Life right now... so weird and different.
I've said it so many times, I'm sick of how volatile everything feels. I don't want to let myself count on anything or get too comfortable anywhere because there's no telling how long it'll last. It's the nature of being my age... every year my life takes some drastic shift. I move to a different house, usually with different people, and my day is filled with totally different activities. I feel like I'm constantly trying to get used to something new.
Right now is no exception (and while I'm beyond thankful for so many things right now) I'm having to "get used to" a lot. For one thing, two of my best friends have gone very far away, one to Spain and one to Colorado. For another, having a boyfriend takes "getting used to." Less so now than it has in past relationships, but even so... its a risk you willingly and knowingly take because you believe its worthwhile.
More new things: trying to understand "retirement funds," and health benefit packages. Realizing that if I move into an apartment next year, my little booty wouldn't even have a couch to perch itself on. New territory. Scary.
This week we've been visiting with family (as I'm sure many are... its Thanksgiving.) I'm seeing family in a new light as each year I grow older. I witness each person's habits, quirks, age-old pet peeves, and favorite qualities as they are displayed and as we all just take them for what they are. I watch as each person takes all that good along with all that bad and just lives and loves anyway. We don't have the option to "not choose" our family. We deal with it all because its the hand we're dealt. We laugh about perpetual lateness, ignore the dog that just had to come along, force down the 3-bean vinegar salad, accept yet another pen bearing the slogan "Alochohol Use is Abuse," and smile hidden smiles when "Relative x" does the exact thing you predicted in the car that they would do.
Why? Because who could complain about any of that when you get to watch Harris get the biggest rise out of Natalie by deciding to perpetually call her "Raspberry" throughout the day? Or when you get to be a part of a seven-person dogpile in the middle of the floor where everyone is laughing so hard you honestly don't know which voice is yours. Or how about the voice my dad adopts anytime he's talking to one of our younger cousins? You never hear that sweet little voice when life's about nothing but houses and mortgages and bank loans. But it comes out at Thanksgiving.
Praise the Lord for these good gifts. He is so good.