A Residency Coda

Cumulative Words Written on Residency: 65,812
Total Words Discarded: 14,500
Total Chapters Drafted: 26

My heart is still on residency.

Hence this residency coda.

MTM and I gave our Buinho family a Southern gastronomic experience last night. We bought ingredients, took the table outside, and cooked up a batch of frogmore stew.

First, MTM bought watermelon from the melon van for our dessert.

MTM and I chopped and peeled and washed and boiled. Sarah and Sebastiao set up the projector in the garden, and we live-streamed the eclipse. Manuela made salad. I carved up a pile of crusty bread.

We decorated the table with newspaper. Of course, it’s the Southern way.

MTM dumped everything in the center of the table, and we set to grazing. He even put out bowls of broth for bread-dipping.

As an aside, finding corn on the cob around Messejana is a challenge. Stores don’t sell it in the freezer case or by-the-ear in the produce section. One has to find it shrink-wrapped in prepared foods. (In case anyone ever needs corn on the cob in Portugal……)

Perhaps I pen this residency coda because I don’t want to let it go. I always grow so attached to my fellow residents and deplore saying goodbye.

But isn’t goodbye the point of experiencing life?

We only have a few blinks on this twirling orb before we’re done. Everything we do. Everyone we meet. Every life we touch. Eventually, we leave it.

Pain is essential to the pleasure of a full adventurous life.

Be grateful for the pain. It means you left pieces of your soul behind. Every goodbye is temporary until you’re called to die. Which could be anytime.

Make memories that matter. Spend time with humans who feed your soul. Do the things you’re passionate about. Ignore naysayers. If I can do it, so can you. Here’s to your journey.

To follow my residency at Buinho Creative Hub from the beginning, CLICK HERE and read forward.