Baba Ganoush (G-uno)

So where I live the rain has been pouring day and night. I’m talking about the kind of rain where you look out your window fully expecting to see all the animals line up two by two. I can’t seem to find my inner balance these past few weeks then finally it made it’s reappearance as we all sat around the Lebanese restaurant eating Baba Ganoush. Yesterday was our son’s 25th birthday. I had a picture in my mind of how our family would celebrate this day, but then life happened.

I came home from work to what would have normally been a most welcomed find, our son, his sister, and our son-in-law hanging out together in the living room. My kids although they are no longer kids, are my happy place. They arrive, and joy follows them. Their mixed personalities go together like the best ingredients of a perfect recipe. The problem was that my fairly new 10 year old roof was leaking profusely in our main bathroom, and kitchen. My kids informed me that they had already called their father, and they were now strategically engaged on how to stop all the rain from flooding our home.

This was not exactly the birthday celebration any of us had imagined, least of all our son. Our son was crawling through our narrow attic searching for the leakages. My son-in-law and daughter were holding flashlights, and bringing buckets to catch the relentless amounts of rain that kept pouring into our home. Then we all searched our garage for tarps to cover our roof as much as possible since we knew that with the continued downpouring of rain there was not much else that could be done.

We all worked together to clean up all the water that had poured into our kitchen cabinets, and bathroom floors. At this moment I looked at my children, and realized that they were incredibly capable adults. They laughed, and joked with one another not letting the frustration of this huge unplanned pain in our backsides stress them in even the slightest way. When Mr. G-uno finally arrived he looked around realizing his family had taken care of everything that could possibly be done for the time being. He jumped in the shower, and we all headed to the restaurant to meet up with my mom, sister, and my brother.

Of course the restaurant of our choice was closed because of their own family emergency, so my sister called to rerouted us to another Lebanese restaurant. The problem being that there were two restaurants with exactly the same name, and of course we were at one, and they were at the other. We all finally made it to the same place. Meanwhile the rain continued to pour from the heavens relentlessly but because of the rain we had the entire restaurant to ourselves. The owner, and his beautiful wife prepared us the most wonderful food.

The eight of us sat together eating, drinking, and laughing. It was in that moment where my balance found it’s way back. I remembered that it’s not about the chaos that can pop up so unexpectedly in our lives. It’s about making the most of situation, looking beyond the surface into the faces of those who love you, and whom you love. It was not the celebration I had pictured in my mind. It was something much better. 😉