by Lisa-Jo | Jul 18, 2011 | Family, South Africa, Travel
I lie in bed and hear them come clumping, laughing, stomping up the stairs. The weak, wintery African sun is just easing her way over the horizon and only children and dogs are brave enough to be up and at ’em this cold in the morning. “Come on,...
by Lisa-Jo | Jul 15, 2011 | Daughters, Motherhood, South Africa, Travel, Uncategorized
{Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about Five Minute Friday. It’s just that my days in the Southern hemisphere are few and my memories and words in this place are many. So I need more than five minutes this week. But the link up for your beautiful five minute moments...
by Lisa-Jo | Jul 14, 2011 | Daughters, Family, South Africa, Travel
The year after my mother died I couldn’t sleep. I would dread bedtime, dragging feet toward the inevitable. Empty hours stretched ahead of me and I couldn’t see my way toward the sunrise; the night was dark and dense and filled with loneliness. I hated to be the only...
by Lisa-Jo | Jul 12, 2011 | Family, South Africa, Travel
She’s the last patient of the day at my father’s medical practice and she’s pregnant with her first child. She’s polite. She nods in our direction. And she’s about to leave when my dad says, “you have to meet my daughter, Lisa-Jo.” She stops on a dime and her...
by Lisa-Jo | Jul 11, 2011 | Inbetween, Kids, South Africa, Travel
My dad bounces along with Jackson on the back of an open Land rover. We’ve spent the day with elephants, meerkats, cheetahs and an assortment of snakes. The wind blows our chapped cheeks in this dry winter sunshine and our hair will be hard to untangle tonight. We are...
by Lisa-Jo | Jul 8, 2011 | Five Minute Friday, South Africa, Travel
I’m in South Africa. And sometimes I can barely catch my breath at the ache and the wonder of it. Sometimes it feels like I can barely capture it in words. But I keep trying, with every spare minute. Want to take five minutes with me and just write without...