Leaving On A Jet Plane
The same weekend that Love At The Speed Of Email launched, way back in June last year, Mike and I learned that we’d be leaving Luang Prabang in April 2013. Mike’s position is being handed over to a Lao national staff member, which is good. Working yourself out of a job is exactly what you want to do in international development work, and Mike’s great at that sort of capacity building. So this is a good thing, and we always knew we wouldn’t be here long term. And, yet. There’s a difference between knowing you won’t be somewhere long term – that you might be moving in “oh, a...
Read MoreFrom love to joy
Last Wednesday I talked about how the arrival of one baby coincided with the death of a dream (at least temporarily) for another. During the first six weeks of Dominic’s life, doors with traditional publishers continued to close one after another. I received a lot of positive feedback from editors about my writing and the book, but no one was willing to take a risk on it in the current publishing climate. It was difficult not to let this disappointment dominate my thinking or taint the joys that other areas of my life were handing me. When it comes to compliments and criticism, most people...
Read MoreThe most important quality in a marriage (2)
This post is a continuation of the discussion we began on Friday about the most important quality in a marriage. Below is an excerpt from the memoir I am working on. It recounts a conversation Mike and I had via skype before we got engaged, when he was in PNG and I was in LA. …Even when we were talking, on our carefully scheduled skype dates, it wasn’t guaranteed to be smooth and happy sailing. Occasionally we’d be talking away easily one minute only to find ourselves mired in a messy miscommunication the next. Or we’d be laughing and a moment later one of us would have...
Read MoreWhat is the most important quality in a marriage?
This post is part of a series on the fruits of the spirit. The current theme is love. Mike and I are three weeks into this latest separation and it hasn’t felt like a good week for us on the Laos-Australia skype date front. We are managing to talk most nights, but by the time 8:30 or 9 rolls around I am… let’s go for a an elegant understatement here… a little bit tired. This fatigue, and my daily routine at present, don’t exactly make me the most fascinating conversationalist. The start of last night’s conversation, for example, went something like...
Read MoreBreastfeeding lessons from cows, take two
This post is an addendum to one of my favorite posts from the last year, Life lessons in pregnancy and breastfeeding from cows. 5AM this morning: Me: “Dominic!!” Mike: “What’s he doing?” Me: “He’s latching on repeatedly, sucking nicely once or twice, then tossing his head from side to side before yanking backwards – still holding on, mind you – until my nipple finally pops out of his mouth. Then he opens his eyes wide in panic and lunges forward like a small, desperate, vacuum cleaner until he finds it again.” Mike: “Do you want me to tell you what the cows on the farm...
Read More
