Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Dreamy Day

When I was just a lass I used to have all sorts of dreams.

I'd transport myself to a beautiful rustic home in Italy. In the 1930's or so. I'd live my days surrounded by family, wear white cotton dresses, and of course be close to the sea. At night I would open my window and taste that salty breeze. And the curtains in the room would be long and dreamy. And I would have beautiful hats.

But those were just some of the details. The crowning moment was going to something wonderful. I knew that one night just as I was drifting off to sleep I would hear something. It would be a mournful sound, a solo note, played on a trusty accordion. I'd light a small candle and walk to window. Flickering lights would approach in the distance and soon the sounds of voices mixed with all sorts of lovely music-makers would gather in a sweet song.

The lilting song would stop beneath my window and then they would play for hours. I'd stand in doorway and listen all night long. It was somebody's way of showing love.

Tonight was almost like my dream, at least the serenade part. The details were a little different. But the candles flickered (because we had no electricity) as the voices of our Cambodian neighbors filled the air with the accompanying sound of the accordion and guitar. My children sat quietly with me soaking it up. Beautiful. It was the first time I was ever thankful for a power outage.

It was a great end to a dreamy day.

It started off with Calvin fussing for only an hour. Usually we have a very rough time for 2-3 hours in the morning, trying to get him to eat amidst the screaming. Poor tyke.

But today was wonderful.
Darryl headed off to Logos to say good-bye to students and hand out report cards. I loved reading all the kids' comments in his yearbook.


Jess stopped over with Ally and we chatted in the "garden". We tried to figure out if the big tail that had slipped along the edge of the garden belonged to a rat or big lizard.

We headed off to a good-bye lunch for the staff that are leaving this year. Enjoyed the friends and food.

The skies were overcast this afternoon and the kiddos and I had a great time roaming around with the stroller and bikes.



One elderly man gave me two white blossoms that smelled lovely. Another elderly man rode on by, wearing only a big smile, glasses, a krama for pants....on a kid's pink Barbie bike.

A student dropped off a cake as a thank you to Darryl. It couldn't have been better timing. We still hadn't celebrated Evie's 2 year birthday...overdue by 2 months. We put in the candles, sang happy birthday, even had her present on hand. She was delighted (and had no idea we were nearly two months late).


Thank you, Lord, for this good day.







5 comments:

Christy said...

So beautiful! I'm so very happy for your dreamy day. Is the morning crying a new development with your sweet Calvin, or the way it's always been?

Love that last photo.

And happy 2 years 2 months to Evie!

KarenKTeachCamb said...

Love the photo of Sophie & Calvin, especially the monkey face on his bottom! So cute. I'm going to miss you so much.

Becky said...

Precious, precious babies. I could take a bite out of Calvin, he looks so sweet and scrumptious!!!

Anonymous said...

So glad you had that day:) May you have 8 more of those memorable days before you come see us once again! I'm so excited that I may even give Big D a big bear hug...maybe I'll just save that for Bud;)

Jenny said...

Take care all! God bless you, we keep praying for you all that your faith will grow and you will continue to give all your cares to our gracious loving God and Father in heaven!

Love the Jansens
Chilliwack, BC