Be happy that it happened . . . not sad because it's over

Be happy that it happened . . . not sad because it's over. This has become kind of a mantra for me, over the years, because of all the long distance relationships that I have. Parents and siblings in Canada, children and grandchildren in Minneapolis, Boston and Omaha. A variety of siblings-in-law and nephews and nieces scattered across the USA. Hello, good-bye, great to see you, I'll miss you, 'til next time, I love you . . . I have a saying on my office wall that I can't quote directly because I'm not presently in my office, but it says something like "The only person that you'll ever be with for your entire life is YOU, so learn to live peaceably with yourself. The tears come . . . grieve the losses and move on. Be truly ALIVE while you are living". I haven't had to endure the loss of a parent, spouse or child yet, in my life, but I have had to learn to deal with separation from many of my loved ones. When I think about my parents, siblings and families, children and grandchildren and how much I miss them it just plain hurts so I try not to think about the separation part of it too much! Instead, I anticipate with excitement the next time that I'll get to spend some time with these people that I love. Usually, these much anticipated reunions last a week or two but we had the unexpected happiness of having my oldest son, Mike, drop in for a couple of hours last Sunday when he had a flight layover in Salt Lake City while enroute from Tucson to Minnesota. He's close to the end of residency in Minneapolis and interviewing for positions with different maxillo-facial surgical groups. We had hopes that just MAYBE he would be able to come to Utah to start his career but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so our long distance relationship with Mike, Erin and our three adorable grandchildren will continue to be long distance. Sigh. Anyway, it was fun to have Mike be able to come for a spot of lunch and a short visit before he hopped the plane back to Minneapolis. Mike, Laura, Lucy and Jordan, downstairs trying out the 3-D feature of our new T.V. before lunch. Oldest son . . . oldest daughter. There are no words to convey how much I love this "boy" . . . how much happiness it gives me just to be with him for a couple of hours . . . how intensely proud (yes, proud) I am of him.

Mike, making nice with Lucy by giving her a Cadbury chocolate easter egg! He knows what a girl likes.

Mike meeting his newest little niece, Adelaide, for the first time. He feels pretty smug that he got to see her before Erin did!

And that was that. I drove him back to the airport and he was back to his life in Minnesota with his wife and children and residency and we were separated again. And I worked for the next few hours on "being happy that it happened and not sad that it was over".

I took this photo of cute little girl cousins, Lucy and Adelaide, after Mike left. As I'm looking at it I'm reminded of what I have right here in Utah! Maybe that won't always be the case but I'm going to enjoy every minute of it while I can! And I'm going to look forward to spending time with Steve and Kalli this summer after their graduations in Boston, helping Mike and Erin and the kids move to where ever they're going to be and spend some time with them, and welcome Annie home from her mission on July 8th! I'm also looking forward to visits from my sister Elaine and her family this week for conference AND hopefully my parents in the next couple of months. And I'm going to be happy for any time that I get to spend with them and try not to be sad at the time of parting. Oh yeah . . . I can do it!

A parting shot of the morning sky, a few days ago, to the west of our home. I love a dramatic sky. Til next time.