JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

Today I stopped by K’s Cafe for the first time. It’s a wonderful place to go to learn about hummingbirds, bounce with a baby in the mirror, see an air show or breathe buddleia:

I step up to the burgeoning purple tree, expectant. I inspect it from sky to ground and back again. I gently pull one flexible branch towards my face. My nose cuddles with the buddleia cone and I inhale. I breathe in childhood. I breathe deeply of security. I blithely breathe in fun, adventure, carefree days. I breathe love, happiness, delight. I imbibe pure peace.

Stop by for a sip. It’s fun and fragrant. Rich and refreshing. And I don’t just mean the orange peach mango juice…

Today is Anita Rowland’s birthday. I hope she has fun and enjoys her new present: Dance Dance Revolution.

I’d be curious to try DDR myself, but for the moment I’ll try dancing as I do the dishes, a new discovery yesterday. Usually if I am trying to get through a task I’ll play something loud with a beat, but yesterday the girls and I were listening to the classical music station kid’s program (or at least we thought we were) and enjoying Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”. As I unloaded the dishwasher I found myself doing arabesque like Abigail practices, bending and reaching to put the mugs on the shelf. It was fun! (Maybe Enoch should try dancing while doing the dishes…)

Anyway, I hope Anita had a great day today…enjoy!

I’m grateful for the three day holiday for our family. Recently I’ve noticed that it takes more than one day off to recover, rest and get ready to go back to work. It takes two days. Or more. One day to do what needs to get done. And another day to breathe, blow rainbow soap bubbles and nap.

From March to May we’ve been busy but the past few weeks have gotten quieter. Today I noticed that the ambiance in our home was returning to calm. My desk is cleaner. The kitchen has less clutter. Life is subsiding. And there’s still one more day to go in this holiday weekend…

Yesterday Enoch answered my dishwashing question with candor – here’s a snippet:

Lets see, in the grand scheme of things, being known in the Biblical sense of the word is probably one of the highest ranking motivators for most husbands… but in the balance of give-take of a relationship between 2 firstborns, it’s not always easy to make time for the mundane if you expect the other to help with it. It’s funny since I never shirk from doing the smelliest job here in the urgent care – fecal disimpaction, but i do shirk from washing dishes?!?!

I hope that your move goes well and that you’re able to learn to love each other and “to just get in there and get dirty” when cleaning up in the kitchen… more practice might be good…

Thanks Enoch for the blog ping-pong, and Wink for resurrecting the meme. Rod Kratchowill also described his talents (I’m impressed!)…

… but don’t you think we should stop dialoguing about all this, otherwise we won’t have time to do the dishes, or anything else…;)?

This week I’ve been thinking about limits I need to set for myself. I think I like to believe I am some sort of super human. Not that I’d admit it or declare it or wear a huge “S” across my chest.

But when I look at what I’d like to accomplish in a day and the price I pay for my amibitions, I realize I’m not living in reality. It’s subtle self-deception. All illusions must come to an end, one way or another, and if I’m not careful, I’ll end up on a painful route to recovery. You can only break the rules for so long before it catches up with you…
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