Day 332

Molly and Milkweed pod.

It is a strange fact that Running gives me energy for the whole day. (And yes, it has a capital letter because it has attained a certain status!) Yesterday we only got out of bed at about 10.45 in the morning, and the day just sauntered along until it was suddenly dark, and I hadn't run, and by about 7 o'clock I was absolutely exhausted! 

Today I ran again after two days' rest, 5.17 km, at a rate of 7.44 minutes per km, which is quite slow as it was hard going in the beginning.  But then lovely, as your feet plod along the familiar trail, and thoughts are freed into the air, so many, remembering your dreams of the night before, thinking of your children one by one, giving each one due attention, looking back at last night's conversations, planning your day, this Sunday, the last day of the lovely long Thanksgiving 5-day weekend.

To my pleasant surprise, Matthew has written about the importance of Reading for one of his college essays.   The college essay is a very important part of the application process, and several colleges give their own topics for the prospective student to follow.  This topic was something to do with some issue of importance to you and perhaps to your generation. 

And reading is so dear to my heart, it is part of my heart, part of my being, I am who I am because of reading, I learned to read at such a young age that I thought I was born being able to read! 

Books took me through the long hours of asthma attacks, spent sitting up in my bed, my lamp the only one shining in the deep night.  (The librarian at the primary school thought I was lying because I took out a new book every day, as we were only allowed one at a time.  She became so angry with me that I was sent off to the headmistress, who listened to my story with raised eyebrows.  She had the terrifying habit of talking with her teeth closed.  She eventually telephoned my mother who confirmed my story, and I was allowed to leave, having missed an entire school period while these silly so-called educators argued about whether I had read a book or not!.)

Books were my best companions when my siblings had left home and I became an only child. 

When I went away to university, our train broke down somewhere in the middle of the Karroo and I had to drag my luggage about a km to the bus which picked us up eventually.  Said luggage consisted of a small suitcase of clothes, and a massive brown leather case filled with what felt like bricks, by the end of the journey, but which were actually all my favourite books that I had not been able to leave behind. 

I still always have one in my bag, just in case I break down somewhere, or have to wait someplace.  At the checkout counter in the supermarket I am the only person in the long line reading a book from my bag, not one of the magazines on the strategically placed racks.

So the essay made me very happy and is also rather good, encompassing how reading promotes imagination and creativity and all the things which go into making a whole person!

Tonight I made vegetable pie for dinner, using up everything I had in the fridge, including butternut squash, broccoli florets, green beans etc.  The boys are passionately fond of my vegetable pie, but laughingly complained about the different textures, of all the things they would not usually choose to eat, and the lack of some kind of meat in the pie, which would make it "just a perfect vegetable pie", teasing me mercilessly, as only a mother's sons can do, their wide smiles making me laugh, such good-natured joking creating a warm little sun of familial contentment in which we all basked as we ate our meal.