Sacredness of Sentiment

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend and that your week is off to a good start. I love seeing how many of you are welcoming September in and looking forward to fall. I mean we are on the edge of the coziest time of the year and that is so exciting to me.

Over the weekend we had a chance to do something really special. My dad grew up about 3.5 hours south of where we live and that is where I spent lots of summers and holidays. I mean I grew up in a time before we were constantly connected to internet, social media and all the things. But when we went there it felt more disconnected because it was a little more rural. There weren’t shopping centers, malls or fast food places. But ahhhh there was the beauty. My dad was from a big family which meant all his siblings showed up and brought their kids. There were always a lot of cousins around. You can’t appreciate it to the fullest as a kid, but you can as an adult looking back.

There are three of his siblings still living and they hosted us all at the family house for one more farewell. They’ve decided to sell the home place and let another family enjoy making memories there.

This house holds a lot of our memories. As an adult I do believe it was a magic house. I mean there was always enough room, enough food, enough everything for whoever was there. Some of my best memories are crawling out of bed, heading downstairs and showing up in the kitchen where someone put a warm breakfast in front of me…..I mean the meal preparation alone is a marvel I will never get over. If you show up at my house during meal time, I am going to have to run to the grocery store. Somehow my house is not magic like this one was…..but maybe the magic is simmering and I will be there one day.

This time the ride to the home place was a little, okay a lot, different. We were taking two adult daughters, a son-in-law, a boyfriend, my mom and going without my dad. Here’s the thing when we lost my dad in 2011 plugging in to the family events without the man who linked us was different….. it was challenging. And quite frankly we couldn’t do it for a while. But over the years, through more funerals than we care to think of and lots of graduations and a few weddings the connections have continued and thankfully maintained.

What a sweet time to visit that house once more. All my cousins went through photo albums, personal items and mementos and were allowed to get what was special to us to bring home. There were no arguments, no one person wanting this and another thinking they should have it. I am telling you….it is a magic house and there was once again enough of everything for everyone.

I wanted to share this today because I want to encourage us all. Life is hard. We are blessed to love people. But we lose those people too. If you have lost your “link” to part of your family…..keep going to the family events, keep taking the phone calls, keep on. And if you are the family keep inviting, keep reaching out, keep on.

I think the secret to developing the magic that I believe this house holds and this family is might be – just keeping on.

See you back on Friday!