My Super Suisse Family

Hanging in the chairs of the garden table, tired. It’s evening. One from work, one from just waking up, me from walking. 

Coming back home, I take a cold shower outside in the garden, washing off the sweat from walking in the hot afternoon sun through the hills. Going back in, I start cooking, opening all the cabinets to use to endless stashes of groceries that have accumulated over years and months. Yes home, that’s how it feels, searching the storages of the basement, endless conserved foods, snacks, drinks, sauces, preserved foods, rice, noodles, lentils, beans, nuts, milks, vegetables, Asian food, grains and seeds, antipasti… the selection is sheer endless. Collecting a few ingredients I make a large red lentil salad with veggies, smoked tofu and cheese. This shall be enough for my hard working sisters. Just the right time. 5pm, the first one is coming down the stairs just opening her eyes. She sees the food, her eyes happy. I am as well to be welcomed in this house with such open arms, kindness and warmth as I have gotten to know them three years ago. My three sisters. Giving me a home. And my friends. Grabbing a big bowl I start munching the lentils, a few too many as I settle in front of the TV. The second one is coming in from work, smiling. The small one. I came to say hi to you. She starts talking to me, her sister yelling up the stairs if I want an iced coffee.

I hear a glass breaking on the floor. I walk down and sit on the stairs with the small one as she’s sharing her professional series knowledge with me. Sitting in the stairwell talking like children, laughing, cleaning the mess, making myself a new red bitter orange drink, we slowly go outside as it’s already getting to the end of the day. The mood is set. I feel home. That’s so beautiful they say and they mean it. 

Thinking about the next weeks where I will go with whom and when I find it a miracle how every day of the next week another friend will come to see me. A house for all of us. An open community for friendship, trust and love. Another week and then… one is still missing. Figuring out the details as I walk through the wooden hills I picture the map in my head. Other friends pop up in my head. Maybe another route. Maybe more East instead of South. Or maybe none of the above. As life changes constantly we are, here tired in the house, home, happy together, for now not knowing what’s next. 

Waking up late, I open the door and by surprise find both of them up. The sleepers awake, all at the same time. Rarity. The start into the next relaxation day. Hanging in the shade of the bushes around, swinging in the hammock, eating ice cream, drinking bitter orange on ice, holidays. As plans change for the next days. My route getting new dimensions I get invited into the next family.