Last week I posted a blog about the anticipation of visiting my drama-ridden family in Pennsylvania.
I had mentioned a saying I once heard, “If you want to know how evolved you are, visit your family for three days.”
So, after almost eight years of being away from my family, I set off for a 12 hour drive with my kids and my mom to visit our family in Pennsylvania…the family I had left at the age of 18 and rarely visited since.
I was worried about the drama. I was worried about the lower energy. I was worried about what would happen.
Well, contrary to everything I know, my worry was simply worrying about something that hadn’t happened….
….and, to my surprise, it didn’t.
After traveling so far, I took time to reconnect with my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. and sat up night after night reminiscing about old times.
We had a picnic in the very spot in the yard of my grandmother’s house that we had spent so many summers in the past.
My kids saw lightening bugs for the first time.
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| Catching Lightening Bugs |
They experienced my crazy uncle throwing boxes of firecrackers into the fire scaring the sh*t out of all of us as he did EVERY summer that we picnicked in that same spot.
We went horseback riding.
We laughed, we hugged, and we remembered good memories….forgetting to bring up the old, not-so-memorable ones.
Was there drama going on around us?
Of course.
Did I notice it?
Not really?
What I noticed were the family members who wanted to catch up.
What I noticed was the quiet beauty all around me that I took for granted all those years growing up in Pottstown….the rolling farmland, the blackest black of night, the lightening bugs, the deafening sound of crickets.
I noticed the kids of my cousins laughing with my own boys.
I noticed the love that our family has for each other that sometimes is blinded by the arguing that goes on.
Mostly, I noticed how far I have come in my own mind.
I could have gotten involved in the gossip or drama going on, but I chose to notice the beautiful love deeply embedded in my family.
As I returned back to South Carolina in another 12 hour drive, I noticed how well-behaved my kids were.
The worry I had going into this trip was all for naught.
Another reminder that worry is all about something that hasn’t happened, and if we are aware enough of our thinking, probably won’t happen.
Thank you, Universe for this amazing reminder, this amazing family I have, and this amazing life I am living!
I am truly grateful.