The kids are back in Seattle. They are currently in a car driven by some random person who saw the post on K’s dorm’s FB page: “$20 to pick us up at the airport.” The flight went fine. Butter and vanilla and eggs somehow made it through security so K could make cookies for her friends at Christmas. How all of that is less lethal than the hair gel TSA confiscated last summer is a mystery, but whatever.
We have all done decently being apart. This is not easy for a close family. There are interesting emotions to navigate. We all need to be doing our own thing and growing and there is a limit to what we can do together. But we all just sort of shamelessly like to hang out together.
A good deal of time now as it always was is spent just doing life. We run a lot of errands together and spend money on things for college and trips and just growing up stuff. It’s appropriate.
After dropping them at the airport, we headed to Europa, the place to be with the other twenty lucky people in Spokane who remember the awesomeness that happens at Europa on Sundays. You get to sit in this amazingly cozy lounge in soft chairs and listen to Michael and Keleren make their music.
If that wasn’t enough, while sipping our drinks a very kind older gentleman came over and stood by our table. He just stood there a bit, smiling, which didn’t make me feel all that uncomfortable. We waited, smiling at each other. Finally he reached out and took John’s hand and told us a story.
He said he and his wife of 58 years started coming to Europa when it opened over 30 years ago. He loved all his memories with her there and he saw us sitting together, looking happy and he wanted to come over. “Enjoy each other,” is what he wanted to say. His wife has been gone seven years and he said he still misses her deeply.
I could see it on his face and I could feel how painful that would be, to have someone and then lose them. He told us again, to enjoy each other and not forget what you have. He turned and moved slowly back to his table with his son and his wife.
We miss our kids but we are still a family. We don’t have endless money but we spend it recklessly on people and experiences and food and art and beauty. The timing was beautiful and a reminder of what has been good has been good for a reason and we can’t forget that or ever get too caught up in the stresses of life.
Another week starts tomorrow. Corporate America is not a place for the faint at heart. I might be rested up enough to dive back in but probably, not really. I could use another week or two. But that is what we got and it must have been enough.
During the week ahead, I will remember Eurpoa-man and his wise words from the years that are still ahead of me, calling to me from my future to not stray from our priorities, which are often assaulted by the responsibilities of life. I’ll remember four days with our adult children and nephew and other family as well as friends and our bigger community. I’ll remember Hazel chasing a deer out on my sister’s property and the wonderful food and games and movies and times together. I’ll remember that Advent always begins where Thanksgiving leaves off and I like that rhythm very much.
It is the ebb and flow of life and it’s beautiful.
It is Thanksgiving and it is beautiful.
A beautiful life.
