“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP
we said goodbye to my parents today after a 3 week visit.
it was hard!
they are good apples.
they are full of sweetness.
they were here during important times. our trip to karamoja, and my loss of a friend they knew as well. time with grandchildren they helped raise, and a new one they were just meeting- all loved just the same.
they were good at living life with us. eating toast for breakfast and doing dinner dishes and having endless conversations with zoe about her kindergarten nemesis. they read books and played cards and "littlest pet shop pets". they did clinic with me, walked the campus and admired the library, sat in traffic and did the grocery shopping with me. they shared stories that were funny and stories that made us cry, and think and learn, and be inspired. they listened well and commented supportively- when they could have said a whole lot of things about our crazy. and when things were crazy and four kids were whining at once or smacking each other, they didn't criticize or roll their eyes. instead they winked and told us they now have a better understanding of how to pray for us.
we were sad to say goodbye, but so very thankful that saying goodbye is hard and not easy. thankful that we'll miss them so much, that we have them, that they're not so far away, that we'll see them in 4 months. thankful for the love.
― Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP
we said goodbye to my parents today after a 3 week visit.
it was hard!
they are good apples.
they are full of sweetness.
they were here during important times. our trip to karamoja, and my loss of a friend they knew as well. time with grandchildren they helped raise, and a new one they were just meeting- all loved just the same.
they were good at living life with us. eating toast for breakfast and doing dinner dishes and having endless conversations with zoe about her kindergarten nemesis. they read books and played cards and "littlest pet shop pets". they did clinic with me, walked the campus and admired the library, sat in traffic and did the grocery shopping with me. they shared stories that were funny and stories that made us cry, and think and learn, and be inspired. they listened well and commented supportively- when they could have said a whole lot of things about our crazy. and when things were crazy and four kids were whining at once or smacking each other, they didn't criticize or roll their eyes. instead they winked and told us they now have a better understanding of how to pray for us.
we were sad to say goodbye, but so very thankful that saying goodbye is hard and not easy. thankful that we'll miss them so much, that we have them, that they're not so far away, that we'll see them in 4 months. thankful for the love.
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