Last Friday I was walking towards my car and noticed a lady laying under a tree on the ground. My initial reaction was one of fear that something was wrong with her, so I walked over to her and realized that she was sound asleep, I gently said “hello” and she woke up, looked at me and said something in Haitian Creole, I signaled to her to ask if she was ok, she smile with the brightest smile, looked at me, pointed to her watch, then to the bus stop and motion a driving sign. I then realized that she was waiting on the bus and was just taking a rest, so I signaled the OK sign and she smiled and went back to lay down.
I thought to myself of the countless times when I lived in Jamaica and would see people just “chillin” under a cool shady tree. Now I am here in the USA and seems to be so out of the norm to see someone resting under a tree. It appeared she was on her way home from work; she was wearing scrubs. We might all benefit from chillin under a shady tree sometimes. It relaxes the body and the mind.
I love to cook. Today I decided I was going to make vegan Jamaican patties from scratch, the way my grand aunt taught me. So I went to the grocery store, in my pantry, to gather ingredients. To my delight I was able to get everything needed from my pantry with exception of the Gardein beefless grounds, that I had to get from the actual store.
While I was combining the ingredients for the crust of the patty, I remembered how my grand aunt would tell me, “you ave to rub is so Chile to get it likkle lumpy, then add the water one tip at a time” I remember my mom calling and telling me “I made this or I made that so stop and get some on your way home”. Floods of emotions rushed over me as I reminisced on some of the good things in my life. I was able to do a pretty good job on the patties, if I do say so myself, my son and one of my daughters said “they were tasty”. I will take that.
The simple things in life are sometimes taken for granted, if only we would take a page from our fore-parents book and just “live” things might not seem so complicated. Take that rest under the tree, bake that patty, go for a walk, just LIVE. #LiveLoveLaugh