Sometimes no matter how hard you try families just don’t gel.  You plan the trip, get everything ready, pack, gas up the car, plug in the GPS and as soon as everyone is there..you leave!  After waiting for days for this moment, so excited you can hardly contain yourself, you fight the rush hour traffic..just for time to spend together.  Tired, stressed out from regular life, hungry, need a bathroom break and finally, thank goodness there’s the house!!

It’s our expectations that mess us up, the ideas of perfectionism we have- that really never come true, that start to pick our time together apart.  It just happens, nothing you can do about it, creeps in before you can shut the door on it’s face, just shows up. BAM.  Here I am, mis spoken words, fussiness, hurt hearts, feelings lying all over the floor where we all walk.  You know, those times when no matter what you do or say, it just keeps getting more mixed up.  Like you are walking around on eggshells and you are not sure how the heck it got to this point?

Life goes on, loved ones move in different directions, forgiveness occurs, but in the back of your mind you wish so bad that time travel did exist, you would use it for sure and fix the moments.  Glue it all back together so the picture looked right.  You can’t.  You are in a car in a city away from home and you would rather walk than ride.  I hate these real life moments, they suck.  But they happen all the time to everyone…and we can’t go back in time.

What is hard for me in those moments of life is that my voice disappears, there is no place ever that I feel smaller and more insignificant. You talk, noone answers, your words are cut off by others, you feel you just don’t matter.  That is one truth I love about God, I MATTER to Him.  When we constantly need the approval of others on earth to matter, I promise you, you will be let down and it hurts.  Not with Jesus, He walks with me and loves me and listens to me.  I love that beyond the beyond.  

The time together was filled with wonderful moments of rest and peace and love and funny.  Mountains and land and healing and leaves and wind and love all rolled into one family time.  I am beginning to realize that loving is a hard act to commit to-at times even impossible.  But, see the bottom line is we are family, the good, the bad and the in between and we forgive and stick it out together. Doing it all over again in few weeks.  That is love.  

The old me wanted to fuss and pitch a fit and not speak for a long time and just be angry, not this time.  This time I learned some new tricks, don’t react to others so fast, breathe, wait to respond.  Don’t take myself so darn seriously, for goodness sakes, it’s the only life I have, don’t blink. Roll the window down and let most of it fly out with the wind, you can not take moments back once you loose that person-whew that is a big one.  What would Jesus do?  He would see the bigger picture.  Yep, so can I.

Thanksgiving is coming up and I can’t wait.  It is our family’s favorite time, 2nd only to Christmas…we love to eat and cook.  Family and friends will gather around our table and hold hands and say grace and blessings will cover the dirty spots where our mistakes spill, and we will love each other and grow.  Love will fill in the gaps where our expectations leave holes.  Give thanks, for our Savior loves us- holes and all.