Preamble: For those following on instagram, there are more photos after the words. And over here are photos from today’s trip to Valley of the Kings, and the Temple of Hatshepsut.

I GOT A CERTIFICATE FOR HAVING SO MUCH FUN. HOW DO I GET MORE OF THESE, PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME.

Look at my face when they gave it to me before I super excitedly scribbled my name in, with crayons I shit you not because it is all I had.

This kind of excitement is my natural state. Which isn’t to say I am some clown who doesn’t know how to chill. I just dress like one. Rather, it is to say that my default state is more often than not, one of constant (wonderful, I think) excitement. This world, though it often feels like sandpaper, is equally full of gentleness. It takes very little to make me happy, even when I am falling over myself sad, alhamduliLah.

Like this morning, floating over Luxor about to surprise the Sun as we rotated on our axis towards her. There was, suddenly, one balcony full of children jumping over one another waving hello. They were lovely. But not as lovely as the little boy on a rooftop alone waving. The balcony children had one another in their excitement; he had no one.

He had us.

Today, I am grateful for:
1. Having finally taken my first ever hot air balloon ride. Some years back, in Turkey, we were hit with bad weather and though my heart had been set on floating over Cappadocia, God cancelled on me.
2. Listening to athan al-maghrib, mixed with the songs of thousands of birds hiding in the trees lining the Cornish against which our boat is presently docked.
3. Hearing The Boss growl Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town this afternoon, my always cue that Christmas is here.

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