April 29, 2013 — Lila
April 29, 2013 — Lila
- dreamin’ of scented candles. A lighthouse. Slow dancing to Ray LaMontagne in daylight. Holidays. Ocean waves. A new Spring jacket. Japan.
— -
Last night, I slept off on a pile of books and a platter of Chips Ahoy cookies. In the background, a can of Pepsi went flat to the tune of Billy Holiday’s Night & Day.
Today, I wake up in a quiet neighborhood — an 11 hour flight, a 5 hour layover and a 6 hour bus ride away from home — just like I have done daily for a year. As I lean against my sturdy kitchen window staring out into the fog, cradling a mug of hot tea, I’m reminded about the things that change; like the weather, the time of day, my book list every year, and despite the distance between the familiar and the foreign enforced by separate continents, the things that remain the same like birthdays, His unconditional love for me and my habit of sleeping off with the radio on.
I’m learning to live in a different language; to say the basic words “Good Morning”, “Please”, “Thank you” in a voice that surprises me, in clicks and howls and phonetic patterns that I can always count on to bring me back to the reality of a land I’m struggling to call “home”. I’m learning to explain myself in more stressed syllables than I’m used to, to neatly fold away the slangs and sighs I know to adopt if only for a while, a new culture. I’m also learning about how a hurried vending machine breakfast can take me through seemingly unending days. Skittles & Coffee for Senate!
I have a few things that are a constant reminder of home like my favourite shoes that have been through crowded markets and fancy restaurants, airport security checks in different countries and have survived an almost luggage mishap, an old library bill from 1995, my iPod.
There’s a quote from the movie Life of Pi -
The whole of life is an art of letting go…
I want to know how to let go in bits, how to tuck little precious moments away from being drowned out by the wave of change.
The world is large and small and sometimes, I’m overwhelmed by it all.
_________________________________________________________________________
Lila is from sunny Nigeria, she loves vanilla & the ocean, she misses home