For as long as they’ll have us

There’s something amazing that happens when you leave all obligations and responsibility behind and get to just be with the people that you love the most for a solid week. We are lucky in that  we get to see quite a bit of one another as it is.  It’s just that there’s always the stuff of life that interrupts things–the laundry, the appointments, the play dates, the sports, the activities, and of course, work.

None of those things are intrinsically bad (ok, maybe laundry) and collectively, most of them are part of what makes up a rich and meaningful life. Still, it’s  something special to put everything else on hold for a week and just take a deep breath, all together.  I read (and finished!) books, we swam in the warm sea and splashed around in the pools and ate and drank and laughed and remembered how much we really like one another. The love part–well, that’s always there but sometimes, when life gets frenetic and days seem to fly by in the blink of an eye, you can miss out on how positively wonderful and truly fun your  favorite people really are.  7 and 4 year olds? They’re actually hilarious much of the time and even more so when you don’t have to nag about them eating their meal faster, cleaning up their toys or just putting on their shoes.

We saw plenty of families there with older kids and young teens who looked less than thrilled to be stuck with their mom and dad.  Either Mike or I made a remark about that age and how awkward it is when you figure out that it’s no longer cool to want to hang out with your parents. And we didn’t say much more about it  but I know that it reminded us that these days when they want to spend every waking moment with us are numbered. If I had been in cold and snow weather, that thought would probably have made me weepy and momentarily depressed but it’s amazing how sunshine, 83 degrees and the Caribbean sea make everything more bearable and so that realization just made me want to squeeze even more joy out of the trip.  The unavoidable truth is that they won’t think we’re cool and fun to hang around with forever. But we’ll take it while we can, for as long as they’ll have us.