It has been a
very quiet three-day weekend for me, relaxing and not yet swarming with work
like the other ladies who seem to be working constantly on their computers
after work and on weekends. Perhaps work
will catch up with me the longer I am here: long tedious and painful meetings
with minutes that span numerous pages, countless reports, data collection,
deadlines…
Today is a special day for Cara, my daughter who
is also a talented artist. She denounced
society for the month of July to be at a silent meditation retreat so we did
not get to say good-bye in person when I left.
A year ago she did a three-month long silent retreat; I mean no talking
to any participant even the person whom she shared chores with!
My children think their mom is “crazy” but they
probably inherit a bit of the trait. A
few years ago she and a bunch of kids biked across the States from Providence, Rhode
Island to Seattle for Bike and Build, raising funds and awareness for
affordable housing and building houses with Habitat for Humanity along the way. Last year she and I took a mother and
daughter trip to South-East Asia and climbed the highest mountain: Mt. Kinabalu
in Sabah, North Borneo. This year she
ran barefoot the last six miles of the Boston Marathon taking her shoes off at
Heartbreak Hill. I sent her a clip on Abebe
Bikila, the Ethiopian marathon runner who conquered the 1960 Rome Olympics
barefoot.
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| Cara and I at Mt. Kinabalu |
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| Cara Running Barefoot with Charles Dressed as Faries at Bottom of Heartbreak Hill |
One
winter while she was running barefoot in the snow, a garbage man asked her,”
Hey lady, you forgot something?”
The
next time she ran with her shoes, he said,” I see you got shoes for Christmas.”
Before
I departed for Malawi, I left a picture of her when she was at the Lexington
Montessori School for her birthday. She
has come a long way since then.
Happy Birthday, Cara!
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| Cara at Lexington Montessori School |
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| Cara and I at our Belmont Home |
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