SHATTERPROOF

 

I loved the times when our family was young…everyone under the same roof…

I felt we were invincible…indestructible…I felt we were shatterproof.

That feeling is often tested over the years…as many parents have known…because one day you turn around…and your once young children are grown.

There was a time when it was easy to get our family together…when the family was complete…We’d open the front door and holler…”Hey everyone…it’s time to eat!”

But when children grow up and move away…when they’re living behind different doors…hollering, “It’s time to eat!” doesn’t complete the family anymore.

Now we still make plans to get together…and we hope the family’s complete…when we sit around the table and say…”It’s time to eat!’.

But that’s not always the case…it seldom goes according to plan…so we’ve learned to grab parts of our family…whenever…wherever we can.

We recently got together with two of our three children and one of our four grandchildren…there were smiles on our faces even though our other son and other grandchildren were all in different places.

I know they would have joined us…if only they were able…

but alas…when we all sat down to eat…there were only five of us at the table.

But in a way we all were there…the family sitting in front of me…and the family I could not see…because I’ve found, over the years, my family goes everywhere with me.

On those rare occasions we are all together…I love to sit back…smile and stare…and if anyone is missing…I love to sit back and imagine them there.

It’s not quite the same I know…but immediately after they all grew….I learned to enjoy who’s here and imagine the rest…because that’s what parents do.

It’s the way I keep my family complete…

when we can’t be together under the same roof…

it’s my way of keeping our family invincible…

indestructible

my way to keep them shatterproof.