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| Looking out the window on the way to my childhood home, an hour over the mountain |
We must live in the present, yet seek the eternal. Savor the moment and build for the future. With our eyes towards Heaven, we feather our earthly nests with love and pepper them with beauty. There are distractions, there is ugliness in the world and in our own hearts that can spew forth and bubble over at any given time. Yet still, we must strive and labor on the journey towards our heavenly home and hopefully leave a legacy behind that enables our loved ones to do the same..
I am rich. I have an inheritance that I hope to pass on to my own children. It is the inheritance of home. A legacy...
Of friendly ghosts in the woods, of warm hugs that melt, happy faces not waiting, but running out to meet...
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| Grandma greets the girls at the van |
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| Pa Pa hugs Emily |
An inheritance of beauty in unexpected places, little details that mattered because I am loved, friends waving over fences...
A handing down of traditions that knit our hearts and affections, make us laugh and water our souls...
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| Tommy bobs for apples |
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| and so do I! |
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| John Paul's turn |
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| Tommy holds the prize |
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| the jeering crowds |
A treasure hunt with hand drawn clues that perplex and amuse:
...Where even the grown-ups get a prize!
Home is the reassurance that you will be well-cared for:
There is always food on the table or a simple snack to prepare. Nothing is too much trouble.
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| Grandma and Papa's cozy kitchen |
We had a wonderful Halloween celebration yesterday at Grandma and Papa's.
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| Tommy (dressed as a 'shirt' for Halloween) with his cousin, Ella |
The ride home last night gave me a lot to think about. I was thinking how these three little boys of mine are not so little anymore...
And how we have been taking our children trick-or-treating for seventeen years, now. And how my parents have made it all happen all these years, and now it's time to hand down the torch...
Thinking of the passage of time and how the moments evaporate into fully grown children who aren't making halloween costumes anymore.
And Tradition. It is important. Things can't always be the same, and we can't force tradition, but there is comfort and joy in knowing that we will once again be doing what we know.
That being said....Tradition does not just happen. Tradition tells our children that we care enough to make life special for them, that we value family togetherness and that togetherness is the glue that binds a family. It is not what we do together as a family, but the spirit with which we do it that
makes life grand. Frozen eggrolls in front of a football game can be just as heart warming as an elaborate feast with wine and cheese.
Better [is] a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Proverbs 15:17
Thank you, Mom and Dad!
