another emotionally filled evening last night with our daughter riki and her boyfriend scott. she was the ‘messenger’, as our other three children live out of town. they took us to a wonderful new restaurant in playa del rey that combines easy by the beach living with eclectic combinations of foods, from homemade ice creams and lemonades to ridiculously delicious clam chowder in bread bowls to fresh salmon on kale pesto….oh my.
they surprised us with a group gift of a beautifully framed blown up photo of our newly expanding family under the olive tree at ren’s wedding. i know a lot of moms who are good at arranging to take family photos every year – i’m not one of them. the one family portrait that we do have was taken twenty years ago on the beach. and now we have a second one! this one with our new son eric!
it brought me to tears to see the change in their precious faces and to experience the memories flash through me, catapulting me back in time…
i realized at that moment the joy of family and of life.
“joy is not in things, but is in us” – richard wagner … was the beautiful card that brian gave me for our anniversary – “oh joy, to be in the world with you”…
the life we are experiencing together, as we open our hearts to one another, is truly what it’s all about. because family is where you feel most understood, most accepted for who you are, most supported in your dreams and failures. we’ve had some great times together, that’s for sure.
but it’s the tough stuff, the times where we shared our deepest emotions and pains, our greatest fears, and our most difficult decisions where we grew and strengthened as a family.
life is a celebration of the good and the bad, the light and the dark, and the opening of our hearts to one another. this is the connection that is joy. and isn’t it possible that in allowing that kindness and understanding to spread, we all become family…we all become one…
livingthroughtheheart 