in the present

I showed a very good friend and thoughtful person the pictures from father’s day, and she said my family looked like we were full of life. I thought about this for a while, and replied that something my family really has going for it is a focus on living in the present. It’s true, what with the health problems and various financial debts to be paid off and the difficulty in planning activities when you’ve got (at latest count) ten households that need to be coordinated in order to spend portions of holidays together, well, somehow that has translated into relishing the time together we do have, and a general flying by the seat of our pants. sure, we make plans, but it ends up often being a vague coming together when we can instead of a regularly scheduled event to which people are expected to attend. We are flexible with each other, generous, and try to make things work for everyone. And we all show up. Even though there are groups of people who traditionally are expected to have animosity towards each other (aka, divorce in various forms) there really isn’t, and we all manage to work it out in the end.

my friend said “what a difference that must make in a family (let alone in a single person)” and she’s right. I’ve never thought about it before, but we’re doing quite well for a family of ‘broken homes.’ aw, my heartful family.