A whirlwind couple of days and somehow I didn’t get myself to writing. Did a record number of entrees for the Meals on Heels at Oasis on Friday, and the menu was one of my favorites so far. The Pomegranate Chicken came out just gorgeous, the Méze Platter was abundant and full of great flavors, the Fatoush Salad was zippy with herbs and filled with lots of great fresh veggies. The desserts were both delicious and easy to package up in a way that had them arriving as pretty as they left.
The day was so hot though. The idea of heading back home to clean after we had been sweating through our day, did not sound at all enticing. As it was, Willi took two showers during the day as we cooked, just to feel a sense of cool. On the way home from doing the Oasis drop off and the regular deliveries, we decided to zip up to Inverness for a sunset swim. It’s one of those things that makes me feel a tiny bit guilty because I have the immense privilege to be able to just jump in the car and get to the water, and also makes me feel so very grateful that I live in a place where in an hour I can be submerged in salt water.
And salt water, both seawater and tears, are deeply necessary and fundamental to my person and current experience. We have a rough time, sometimes, for various reasons. We are working hard to continue to learn, and grow, and understand each other, and have compassion even when we are frustrated with one another, and figure out how to communicate in a way that helps us be closer instead of pushing us apart, and trusting that somehow, some way, love will triumph in the end.
Willi is a fundamentally positive person..a glass full, probably with pink champagne, person. I, on the other hand, am a much more pragmatic, cynical person. Mostly a half-empty, possibly spilling-over-any-minute person. Maybe it comes from a childhood filled with scary, difficult times. Maybe it’s the way I learned to cope… by anticipating all the potential bad things and being prepared for them. This dichotomy sometimes finds an uneasy place between us. But we keep trying. And the “keep trying” part is primarily Willi’s doing. I am easily discouraged and conflict-avoidant to a fault, but he has faith in our ability to get through…. And so I lean on that as best as I can.
The Friday night swim almost didn’t happen because of struggles, but somehow we made it there and it was very, very restorative. We stayed until the darkness fell and the stars came out, and we had to use the light of his phone to get us back up the path and to our car. Exhaustion took me over, so Willi drove and let me snooze on the way home. And somehow, the magic of salt water (both kinds) helped heal the rift, and the day.
We saved the cleaning for today, got most of it done and are headed to the beach again for a sunset picnic and a swim. Again feeling our privilege and so much gratitude. I hope that everyone was able to find a moment of cool, a moment to be heard and seen, a moment to give yourself the compassion you need. I am thanking my stars.
Willi has been encouraging me to take some time to rest/recharge. We have a week coming up where we are not prepping food for Meals on Heels and it means that there is the possibility to take a week away. Originally, I had the fantasy of dashing back East to see my dad and my aunt. I know it’s basically impossible… or stupid… or whatever. My dad’s place is only allowing distanced visits for 30 minutes at a time, and it seems crazy to drive 3000 miles to have a half-hour visit in the courtyard of his place. My aunt is on the Vineyard, and Massachusetts has a mandatory 2 week quarantine.. which I think is super smart, but also daunting. I thought about going there anyway and just staying in our van, not going in her house, just being able to SEE her. Across the lawn or across the porch. But again, it feels crazy to drive across county and back in 10 days for those two moments of connection, and so we have been talking about going up to see Willi’s family. He would like me to get to know them better, and vice versa, and get to see where he grew up, and it would only be a day of driving back and forth. In addition, we could maintain the level of risk-avoidance that we have been doing, by visiting masked etc.
So. We are going to take a week off. We are hoping to leave on Saturday the 22nd (after our next Meals on Heels on the 21st) and come back on the 1st. This means that we would be unavailable for the week of August 24th and Monday the 31st. We would be very happy to bring you a little extra this next week to carry you through until we are back. All of our offerings do well in the freezer and if you know that you are planning to freeze something, I can package it into a more freezer-friendly container. We are hopeful that our taking a week away won’t be a hardship on our customers. To sweeten the deal, if you order more than two soups/ragu/pomodoro/tagine, we will include dessert of your choice for free. If you are ordering off the website, just tell me what kind of dessert you would like in the note section!