It’s the morning of the last day of the year, I wipe my tired eyes and head outside with the chicken scraps, Juno follows.
The house is cooling after a long hot night and the overcast morning separates the wood, making it creak and moan. The house breathes out loud as I step lightly on the floor boards, knowing that he stayed up to the early hours of the morning by the phone, waiting for that next call from his teenage son who celebrates on the other side of the world.
I feed the ducks and they squabble over some over grown rainbow chard from my very neglected garden. I take this moment to observe what has thrived, if anything, during this hot summer month I was gone. Potato stems surprise me, kale trees, 1 little cucumber with 2 yellows flowers peeking through, wormwood, chillies galore, a ripe green capsicum, 4 over ripe peaches and a handful of baby apples. Such a show of survival here in this garden.
It looks like the wasps have helped out well and I smile, thinking about the resilience it took in order for some of the plants to survive the heat and weeds.
Juno walks by my side as we head back in with a bunch of kale for the chirping guinea pigs. I have missed this little routine but I know that the summer will make it difficult.
I slice some fresh ginger to add to my chai pot, pour some tea and sit down to my journal.
With my first sip of tea, in my beautiful hand made TokoBoraku cup, I closed my eyes and dreamt about our recent trip to Japan. A month of dreams come true. My daydream was interrupted with thoughts of my traveling boy who I am missing dearly. I cried for him on Christmas morning and that day became a blur of mixed emotions and little love letters from far away lands.
The snowy mountains, magical forests, giant redwoods, matcha, ancient temples, incense, stamps, trains, temple seals, neons, street food, station songs, Lawson’s, fuji, tori gates, Buddha, Harajuku, sulphurous onsens and the closeness of my family.
Tomorrow is a new year. what will that look like for me?
I wonder!
