underneath the big top trees

I am absolutely knackered right now after a whole day's flurry of activities.
(If I have never disclosed it before, I will note it down here that I have been volunteering a little for the visually handicapped.)
Today, we took our beneficiaries out to have a go at soundball and thereafter for a round at the trampoline park, which was fantastic. I love trampoline parks & I also love that everyone else loved it too.
But the best part of my day, I think, was when everything was all over & I walked the entire way home from Khatib with a spring in my step, a cup of dollar strawberry ripple ice cream in my hand and the loveliest of breezes playing around me.
A stroll of solitude in the night (although it was not quite a stroll, not really, for my pace was relatively quick) truly is something!
I find nighttime to be such an enigmatic entity - how does one explain that queer feeling of transformation when night falls? like you're smaller, mellower, a little softer around the edges than you are in the day.
It almost made me wish I had someone by my side to admire the dark velvet sky with, or to murmur my secrets to, but I know I wouldn't have wanted this because I was using this journey home to recharge & re-energise my socially-drained, introvert self.
In retrospect, it does sound a little counter-intuitive, considering I was coming home from a long day of physical exertion etc etc etc, but an endless walk alone with minimal breaks was 1000% what I needed and I'm so glad I tended to that.
Anyway, I reached my doorstep about an hour later a little flushed and rosy, with a delicious ache in my legs, glowing like honey and presently I am feeling so. content.
A little a lot sleepy and heavy-eyed, of course, but ridiculously content all the same.
(the kind of contentment that's warm as sunshine, draping itself heavily around your little soul.)
The past week has just been nothing but smooth and golden, and I have only God to thank for that.

saw your face, heard your name

Hello everyone, once again.
It's been a couple of busy weeks & I doubt this will let up anytime soon.
I'm just writing a quick one to put it out there that 1) I am so blessed and 2) God loves me so much.

It's a wondrous thing to ask for strength, peace, vitality, drive, patience, gentleness when you're in a state of frenzied helplessness, and then have your prayers answered.
God knows I'm up to my head in tasks and to-dos, and He blesses me with the nicest, sweetest things.
❀ the best lunch date with my lovely cousin Husna
❀ long phone calls with the best friend
❀ the many canvassing opportunities
❀ the easy(?) mid-term paper today
❀ the cancelled morning lecture tomorrow
❀ the running i got done
❀ the frustrating assignment i finally finished
❀ ?????

There's a lot more, so much more, but I'm feeling sleepy and content and lowkey optimistic for the rest of the week.

Also,
Happy International Women's Day to all the lovely ladies out there - we're strong and powerful and magnificent and it's a glorious thing to celebrate every day.