborhoods are being cleaned and decorated for Ramadan. This little street sees a steady stream of cars and motorcycles, leading into an entire neighborhood. If you're entering or leaving with a car, you have to wait or pull back if there's other traffic: it's one lane wide.
The playground has sprouted food stalls. It's deserted during the day and bursting with life at night. Women are wakened by the mosque announcement at 3:00 a.m.: the women work harder than anyone this month. They cook for their families who must eat before sunup.
Most people will fast food and many will fast water until the feast at sundown. More cooking ... unless you can afford to buy food. Children start fasting in elementary school. Exemptions include physical laborers, pregnant women, and the ill or elderly.
Ramadan started yesterday. Those who are fasting are on half-energy. Usually, we don't ask our helpers to cook for us during this month. I have the freedom to cook whatever I'm in the mood for. We work our way through the freezer for ingredients like meat or fruit.
What luxury: my walk alone is quiet. The little shop/house beside the dump is still shuttered at 6 a.m. Many people will visit family or try to sleep in during the temporary schedule.
Small improvements, like this fish pond cemented over the street drain, are everywhere.
The hotel decor reflects a Ramadan theme.
Only helpers and upstairs guests are in the house. Since W's on the mountain walk, the meal schedule and menu is my own. I stroll the yard now and then, enjoying the lazy pace of the fish swimming in the flower-pot ponds.
Most of the day, I sit on the porch to review language recordings. Wow. How can I forget so much? I'm not quite starting over but I couldn't use half the vocabulary if my life was at stake.
I putter when my mind rebels, doing small chores like trimming last weekend's roses.
The birds squawk and chase each other around the cage. Mating season.
Friday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JONATHAN!
It's our youngest's birthday today. Though far away, we will celebrate him all day long.
We wake early and walk the dogs. Either today or yesterday was "dog day." As soon as I point the camera at Gypsy, Bailey, and Juno, they look away. They're on one leash and mostly walk well together.
I'm back to studying and reviewing, with a few calls between. At 9:00, I take a break to chop my hair into layers. I don't bother wetting it and it doesn't take much time. Later, after a shower, I'll check for unevenness. (Can't be worse than some salon cuts, right?)
A black butterfly plays nearby, with a wingspan of 7 or 8" (18 cm?). I don't enjoy butterflies in our yard; they leave behind the worms that eat our plants. The dogs sprawl on the porch beside me. The bamboo chimes clatter in the breeze. We enjoy a morning without rain.
Read more:
*Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Psalm 51:10-17
*You silence the roaring of the seas, the tumult of the peoples. Psalm 65:7
*I will seek the lost and I will bring back the strayed. I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak. Ezekiel 34:16
*Zechariah said, “With a solemn oath to our ancestor Abraham the God of Israel promised to rescue us from our enemies and allow us to serve him without fear all the days of our life.” Luke 1:73-75 GNT
*Jesus said, “When the shepherd comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” Luke 15:6
*Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. 1 Timothy 4:7-10
Moravian Prayer: Good Shepherd, sometimes we are lost and yearn to be found. More often, we don’t even know we are lost. Help us to know the joy of being found by you.
Jesus, quiet friend, we are usually impressed by speed and noise and power. You invite us to your wild and different ways: of listening, humility, and compassion. Lead us in that way. Amen.
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