I worked a lot of nights and weekends in my prior life however a weekend now means I am free. The nights and weekends meant I missed a fair amount of family gatherings. I became a sort of ghost but have now left this supernatural social life to become much more present. It’s nice to participate more in family gatherings and that is what we did on a recent Saturday afternoon.
At the beginning of July, my sister and her husband came home from North Carolina. If Viking people wondered who was staying at The Caboose bed and breakfast, it was them. After they left, their son then arrived the following week to stay a few days. It was a unique way for all of them to come home to Viking. Anyway, I suggested Deb and my other siblings come to our place for an afternoon.
Stephen King wrote a novel called, “The Drawing of the Three” which was an exciting read, but it has nothing to do with this column except the theme of the title. I kept thinking of the name as it pertained to our gathering, only a gathering of four and not three.
The four included my sister Deb along with brothers Dave, Darrel and myself. My brother, Steve, has been gone for almost a decade. Steve’s son, Jamie, normally represents that branch of our family tree but he was trying to finish field work during this very wet season.
Our spouses were also in attendance along with my mother in-law and Barney the dog. The cats were present but stayed around the perimeter. We all sat together on our porch and enjoyed one of the few nice days of weather we’ve had this summer.
It was a fun visit, and a rare gathering. The last time we got together was exactly two years ago. I liked the busy conversation over coffee and cookies, then later we ate traditional picnic food highlighted by Lisa’s potato salad. All of it was topped off with pie from the Viking Cafe that Debbie brought for our enjoyment.
It’s good to be the youngest of your generation. It’s like the others go before you to test the waters and leave insights to life by their own actions along the path of the timeline you share. It’s a kindness to live your life when you are an older sibling and leave breadcrumbs for those who follow based on your own experiences.
It’s that way in life, isn’t it? As you get older, more is demanded of your character while you often receive less recognition for your actions or your good example. I think many of us who examine our own lives wonder if we are up to the gift of aging to a nice old age. Saturday’s gathering was as close as I will come to peering into my own future as I viewed the course my brothers and sister had left for me. Based upon what I saw, I truly have something to look forward to.
