On Coming & Going

These are a few less that philosophical insights I had about making the effort to leave kids & responsibilities & go somewhere. On the way to the retreat last weekend everyone I was riding with agreed that they had wondered if it was worth it to go at sometime that week. The planning, packing, & delegation of responsibilities, just feels like added stress. I personally had wonder if it wouldn't be better to just stay home & get caught up on sleep, but I went knowing that once I left town I would be glad I made the effort.


After all that blustering about leaving it turns out that once I left, I didn't want to come back home. I love my life but it includes a lot of responsibility & unending needs to be met. I rode home from the retreat with the dread of laundry and other non-energizing duties ahead of me as well as the cinnamon roll induced stomach ache dragging me down. Inside I was kicking & screamin,g "don't make me go back there!"

What I actually found when I got home was that sometimes when you come home, the dog has peed in the living room but greets you with enough tail wagging & heavy breathing to make up for it. Sometimes you find everyone sitting around the coffee table eating lunch together & and laughing & you almost don't care that you can't get rid of those pesky ants crawling to the dog bowl. Sometimes you come home to find a teenage mom who can't quite keep up with her one-year-old running around your house, but she has made the unusual gesture of emptying the dish washer & the one-year-old is cute, so you laugh & chase them both around too. So I guess what I am saying is that going away is good (in spite of all the work it takes to get there) because it helps you to see thing a little differently & teenagers, dogs, ants, dust & all, home is where the heart is (cheesy, I know). Hope you all have a great weekend whatever you're doing!