Tuesday, August 31, 2010

This Punchline Works for Me

I heard a friend tell one time of an episode he’d heard on NPR’s “This American Life.”  The narrator had told about meeting with the Mormon missionaries and listening to their lesson.  She could tell they were building up to something they thought was magnificent, and she wondered what it was.

Finally, they said it.  The punchline of their lesson:

Families can be together forever.

She laughed and laughed. 

“Why would I want that???” was her question…

-------------

In June we had a family reunion at the beach.  A week of cousins and siblings all in a pile, of playing in the waves and sand, of feeding great hoards, of playing games late into the night.  It was so wonderful.

Last week we had a family dinner in Utah.  I got to see my brothers who didn’t make it to the beach and their sweet families, as well as some of my cousins and an aunt.



 Jason with new cousin Liam.

We ate and then sat around and (as Watsons are wont to do) talked and talked.

 

Mahon showed Jason how to start a blog,



and Cindy Lynn took her turn with the baby.



Sweet Scarlett, who was my friend last summer, would have nothing to do with me this year as a stubborn 2 year old. (But she was very interested in the chocolate cake!)



Thankfully Elizabeth, her four year old sister, was more willing to hang out with me.



After showing the captive audience the family reunion slideshow,



The crowd dispersed.

Some to resume their interrupted play in the driveway,



others to congregate in the driveway for more conversation,



still passing baby Liam around.




It was with great sadness that I wrenched myself away from all of these people that I love.  It was time to check Jason into his dorm and after that I still had a 2 hour drive before I was done for the day.  We had stayed much later than planned (of course!) and it was still so hard to leave everyone.

I passionately love this place that I live.  I love my house, my yard, my neighborhood, my city, and my beaches.  I love the friends that we have made here, friends who stand in the place of family for us on so many occasions.

But I sure love my family too.

And that is why I am so glad that I know that

Families can be together forever.



5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oops, sorry about that Mindy. I thought I could make the duplicate comment go away, but it turns out I can just delete what you said...thus making it look like you said something while and crazy, that you then changed your mind about... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I passionately love the place you live too:). And we all know that heaven will be modeled after North Carolina right? Fun to see your family- they're so stylish-looking!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Had so much fun the year I was invited to this same gathering! I'm a little sad to see all of that great family together and not to have been able to be there. One day...

    ReplyDelete