Through the years, change has come to all of our homes. While we all lived originally in the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia area, some of us moved away or moved on due to careers or other life circumstances. Some of our kids faced significant challenges through the years and so have some of the parents.
When we can, though, we try to bring together those of us who remain nearby so that our children have the opportunity to spend time with friends who were with them from the earliest days of their lives.
This past weekend, most of the families made the trek to
Hershey, PA to spend a beautiful late summer Saturday at Hershey Park followed by a
group dinner in the evening. Our kids
reconnected in the hotel pool…on the roller-coaster…on the log flume...among other places, happy to be together if only for a short time -- but already
asking about when we would next meet again!
We parents enjoyed the opportunity to share our war stories, too -- about
the aches and pains of getting older; the wonder and fun and periodic
frustration of managing pre-teen expectations; and the mystery of what the
future would bring to all of us.
In a conversation over dinner (after a few glasses of wine),
one mother asked me if I believed in the afterlife. I said no, mostly because my too secular brain isn't sure what that
means; however, I do believe in our eternal participation in the energy of the
universe which, as this fellow Mom said, is “love.” And I agree.
Getting
together with these old friends and their beautiful daughters is truly a
religious experience for me. My name for it? Heaven.
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