Tonight is a good night to spin the RNG wheel and let my previous words speak for me. It is only Monday and I am already ready for the weekend. I am going on strike today (again) and unlike the past few days when I’ve been able to muscle my way through the drama and trauma of recent events, tonight I can’t manage it enough to write. I am weary, not simply tired. I am feeling the need for combat pay, for a sabbatical, for a month off with pay. As none of these things are likely to happen any time soon, I will simply sign off acknowledging, as I have a number of times in the past 730+ days that “Mama said there’ll be days like this,” and “Tomorrow is another day.”
I am grateful for a few things this evening:
- going to sleep with a full belly–no fear of not having enough food;
- a cool house–fortunate to have air conditioning that keeps my house cool in the midst of this 90 to 95 degree weather over the next few days (and warm on those days when it’s 10 degrees);
- a computer that allows me to write and send my thoughts around the world in an instant;
- reliable transportation to a job that pays me enough to live relatively comfortably;
- and grateful to have several hundred previously posted blogs from which I can share on evenings like this one when I don’t have the mental and emotional energy to post positive, coherent words.
So without further complaint or ado, I offer this post on family (a favorite theme of mine) that I wrote in September of 2011 (Day 67).
Today I spent a lovely day hanging out with my sister and her husband and my kids, including my “adopted son” (my daughter’s roommate). I drove about 150 miles or more today, so I’m a bit tired, but it is a good tired. I picked them up in San Francisco, we ate brunch in Berkeley, then drove up to Sonoma State to see Michal. We picked her up along with my “son” Alex and headed off to Bodega Bay (a coastal town north of Sonoma State where Alfred Hitchcock filmed “The Birds.”) We probably spent more time in the car than out, but I enjoyed the time talking and listening and reconnecting with my sister and brother-in-law. Michal got to hear some funny childhood stories about me and her Aunt, and we got to laugh at ourselves at yet another rehashing of family tales that always seem to be embellished in the retelling.
I’ve written in earlier blogs about how grateful I am for my family. Like most families, my siblings and I each have our foibles, personality quirks, and idiosyncrasies; and there are times when one doesn’t get along particularly well with another or we hurt each others feelings, etc. as is common with siblings in particular. But when I think back over the years when one of us has struggled or had medical crises or needed support in one form or another, one, some, or all of us have responded. In times past I’ve been able to be on the giving side, offering assistance in whatever ways I could. Over the past few months I’ve been more in receiving mode as I navigate through my current difficulties. There’s likely some blessing to be found in both giving and receiving, though I must confess that I’d rather be in a situation in which I am able to give assistance rather than require it.I hope to get a chance to see many of my siblings during the Christmas holidays–God, airfares for three, and weather permitting. Over the past few years I’ve become somewhat a chronicler of family history–pulling together old photographs and doing some videotaping. My plan is to find some time to record some family stories–like the ones we laughed about this afternoon,and other more poignant tales that are the legacy we have to pass along to my nieces,nephews and my own children.
I know that for many people ,their families of origin are not their families of choice. I am fortunate to have family members that I love and respect and enjoy spending time with. I count my siblings among my close friends. Harper Lee (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) said, “You can choose your friends but you sho’can’t choose your family, an’ they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ‘em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don’t.” Well I didn’t have any choice about who my kin are, but I figure that for the most part, I lucked out. And for that, and for each of them, I am most grateful.
