Sunday Late August Afternoon

It's another Sunday late afternoon at home.  I've just come in from sword fighting w/ Ms. Leah in the backyard with her bamboo stick and my cane one.  It was almost a fair fight, as she raced around the trees and, occasionally, tried a full-frontal attack on her dear dottering dad.  But, only when she found a 'whip sword', as she referred to it, did the tide turn and she got the better of me with a slashing forehand that snapped as the papyrus reed whacked me on my side.  

'Crouching Tiger' has nothing on us!  En guard, you unseen ninjas!!  To the parapets, for home and family!!

Coming in as the birds were dancing over the pond, taking their last minutes of lighted acrobatics, I remembered that half way around the world, Ezi was at the Port Authority still seeking a way out of NYC.  I'd called him a couple of hours ago to see if he's caught his 6 am Greyhound bus to Northampton, MA -- but he'd missed that bus b/c the office computers were down and he couldn't be issued a ticket.

So, calling up Skype (the international family's best friend...), I found Ezi already on another bus leaving the City.  He'd been given a ticket for an 8:15 am bus, instead.  After five days enjoying life in NYC at beloved Aunt Eileen's, seeing friends, shopping for the new school year, finishing his required reading, our dear #2 was heading back to NMH for his senior year.  Ez had left here last Sunday solo for the first time to the States, no doubt, with more trepidation in my heart than his...

Joshu is in his final days with us, as he leaves to go directly to Claudia's on Wednesday, where he'll sleep for a couple of days, before meeting my Mom in DC, where he'll enroll for his first year at Georgetown.   For Josh, this is getting to be a regular commute.  Since he went on his own for the first time in August 2007 for his first year at NMH, he's gone back and forth now five times from Nepal to the States w/o us over these two years.  

Actually, it's all too hard to believe, but Shaku and I are filled with both joy and amazement that we have raised these young men (no longer merely boyz...).  It's so hard to let them go, but it feels right to see the wings grow on their sneakers, like the ancient god Mercury, as they glide away with confidence and ambition to embrace the larger world around us.  

So, it's down to three.  Leah, Mom and Me.  Leah has started 3rd grade (very impressive, I know!) and is maturing nicely, esp. after most of a summer w/ her brothers.  Shaku is deep into indigenous politics (she's out in Dang right now...) while I'm still on a consultancy w/ UNDP managing their civll society outreach for the new constitution.  It's mostly stimulating and fun as it's like running an NGO project out of the UN -- not something that they're used to and I'm meeting some new & interesting folks.  The commute is a bear, but it pays the tuition and gives me great flexibility to go back and forth to see the boys and Mom a few times during the year.  

I'll be on the East Coast for three weeks in October for Ezi's Parents' w/end, then Joshu's Parents' w/end in Washington, DC, then at Claudia's in Philadelphia for Mom's first b-day w/o Dad.  I'm looking forward to that.  

All of that.  And more...