Time to fly the nest...again..

School's out. Summer's in.

Its time to exchange the dollars for rupees, and pack the kurtis in place of the capris. After 15 months, we are heading to India again today. This time minus all the drama that preceded the last visit. I have checked my passport 3 times, and had a second pair of eyes look at it. We are in agreement, that the numbers are aligned right. Still, I have this innate anxiety now, that will not abate until I have cleared the check in counter. :)

I shall be traveling along with my boys, and somehow, this time, I am really looking forward to it, like never before. The nurse at the doctor's office shook her head disbelievingly yesterday, about 20 hours with 2 young kids. But I told her..."What's the stress in that?" And with this firm faith, we shall step on that plane to cross the Atlantic, hoping no sudden ash from a spewing mountain will cause a detour or delay.

There's so much of life to be covered in writing, things that have really made a mark on my emotions, things that have been inspiring, but I don't know where the time goes anymore. The moment passes and soon, the weight of emotion that would have fueled me to write would have settled, leaving no words behind, just a slender string of hindsight.

Let me give some snapshots at least. Winkie is a successful graduate of 1st grade. In Fall, he will be ready for second grade. His last 2 weeks were a bit rough with the said friend making him miserable with said behavior. But we have been talking a lot through it, and I have had a chance to listen to his thoughts and he has had a chance to listen to mine. In many ways, I am glad that it happened at the end, and didn't color his entire 1st grade experience. We will bolster ourselves to become stronger and wiser to find our way through 2nd grade and the rest of life, as we go along. But for now, he has packed his little bag with a notebook, a special pen from me, and lots of snacks to become a sophisticated traveler. He is anticipating his 7th birthday with a lot of eagerness and happiness.

But even more than him, it is Thambi that awaits his brother's birthday. He will not accept any other birthdays thrown in, in the middle. Some time ago, Winkie took the effort of teaching Thambi the sequence of a day. How it is first morning, oops sorry....how it is first sunrise, then morning, then afternoon, then evening, then sunset and finally night. And for days, nay weeks after that, this was repeated like a mantra every sunrise, morning, afternoon, evening, sunset and night, and there were many a surprise quizzes too. But we passed that test, only to find that it is a different sequence that is spinning like an unstoppable record now from those little lips. The sequence of birthdays. First Anna buthuday, then Appa buthuday, then Amma buthuday, then Sathya buthuday! That's the simple part. In honor of our upcoming vacation, Winkie's going one step further and throwing all the other family birthdays into the mix, with the little fellow trying to keep up and let's hope this conversation lasts long enough to cover the next 24 hours until we set foot on land again. By that point, we will have had a peaceful journey behind us, and a delighted set of family before us who are thrilled to have their birthdays duly noted in his calendar. He is at the point of highest charm right now. Where a streak of babyhood still remains, mixed in with the sweet lisps of toddlerhood, blended interminably with the unique complexities of being a bigger boy. *sigh*. He makes our hearts turn so.

As for me, I am at a very calm turn of life right now. I am a lot more comfortable in my own skin, after having taken the reins of my health in my hands and aligning myself on the path of achieving some of my goals for this lifetime. I have taken up running with gusto, and it comes second to yoga for me, in terms of being a personal retreat from life and my chaotic mind. I have signed up for the 1/2 marathon this coming fall and training for it in earnest. Boat Club Road is going to be my haunt in Chennai and some road by the beach, when I am staying at my parent's place, so if you see a woman with a water belt across her waist, earphones plugged in her ear and running in her brand new Saucony Hurricanes, you'll know she's me. R's been ragging me about the water belt incessantly. But I'll have the last laugh when I can run hands free and hydrate to my heart's content in sweltering Chennai! :D

So that's about me, about us, and about life with us. Please send a quick wish above-wards for a smooth, "uneventful" flight and I'll catch you all from home soil.

Love & Light,
-T!