The biggest surprise so far in our sojourn in London is just how satisfied we both are doing the ordinary things. We still are waking at Midnight for a time then going back to bed at 2am. I welcome this middle of the night time of quiet togetherness. We tend to each read or write quietly, just sitting in the same room in silence with no immediate meeting imminent is itself a gift. We are discombobulated by the rapid change of fortune from working every minute to this thing called time off. That it takes getting used to is the surprise. This is where ordinary comes in.
We are delighting in figuring out how to do ordinary things. I lived in England for a year in 1983 and lived for nearly 20 years in Australia and I still forget to turn an appliance on at the point. I have lamented a broken flat iron, converter, dead computer and a stove that didn’t work only to remember again (and again and again) I have to turn on the powerpoint first before the power will come through. What a lovely thing to remember anyway, “turn power point on” then appliance will work: connect to Holy Spirit and this heart called Eva will be empowered. My husband is figuring out how to take a shower in a bath with only a handheld shower and not shower curtain. I found him sheepishly toweling off everything in the bathroom. (How do you use the shower rose without getting water everywhere anyway?)
Flowers on the Kensington High Street
We had tea, ham on toast and a tangerine for breakfast, walked by Hyde Park, wandered down Bayswater road and the touristy shops of Queensway then had a Christmas Club sandwich (turkey, cranberry, stuffing, veggies on whole grain bread) and coffee for lunch bought an “unlocked” phone (can use with any service all over Europe but we wanted it mostly to call our peeps in UK;) for 20 pounds, bought a facecloth (I had forgotten that facecloths are not generally provided so didn’t bring one) at Boots. We went to our local bookstore and I bought a journal and some more postcards. We returned to our cottage expecting to go back out for dinner but did not (stayed in for eggs and toast). We gloried in not doing anything vast or exciting or new. I am sure this will come in time but for now, the ordinary is enough.
The ordinary is what is extraordinary. Breathing, walking, really hot coffee. Napping, reading, tea and biscuits. People watching, dog watching and “looking RIGHT first before crossing the street” watching (so as not to get run over by very fast moving vehicles careening down the “wrong” side of the road). Space is being created by our willingness to slow down. Because of getting to know Not-Knowing I am in no hurry to even see what that space is filled with.
Perhaps this is the dawn of rest.
