Bittersweet Reunion

The best thing happened this week. I got back in touch with my Idaho family after seven years of silence.  My youngest cousin Celeste emailed me out of the blue to catch up. The next day, her sister Angela did, too. Their voices sounded so familiar even after the long hiatus. I've been wanting this for a while but have always let my initial efforts slip through the cracks for no good reason.

Sometimes I can be a big ignoramus. Not always but sometimes. Chris used to tell me repeatedly  that I didn't need to send a gift with every correspondence. But that never quite sunk in. When family has a baby, you send a gift. When they have two kids, you send a gift for the new one, the older child than you never got around to sending gifts to before, and of course everyone else in the family you've neglected. And then there's the books you never sent. Not one, but five. If someone gets married, you obviously can't send a gift without a catch up letter, or the books. And you can't send that letter without sending it to everyone. Who gets books? One set for the whole family, or a set for each couple. Now it's time to call the publisher and request two boxes of books. This is not a snowball effect, it's an avalance. The one that went on inside my head month after month. If I'd have stopped for one second I would've realized I was being ridiculous. But the conversation never left my head. And so I started asking, if not praying for a way to make it happen. Especially with the engagement.

My Idaho family, not all of them are in Idaho anymore, are the most loving people you've ever met. So  gracious, loving, and kind that they could easily be from Wisconsin. We agreed to put the guilt out with the trash and start again. No blaming anyone or anything. My Aunt Gayle called me the other night and her voice was so angelic. She simply said that all I needed to do was pick up the phone. Their love, extinguishing the flames of guilt in one fell swoop.

Everyone is married, most with little children, some with two, some with more on the way. Some even are poker players. I can't wait to talk more with the rest of the cousins. There are six total. But this also comes at a sad time. It turns out that our grandma is on her way out of this life. A surprise for sure. My uncle Steve and Aunt Gayle are taking care of her now in Oregon and Jason and I will go up to help them with the property next month. I don't usually talk about the most personal family matters here on the blog, but I thought I'd mention this briefly.

I just want to welcome the Livingston side of the family here to the blog. I'm so thankful that we're in touch again. There is still much more to catch up on than what a few one hour phone conversations can do. But we've made a fine start. And Grandma is surrounded in peace and love, I believe that.

CURRENT: PASADENA, CA
NEXT: LAS VEGAS (March 9-10)