The comfort of home

Some days the weather inspires you to write; others it doesn’t. Today is one such day. What is so special about today you ask? The sky is forlorn as if shedding tears over a love long lost. The weather is cold, reminding of what lies ahead; in the months to come. The gruesomeness of the bitter cold remembered by everyone as the weather slowly but surely turns to its old ways. But it is exactly this weather that has inspired me to pen something. I am reminded of a vacation I took a few months ago that now seems so far; so long ago. This weather also reminds me of home; the warm smell of tea boiling in a steel pot with lots of ginger and tea leaves with the sound of oil frying beside it where my mother is getting ready to add another onion fritter.

I often wonder what makes a home a home and it’s precisely this. Even if I am so far away, like a perfect picture I see the movements, smell the smells and hear the sounds. Despite the million noises shuttling through my over worked brain, the thought of home calms me down. Seeing my mother standing next to the stove in her familiar garb relaxes me and gives me a sense of peace which I so often crave.

Luckily I have that home far away from home; where my mother (in-law) putters around the kitchen, cooking up new smells. I am not yet completely familiar with all the smells, neither, I must admit, do I crave them but the ability to recall them and draw serenity from them is harmony.

Days like today carry their own indulgence as do sunny, warm days when the heart is singing along with the birds in the sky. Melancholy days like today are a reminder that despite the weather pulling my strings down sweet memories of my mothers brings a smile to my face.