Rediscovering Joy
Image from my photo
This past weekend I attended a family reunion of thirty-three family members ranging in age from 16 months to 95 years who gathered at Cannon Beach in Oregon. We came from Maine, Minnesota, Georgia. Texas, Iowa and Oregon. Like every family, we had losses to mourn but we had lives to celebrate too. We marveled at Haystack Rock, remnant of an ancient lava flow. We saw a bald eagle snatch a tern off the rock and fly away chased by two hawks. Puffins flew flapping their wings like wind-up toys. A pair of Oyster Catchers with bright orange beaks — they don’t actually catch oysters by the way — chased away an intruder to protect their nest. A sea anemone closed its tentacles around its lunch. Tiny crabs scurried over the sand. But I will remember other wonders of the time together like:
Waking up to the sound of the ocean
Making a child laugh
Falling in love again with my wife
Tasting perfectly prepared halibut
Hearing a mother’s chuckle in her daughter’s voice
Watching exceptional parenting
The smell of coffee in the morning
Feeling simple and pure delight for another person’s achievement
Laughing at myself
Starting a conversation with a family member I had not seen for years at the spot where the two of us left off years ago
Smelling bread right out of the oven which reminded me of a summer day many years ago that I spent with my grandparents in Iowa
Effortlessly hitting the exact note I’d been striving for in my singing for weeks
Seeing the sunset paint the clouds and the ocean
The genuinely surprised expression on peoples’ faces when they found out my age
The friendliness of puppies
Splashing through warm salt water
Watching someone display true expertise
Selfless acts of kindness, both witnessing and doing
And realizing, after landing squarely on my face in the sand during the futile pursuit of a volleyball, that although the experience was not exactly pleasant, sand was ever so much more forgiving than a gymnasium floor.
Warren,
ReplyDeleteWhat an uplifting experience! Thanks for sharing. I guess Thomas Wolfe was wrong--you can go home again.
I'm planning to attend a family reunion next month, and this makes me all the more eager to do so.
ReplyDeleteawww, I love your writing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great experience! We'll have our family together for Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely weekend! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWarren, what a special time that was. I was at a family reunion last week, for my father's side of the family, but it only took place in a mall food court, and not everyone came, but I still enjoyed it. Most of my living cousins and one uncle and his wife are on my father's side of the family. Actually, although this one cousin always has these times to get together, every two years one cousin and several others plan a much larger Hovanic family reunion. That will be next year. It's in my one cousin's home on a river and some of those who come take a boat trip down a river until they come to a lake.
ReplyDeleteUntil last year when I had pneumonia and it took several months to recover, I had family reunions at my house for my mom's side of the house where everyone brought something to eat. Everyone enjoyed themselves. However, I probably won't have one this year because my Uncle Bill, her youngest brother, died a few weeks ago. And most of my cousins have passed on now, too.
as well as all my aunts and uncles on my mom's side of the family. I have five cousins on that side of the family still living, but two of them I don't know well at all. Uncle Bill moved away when he got older, but he always came to the reunions as did his oldest son and his wife.
On neither side of the family have we ever had a reunion on the ocean and not even on the coast of Lake Erie which is not that far away. Family picnics? Yes, every summer when I was growing up, but not reunions.
this is so lovely I want it to go viral. I was very touched. Came back to say awwwww again
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