A different sort of week...half way through savoring.

If everyone was chopping vegetables in the kitchen when you arrived, and not dispersed about the house in their usual way, would you be concerned? And in the perceived chaos of it all, you escape, pacing out circles around the house, shouting, slamming doors. Or maybe it is not at all that everyone is there who shouldn't be, but that who should be there is not. Or maybe you just miss your mum because she is away on holiday, but you are grown up, right? and too ashamed to admit you miss her.

This week we are lifting ourselves out of our usual routines, making space in our busy lives for art, for each other, and maybe for ourselves. For those who find routine tedious, this is a welcome break. For those who find routine comforting, this is misery. Lifting oneself out of the deeply felt comfort of routine is exposing oneself to uncertainty. We can no longer cling to the certainty of actions and the concrete reality of our being. What is inside, what we could cover up by just doing what we usually do, is left bare. When we don't do what we usually do, who are we?

He calmed down, and sat by me. We had a chat. He felt better. He hugged everyone he could, relieved that everything was still okay. It is not all so different, is it?

After lunch, without a moments notice, he was off in circles around the house, slamming doors. I had to leave for an appointment at the bank in half an hour. Twenty minutes later, he was still pacing, and I collapsed on the stairs. I did not realize how pitiful I looked until everyone stopped and asked me how I was, doling out hugs and offers of assistance.

I sat in the car in hysterics, and the more I thought of the absurdity of it all, and the poor banker who did not even see it coming, who in fifteen minutes or so would be face to face with a hysterical woman demanding a bank account. What would he do? Poor man.

He was still upset when I returned, an hour and a half later, due to some navigational errors. But after spending a full two hours running circles through and around the house, he couldn't help but be happy to see me, so in no time we were sitting happily together on the couch drinking tea. Then, of course, my other student ran off. But by 4:30, I was sitting with my two students on the couch, by a roaring fire, reading stories. As if nothing had happened.