I belong with you, you belong with me

Another beautiful week for three generations to rest and play together. We sorely missed those who couldn't be with us this year. To put it in the words of my 11-year-old nephew, "People in this family keep disappearing." 

I tried to tell him that's part of family -- the ebb and flow of our lives coming together and apart for seasons of time. Neither one of us was too happy with that answer. 

Still, I am grateful.  


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"I think it is a very important thing to pray for a vacation that will help year by year to keep the family close together and to make a reality of something to share. It is not just the physical, psychological, and emotional rest that is needed, it is a great help in discovering gaps in our relationships which need mending or real loneliness that is growing because of never having time to talk about certain things or to make discoveries together. To play together in sand, swim together, discover new fish together, hike in the mountains together, read books in strange and new places together, eat strange foods in new surroundings together, bicycle through winding roads together, walk through old city streets together -- whatever it is you like to do gives an atmosphere which will melt away some of the "scratchy places" in your relationships, and which will remove you from some of the ordinary irritations of day-by-day life. But don't expect too much! If you expect perfection, then a vacation can be the most dismally disappointing time of the year."

- p. 195, What Is A Family? by Edith Schaeffer