I woke up very early this morning – at 4am because I couldn’t sleep. My mind was so awake and so many varied thoughts were racing through my mind – ideas of all kinds floating around in an unstructured fashion (which is how they should). Since it became clear to me that sleep was going to continue being elusive, I decided to wake up.
Going into the living room, I was a little surprised to find my mother awake and brewing a cup of tea – at 4 am. As it turned out, she has been rising at 4am every day and having a cuppa by herself everyday, just communing with herself, thinking things through and so on.
So I joined her and this morning, she was looking through photos of her recent life – the recent family gathering – from my great-grandfather’s kids downwards (that had more than 400 people from all over the world!), to what she wants to do with the shamba to little memories to what we should do for christmas and who we should invite. Everything and nothing.
And as we chatted quietly, I realised that my mother was happy and content. She was always feisty as I grew up, all the time aware of her troubles and the many things she needed to do to keep the family comfortable and now, she was quiet and easy to speak with.
I am so lucky, I think to myself, to have a few moments before the world wakes up to talk with my mother about nothing in particular – something rare indeed.
I’ll do that again tomorrow.