The night winds down Rounds of goodbyes begin Hugs and farewells Drawn out This large family does its goodbyes much like it does everything Loudly, gluttonously and with all our hearts Those who join this family are dragged through The drawn out, long, exhaustive rounds of hugs, kisses, last jabs of the evening They learn to urge the goodbye ceremony to begin hours before they are ready to go This evening is no different Last embraces, goodbyes recapturing, retelling highlights of the day Good thing it will probably only be 12 hours before we all meet again You see it is only Wednesday of our week together So we still have more evenings and days of togetherness But somehow Not consciously But somehow we know we have hit the climax We are standing at the peak Don’t get me wrong there are still plenty of belly laughs fishing excursions deep talks excessive eating harmonies in the glow of crackling fires midnight dips in cleansing waters Yes, there are still piles of moments ahead But Wednesday night comes to a close It will never be again So the goodbyes are drawn out perhaps even a bit longer than usual This night one cousin, new father and old soul Says his goodbye to his mother’s younger brother Hugs Embrace We’ve got 98 more. he says to his uncle Hug still in progress We get together in these sacred mountains each year We come together as family wrapped in imperfect love once a year These are the moments we have together Some years there may be a few more encounters if there is a wedding or funeral But mostly – we have this once We get a few warm hugs out of everyone this week this sacred week we spend together We’ve got 98 more. I guess so if we are blessed to do this for the next 30 years we may get another 98 hugs out of ya all That is a lot to be grateful for As we learn over and over you never know when the last hug will be For the old and frail And for the young and vibrant So savor these hugs I will Hold onto these embraces Breathe in these goodbyes Sorry in-laws – it will take a while Longer that you would like But we’re gonna soak them in Drink them down like gin and tonic on the rocks Get drunk on them and let them fill us up feed us until the next time Making our rounds We may be down to only 97 hugs after tonight We will have used another one up But it will be worth it In its place we will have a few more laughs Some more indelible memories and we take with us a deeper love of these mountains we call family and these people we call home And if we are lucky, We’ve still got 97 more.
4 Comments
Mom
8/30/2017 05:50:07 pm
Beautiful as always. Love you so much for putting these memories and emotions in words so we can all be reminded of our special times together. May our circle game always continue.
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Shan
9/1/2017 07:00:14 am
So beautiful and all so true!
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Aunt Cheryl
9/3/2017 09:02:40 am
Wow you continue you continue to amaze me. Love you
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Patrick Danford P.J
3/22/2018 12:27:38 pm
Love that you caught that memory, it's so true that we should always value our family time and get togethers. It's always an amazing adventure and so many times it's cut short by a family members passing. Cherish every moment and take advantage of those hugs.
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AuthorSome times I write. Even less than "some" times I share what I write. For those moments that I write and want to share I have done so here. Archives
December 2017
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