Puzzle Pieces

My edges hurt a little.

This is my word picture for how I feel when I am together with people I love… and then not.

This weekend was Fall Break and Elizabeth and Nick were home for a few days. All of us together in the nest! It was dreamy.

I love how quickly we all fit back together and how perfectly normal it feels when our family “puzzle” is intact.

In the midst of the fun of being all together in a heap, I cant help but acknowledge that it also feels normal when we are are not all together. It seems we have two “normals” now – and even though it makes me feel a little sad, it is okay.  (If we’re all going to be healthy, emotionally strong and living our lives to the full, it has to be!)

An enormous benefit to adjusting to the new normal is that it enables me to appreciate every bit of time that we have with our kids, rather than resenting time away from them.  This shift in perspective has been invaluable for me in the past few years.

Achy edges and new normals have been a fact of life for as long as I can remember. When I was little, we moved quite a bit, and like many families, mine is spread out.  Education, marriages and jobs have sprinkled my extended family all the way from the east coast to the west.

“Normal” feels complete.

That is, until I get to be with my parents – or an aunt and uncle or my grandmother or I get to connect with a cousin.  During visits with family from out of town, I see the incompleteness of the usual picture.  It as though the puzzle expands before my eyes and opens up to make more room for other important pieces.  There is no denying that we all fit together and that I need all of them for my picture to be complete.  Even while we are together, my edges begin to ache in anticipation of the inevitable separation when the pieces go missing again.

So these achy edges feel normal, and I have found that the fastest, surest way to tend to them is with thankfulness.

So, thank you, God, for the blessing of my family.
Thank you for the sweetness in the times we are together.
Thank you for being in all the places we are and for holding us together
– even when we are apart.

DysFUNctional Family Photo – I sure love these people!