Stillwater Afternoon

Jaya arrived at the riverside park with a cooler in one hand and her nephew Finn’s sketchbook in the other. He’d left it in her car last week, and it had little sticky notes poking out of every page. “Don’t flip to the end,” one read. “Unfinished.” She smiled as she set it down on the picnic table.

Finn and his mom — Jaya’s sister Sima — were already there, unpacking small containers of cut fruit, veggie wraps, and a homemade lentil salad. A blue blanket spread across the grass nearby, half-shaded by a wide oak tree.

It wasn’t a holiday. It wasn’t a special occasion. It was just Saturday. A day to breathe again.

Jaya reached into the cooler and pulled out three glass jars. Each was filled with a different drink she’d prepped the night before:

• Cucumber-lime water with a sprig of mint
• Iced rooibos tea with orange peel
• And her favorite — ginger-turmeric lemonade, naturally sweetened with a bit of honey

Finn took the lemonade, sniffed it suspiciously, then shrugged. “It tastes like spicy sunshine,” he said.

“I’ll take it,” Jaya replied, laughing.

—

The three of them ate and talked about everything and nothing — old vacation memories, the weird way the neighbor’s cat howled at 2 a.m., Finn’s new art project for school. Sima leaned back on her elbows and said, “You know, this? This is what I needed.”

“Just some quiet and vitamin D?” Jaya asked.

“No. Quiet with people I don’t have to perform for,” Sima replied. “Big difference.”

Jaya nodded. She felt it too. There had been too many days lately filled with noise — digital, mental, emotional. This felt like an antidote. Simpler rhythms. No screens. Just the warm nudge of presence.

—

Later, while Finn sketched birds on a fallen log, the sisters took a short walk along the riverside trail. Jaya mentioned that she’d started making herbal drinks regularly to help with her stress — real ingredients, no weird additives, just things she could pronounce and grow or buy fresh.

Sima smiled. “You’re kind of our potion master now.”

“I prefer ‘kitchen alchemist,’” Jaya said with a wink.

“Seriously though,” Sima said, “you’ve come a long way. I remember you barely cooking and living on boxed cereal.”

“Still love boxed cereal,” Jaya admitted. “But yeah. I think I just got tired of feeling sluggish all the time. So I started making small changes. One tea, one walk, one minute at a time.”

“You’re glowing, you know that?”

Jaya looked toward the river, the sun flickering over the water’s surface like scattered gold. “Feels good to glow from something real.”

—

As the sun began to lower, they packed up slowly, savoring the last sips of their drinks and the breeze that carried the scent of wildflowers and water.

Finn held up his sketchbook proudly. “I finished the end.”

“Let me see?” Jaya asked.

He handed it over — a soft watercolor sketch of the three of them, cups in hand, under the oak.

—

More:

The Lemon Shed

Jaya had turned her small sunroom into what the family jokingly called The Lemon Shed. Not because it only had lemons — though there were quite a few — but because every time someone came over, she handed them a glass of something cold, citrusy, and good for them.

This Sunday, it was her niece Priya’s turn. A shy seventeen-year-old, Priya had been struggling with burnout and anxiety during her final term at school. Jaya had offered a simple plan: “Come help me make drinks. Then we’ll go sit by the lake.”

Priya agreed. Quietly, but she agreed.

—

In the sunroom, sunlight poured across the counters, where fresh ingredients waited.

Jaya handed Priya a cutting board and a bundle of washed turmeric root. “Today, we’re making ginger-turmeric lemonade.”

Step 1: Fresh Prep
“Start by peeling and slicing this,” Jaya said. “Turmeric is anti-inflammatory. Great for your brain, great for stress.”
Priya peeled the golden roots, careful to avoid staining her fingers too much. Then she moved on to fresh ginger — spicy, fragrant, grounding.

Step 2: Simmer the Base
They placed the turmeric and ginger slices into a small pot with 3 cups of water.
“Let it simmer for about 15 minutes,” Jaya said. “It’ll turn golden and earthy. This is your base.”

While it simmered, Jaya juiced lemons — real ones — into a jar.
“No concentrate here,” she winked. “Lemon balances the flavors and adds vitamin C.”

Step 3: Strain and Sweeten
Once the turmeric-ginger water had cooled slightly, they strained it into a glass pitcher.
Then Jaya added the lemon juice and a tablespoon of raw honey.
“You can add more or less honey depending on how tart you like it.”

Step 4: Chill and Serve
They poured the golden liquid into tall jars and added a few ice cubes, a pinch of black pepper (“helps absorb curcumin from turmeric”), and thin slices of lemon and mint leaves to finish.

—

Out by the lake, they laid a blanket beneath a cottonwood tree. A few ducks paddled past. Children played in the distance, their laughter bouncing off the water like wind chimes.

They sat, sipping their drinks. Priya leaned back with a sigh.

“You were right,” she said. “It really does help. Just being here. Doing something with my hands.”

“I used to make this drink when I couldn’t sleep,” Jaya said. “Something about the process… and knowing I was caring for myself even in a small way.”

“Can I write the recipe down later?”

“You’ll write it. Then you’ll make your own version,” Jaya said. “That’s how this works.”

—

Later, on the drive home, Priya texted her mom: Can we get fresh ginger and turmeric this week?

Back at the Lemon Shed, the sunroom window stayed open, and the scent of lemon and mint floated through the warm air — an invitation to slow down, to sip, to stay.