Little Notes

Admin's Note: Thank you Akila Mani for reminding everyone about the importance of small things. Your contribution has been selected as Best of Forums and featured here.

----------------------

While waiting for the taxi at the airport, I think of my vacation in India and make a mental note to write some small blogs about it later. It seems like a good idea as it would occupy my mind until my family comes back (they are flying back in five days). I have often wondered how my husband survives being alone after my kids and I leave for vacation and with a sigh I realize I am about to find out. The ride is uneventful and I drag my luggage home,open the door and feel as if I have entered a vacuum.

I am usually greeted by the casual disarray of books, papers, school bags in the living room, my kids looking up from their work to give me a bright smile, my MIL asking me if I would like a cup of coffee if I happen to be early, but today it is all so tidy but depressingly quiet. I notice a lot of stuff on the coffee table and for an instant think of straightening it,but no. Instead I lock the door, switch on the fan and slump down on the sofa with closed eyes. I hear a faint fluttering noise and think of the butterflies I had seen in the park. I feel a strong urge to call my husband whom I had just spoken to, but no, there are things to be done before that. Without opening my eyes, I make a list of things to do – take a shower and get fresh, open windows, boil milk, check the fridge, come back to the living room with a cup of hot milk and then call husband. My ears remind me that the fluttering noise is not my imagination. I open my eyes and see yellow butterflies on the coffee table.

I blink and realize they are not butterflies but little yellow sticky notes!! The first one on a book says “I think this book will kick out two days of loneliness.” I open the book to find“Best Kept Secret” by Jeffery Archer, a book I had been wanting to read for awhile.

The second is on a lovely cookie tin set saying “You can spend another two days for baking and store the cookies in these boxes”. I had so wanted to buy cute cookie tins to store my baked goodies!! The one beside the TV remote says “watch comedy movies / programs,strictly no horror.” One on a new small alarm clock says “get enough sleep and rest” and one more on the table says “I will miss you for the next five days,will be with you soon”.

My eyes mist blurring words of endearments and love. It is like he is here with his arm around my shoulder telling me all these things. He knows how scared I get when I watch horror movies alone. He knows I could end up reading a book through the night and not sleep at all. He knows and cares! What more can I ask for?

I pick up the phone immediately; the hot cuppa milk can wait.

 

Hi Pallavi,

Thanks for being the first to comment and thanks for the lovely fb

 

Hi Swathi,

So true, I miss them all so much now that I am alone. I so want them to be here soon.

 

Hi rgs,

That's such a lovely poem and so apt, I can relate to it so much. Thanks

 

Dear Kamalji,

Yes I miss is a lot. Its one day up, 4 more to go now!!

you are right, I would rather have a messy house with my kiddos and DH than an empty clean one. Now I don't even feel like doing the basics. I haven't even unpacked my luggage except for my hand luggage to get my toothbrush out and to store away the sweets that were sent.

thanks for stepping in