SAYS FYL

My Ramblings

  • uncle solomon

    He hibernated in our home, sleeping till noon and waking up groggy and strange. He never spoke until he brushed his teeth, so he’d murmur and mutter, shake and nod, until he did. Why he waited for precisely an hour, I don’t know. But then everyone stopped trying to figure out Uncle Solomon a long Read more

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  • booger flips and snot

    The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD made them both.–Proverbs 22:2, New Living Translation The hospital where I worked (in Nepal) has big, deep trash cans to collect the obvious–trash–and the booger and snot deposits of employees and visitors. In Nepal it is not bad manners to insert your finger or Read more

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  • my sathi

    “Hi Sathi” . . . that’s how Melinda’s emails begin.  Sathi–it’s Nepali (and Hindi and Urdu and Sanskrit) for “friend.” As far as friends go, we were quite different to start with: I was older, she younger; I’m short, she’s tall; I had adolescent children; she had a two little boys, one still in diapers. Read more

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  • how I got my name

    I have scores of cousins—most of them boys, all of them with names that end with “in:” Calvin, Franklin, Merlin, Alvin, Ervin, etc. Eventually my uncles ran out of names, so they made some up–They’d pick two consonants, add a vowel and slap on the “in.” So I have cousins totally embarrassed by their names. Read more

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  • a lesson from cruddy underwear

    It’s bedtime and everything in my mother’s home is perfect. The kitchen is spotless. Magazines, books and mail put away. Furniture dusted. Bathrooms washed. Carpets and floors clean (My children seriously believe that anything that falls on Grandma’s floor remains clean). Next, she showers and puts on a freshly pressed nightgown (Don’t even try explaining Read more

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  • figuring people out

    Three of his wife’s sisters married three of my mom’s brothers. Through this weaving of marriages, he evolved into Uncle Edward. There is nothing Uncle Edward loves more than good food. But it’s a lot of work having him over and making sure the food is “good”–especially since his wife’s the best cook ever. (While Read more

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  • telling people apart

    We’re walking to work. A man in a housekeeping uniform throws down his mop puts his hands together in a “namaste,” greeting Roy, the boss, and me, his wife. Roy courteously responds with a namaste and says, “I saw him with a stethoscope yesterday. What’s he doing with a mop today?” Roy’s done it again. Read more

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  • rocked to sleep on the bay

    There’s noise everywhere: Around me are disgruntled people, in my head are reminders of many things that need to be done, in my heart are thoughts, anxious and angry. All together, it’s noise that disturbs me, that longs for just a moment of peace. And I think back, stretching my memory, to remember the last Read more

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  • not always beyond repair

    One of the lessons I learned from living in Nepal is that almost nothing goes to waste. I was constantly amazed at what was accomplished with little or no money; but with plenty of ingenuity, perseverance and positive attitude. Our ambulance is a good example. It needed a new engine, a new paint job, new Read more

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  • hot shower reminder

    It’s been four years, but it happens every time I step into my steamy hot shower. Every time, I am reminded of my six years with a temperamental shower. Our shower system in Nepal was very complicated–an instant hot water heater, a giant geyser, a storage tank right above the bathroom, pipes and rocks propping Read more

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