Meditation 43 – 50 minutes
Exercise 51
It’ll be another warm day, as we have plans to explore the city of Cape Town. We are not doing the shipwreck hike due to safety concerns. Why is it that we’re more careful when we are responsible for another’s well-being? It’s a good thing.
We have breakfast. Warm and gentle breeze greet us at the bottom of Table Mountain. Wind picks up and my hair whips everywhere, I use the scrunchie to tie it too tight and it breaks. He tries to tie it for me, and offers me his hat. I find a way to make it work and we climb on. The wind is fierce on the last set of stairs, causing the mouth to be parched. Having to balance the body upright, the wind trying to knock us down. We climb on like goats, without dawdle.
Atop, there are two reservoirs of waters, and a museum commemorating the build effort from one hundred years ago.
Grateful and delighted to share carefully packed snacks. Thank you for the gluten free lunch bar. A cute ball of fruit snack, which I’m surprised with your speed of consumption. A banana and water. It’s perfect.
If you didn’t know where you came from and didn’t go too far, you would never know there is a world below Table Mountain. So vast and wide. Shielded from the wind, I wonder how many wild life you will see in the night.
On this trail, I see and hear local South Africans, a delight and departure from the foreigners I encounter on Lion’s Head. A small world, still. I recognize a man from Workshop 17.
On the way down, I see a blood, and I offer one of the two napkins I grabbed from Bootleggers earlier. Instead of wiping away the blood, he blows his nose. He is incredulous that I didn’t offer the tissue when he was complaining about it politely earlier. I sit to laugh out loud. Why didn’t you ask for it earlier, I ask. Later, I would tell him to be more specific to exponentially increase his odds of getting what he wants.
Health app counts 22k steps.
Zuney Wagyu burger joint in Gardens is not as good as I expected. Non-sequitur. Not even better than Hudson’s. A complete let down. So far, I rate Stud burger above Brash in Sea Point. Curious to try out the final place: Only Fools. We down a Fanta Orange and Fanta Grape. Then Coke. Then sparkling water. I prefer sparkling water over sugary pop despite the child in me going back to the familiar.
We go our separate ways. What a wonderful day of exercise, conversations and intentional listening. The daylight finishes with cheeseburger and fries with Fanta orange and coke.
I stay up late sewing two ends of the green fabric I bought in Ghana in 2015. Ten years later, what used to live on the bottom of the drawer covers futon facing Lion’s Head. It took me three hours, breaking two small needles and poking my left index finger few times
This love letter goes to finding what we’ve been hiding and putting ourselves out there. Being honest and truthful, not holding back. Not restraining, and lettings things come out as they unfold. To continuing to climb and finding out way down, with few scratches and wind-blown hair.
PS. Happy birthday to a dear friend who is overseas. I love you.
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