Sunday – just the sound of the word makes my heart sing. In the States, I typically spend my Sundays going to church, then working incessantly into the night to prepare for whatever the week holds ahead. I have spent too many Sundays anxiously slaving over small things in retrospect. Today, I decided to spend Sunday being, observing, singing and serving.
Before I tell you about today, I must tell you about this week. I have been served over and over again by so many this week. I developed a disease, which led to many symptoms of cholera. The night when the infection was at its worst, I hit my head hard in the shower, which led to a severe headache and dizziness for days. I still feel slightly disoriented, but with each day, the pain and confusion is slipping away. I slept nearly 36 hours straight a couple days ago. Afterwards, I was feeling better, but not well enough to work, run, or even eat normally yet. I cried silent tears of pain, wanting to be out there serving again, but also tears of joy, entirely grateful for the friends and family here and at home who poured out their love to me and didn’t leave my side.
This morning, I was finally feeling well enough to exercise (or so I thought), so Kinsey and I started an Insanity workout. After about 5 cycles of exercises, I was ready to fall into bed and I did after eating a little something to ease the feeling of semi-consciousness. I woke up shortly after feeling new. I wanted to clean (shocking, right?) Well, I didn’t actually want to clean, but I wanted to serve and sing, and what better way to do both than do the dishes, am I right? Every day, “Queen,” a gentle and spirited Malawian woman comes to clean our kitchen and bathroom and fix anything that is broken (I witnessed this while I was sick – I would have never realized who this angel cleaning up our mess was otherwise). And so, this morning, while I was singing and cleaning the dishes, in walks Queen. She said to me, “it’s okay, I will clean,” with a smile, and I just smiled back. We did them together and sang together – it was beautiful and the dishes were done in half the time.
After Queen left, I went outside in our backyard with my laptop, ready to catch up on work from the week. There is a sweet family who lives in a small house at the corner of our backyard. There are many young children, and they are always up to chores for the household. This morning, their task was laundry. As I write, I am watching them carry buckets on their heads from the outdoor tap, dunk and wring out their clothes, and hang them to dry. Now that they’ve finished laundry, the three of them are rolling around on a blanket in the grass, waiting for ensigma to finish cooking on a homemade stove, giggling each time I glance their way. What a beautiful reminder of the simple joy of Sunday and the sweetness of the moment – so very grateful.
