Allow me my fantasy
I like to imagine that come January, say, 4th or 5th, our life is going to be fairly calm, just drifting along in an unhurried, relaxed way. The move will be past us, we should be settled in with few social engagements, and I will be able to write and do art and potter around the garden and...
Yeah, I know it is only a daydream, and there is Always. Something. To. Do. (it is a sign we are alive, right?) But I do like to pretend. :P
Already, I know that at the end of March we are going to get to go to Anafora!* For those who don't know, when we lived in Maadi (part of the Cairo metropolis), we liked to spend time at Anafora, a Coptic Monastery/Retreat Center. My Women's Bible Study** at Maadi Community Church has a retreat at Anafora every spring, so I decided to travel back for it this coming year since we are so close to Egypt once more. It will be a short trip, but I am really looking forward to it, as is the rest of the family who understandably insists on not being left behind.
We are also going to travel back to France for a greater period of time this summer, probably close to 3 months for the kids and me. J, with work here, obviously doesn't have that luxury; so he will fly there with us, stay a week or two, then return to Lebanon, and then come back to France at the end for another week or two.
And the kids are already asking to spend next Christmas back in France with family. Lots of traveling in our future. Which means preparation (some of that translates into planning now because J, in order to have a better chance of getting the periods he wants, has to block in his vacation requests at the beginning of the year, like in two weeks maximum).
So, yeah, sitting back and relaxing, is not going to have a lot of space in my life in the coming months. And that is OK. I shall take the moments when I can and savor them because they are moments spent with family whom I love and friends I appreciate so much. I live a very blessed life. <3
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* Yesterday and this morning, I spent a loooooong time looking back at my "life in egypt" tags to find something to link to; alas, I see I never made a good post about Anafora, or if I did, I did not tag it well. :-/. This is the post that, even though it isn't about Anafora, comes the closest to conveying something about the flavor of the experience. Funnily enough, I have a slew of Anafora photos on my laptop now from a photo card we had failed to erase. So, since they date from 23 Dec 2016, maybe, if I have the time/energy, I will post some of them as a reminder as well as something to compare our next photos to (Bishop Thomas is always innovating; and Anafora was always evolving and improving. As are we all, n'est-ce pas?).
Reading through my blog reminded me of so many things about Egypt, some of which I remembered perfectly and other things I had "swept under the rug." My posts about life there remind me a lot of my posts here: "Got the crud," "got the crud again," "apartment hunting stress," "crazy landlord...crazy prices...." and so on and so forth.
** Thanks to Zoom, (and covid, actually), for the past two years, I have been able to follow this study with a group of ladies instead of just listening to it on a podcast by myself as I did after leaving Egypt. Amy, the teacher, always gives me great things to think about, and it is nice to be able to discuss things with others instead of just mulling over them by myself.