Skip to main content

The Best Things In Life Aren't Free. They're Priceless.

"Hello!! We have things!!" 

These were the first words my mom spoke to the extended family we hadn't seen in half a decade when we stepped through the front door of the Air B&B this past summer holding a case of local beer and a bag of board games. 

"So do we!!" My aunt said, smiling ear to ear and so enthusiastically that I swear everything stopped in that moment - in the best way. It was one of the simplest, silliest exchanges I'd ever heard and I loved it so much that I've thought about it every day since.

I think there are a lot of great feelings in this world, but seeing family after far too long will forever be my favorite. 

The living room was packed. We were shoulder to shoulder almost, reaching between each other to grab appetizers and between our turns taking part in multiple conversations. It was loud. It was SO. LOUD. And I'm not someone who enjoys tons of noise, but that is the best sound. Laughing, meeting new members of the family, (husbands, wives, babies), sharing stories, all of the different things being talked about at once, the excitement in everyone's breath, when everyone is tired from traveling but still wants to stay up late just being a part of the moment... that is something I will never get tired of. 

I didn't realize how much I had missed them until we were all there together. We were there for a wedding which made it that much better, but I would've made that trip just to spend a regular Wednesday afternoon with all of them, too. 

Whoever captured this photo... thank you a million times. The dances, the hugging, the drinks in hands, the twinkle lights, that loud peace feeling. The best. 

It had been 15 years since I'd seen four of these people. Because of a distance, college, and a global pandemic I had never met nine of them. 

And two of those nine are a couple of the best dancers I've ever gotten to play ring around the rosie with. EVER. 

The sentence, "We CAN'T wait this long to do this again," was said probably 300 times in the three days we were there and I don't think I've ever believed something more. 

We really can't. Or at the very least, absolutely shouldn't.

While we were packing up for the ten hour drive back home and putting the board games back in the trunk of the car, I pointed out to my mom that we hadn't played any of them. 

"Why'd we even bring them?" I asked. "If we didn't use them?"

She shrugged, smiled and said, "We didn't need them."

She was right. We didn't. We didn't need them. We were together and that was the only thing that mattered. That was what kept us up late, laughing, and that was what got us up early enough for family breakfast on wedding day, and that was everything.

Was/Is/Forever will be. 

xxx

this was a tough piece for me to write partly because I miss these moments a lot but also because in the past few years, my perspective on the idea of family has shifted so much. i hope you have people around you and hundreds of miles apart from you that make you forget to play the games you brought. i hope you can walk through the front door of a house you've never been to before and instantly feel at home because your people are there with you. i hope you know that family is not limited by blood and i hope you embrace that. the best things in life aren't free, but they're priceless. 

hug them when you can, love them always. 
thank you for reading. be good. 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ohana Means Family.

I have about a million things to do, so this seems like the best time to finally sit down and blog again. The important things are done -- my income taxes, the housework, the med management. The dogs are calm, the dishes are clean, and the windows are open for some much needed serotonin.  The truth is, it's been a long time since I've had the motivation (and the time, and most importantly the energy), to write. I'm still adjusting to working 40+ hours a week in a very people-y career field after I spent 8 months being told by doctors that it probably wasn't going to be possible for a very long time.  In 2022 when it was discovered I would need a liver transplant, my whole world came to a very sudden stop. Then in early 2023, when I was still very sick but doctors determined a liver transplant wasn't even going to be a safe option for treatment, my mental health hit rock bottom. I had never experienced fear, and anxiety, and depression to that extreme a degree. I had...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Long Story Short... I Survived" (Semester 1)

4 months of practicum, 3 months of classes, and for the love of God what feels like a lifetime later... I'm done with my first semester of graduate school. I don't know how to feel, so please don't ask me. All the things. Every single one.  This semester was challenging in ways I never imagined, but damn. It was also the most fun I've ever had. Being a social work graduate student is a very strange experience, or at least it has been. Some days I felt like a helpless baby, other days I felt like a superhero. It all depended on the client, the circumstances, and the vibes. Most importantly the vibes, let's be real.  What I didn't realize when I applied for an advanced degree in social science was that it would require an unreal amount of vulnerability and discomfort. I didn't expect so many conversations about the political climate, or the obscene number of Discord notifications blowing up my phone at midnight, or the willingness of professors to meet my cla...
Post a Comment
Read more

Small World, Big Feelings.

Today was my first day of graduate school. Or eighteenth grade. I like calling it that. Somehow it makes it seem less daunting and more like something I'm supposed to show up to in an outfit my mom picked out, holding crayons she bought for me. But that isn't the reality. In reality it was a 15 hour day. 15 hours isn't much time, but it is. Trust me, it is. But damn, it was a good day. I'm finally back in a place where I feel like I belong. I'm coming back to the same university where I did my undergraduate work and I guess part of me thought it would feel the same... but everything is so different now. I'm coming back smarter, stronger, less apologetic, more open-minded, with a bunch of diagnoses I didn't have five years ago. I've gotten married since I left. I've learned I had a chronic medical condition since I left. I've learned most importantly that the energy and love I've poured into my academic and professional careers is going to do ...
Post a Comment
Read more