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.
Cara Running Barefoot with Charles Dressed as Fairies 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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