Celebrating Connections

              Celebrating Each Saturday with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build. It's a good time to read about everyone's celebrations! Come join us!                      Tweet at #CelebrateLu

              It's been two weeks since I celebrated all those endings at school, and now, these past two weeks of wonderful days make me want to write an entire book about the beauty of connected friends no matter how far apart (my time at the All-Write Conference), then about the blessings of family (my trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Missouri).  

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” 
     ~ Herman Melville
        I love the idea of those tiny fibers, that woven or twisted together, they make a lifeline for living. As we spend time with friends and family, we talk and learn new ideas to contemplate, to keep and enlarge, to hold for another time. Yet, all of it enriches when attention is paid, and the return are the effects, as Melville writes, for all our lives.

Those colorful fibers I remember:  
            Driving for a lo-ong time with Ramona and not caring if we were lost because we were having such fun visiting.
            Finding so many of the group at Martin's Grocery, hugs and welcomes, and immediately starting to talk!
            Meeting new people I knew previously only through blogging: Michele Knott, Andrea Payan, Jennifer Sniadecki. Meeting new people whom I will look for through their blogs: Lori Carter, Rebecca Nguyen.
            Talking with Seymour Simon about how he chooses his book topics, seeing the numerous, wonderful books shared by Mary Helen and Tammy, hearing the marvelous talk by Christy about the first six days, although she only discovered that she would be presenting the day before, loving Ruth's speaking of fears and dreams, peeling off the layers to reveal them. Words filled the days with learning about good teaching,  and in between were the words among friends, loving and thoughtful support for my next steps in retirement. 
           Ice cream and rain, bento boxes and a big table of conversation, someone named chef Andy and a typewriter with flowers for words, talking with Stephanie, Hannah, Jay and Sam-learning a little, enjoying a lot.

          Home for one night-laundry and packing again-up in the dark, off with Sarah and the grand-girls, finding Carter after his flight delays, finally to my brother-in-law and his new wife's for dinner, then to my brother's home. Times didn't exactly work the way we imagined, but it was still a good day all together.

          The three days with family were filled again, driving to the little town where I lived with lots of family until I was about 12, visiting both the new and old cemeteries where so many of my family are buried, discovering that a little brother who died at birth was born on the same day as my grandson. I had a picture taken at the post office where I roller skated to get the mail. It is one of the few buildings that still looks exactly the same!
          Visiting Columbia, the University of Missouri, my college, hanging out at the student center, talking about old times there too, going to a crazy auction, and disappointed we didn't find any good deals this year. Just loving being with this family!
          To Boonville where my brother, sister-in-law and niece own an antique store, watching how much fun the girls and Carter have helping with the store. I saw an old friend who's bought and renovated an old home there right by the Missouri River. We visited the biggest Burr Oak in the nation, near the river, estimated to be between 350-400 years old. 
         A highlight! When we drove to the tree, there were many, long up and down hills which we raced along. The kids loved it, probably have never done that before. The squeals of laughter stay in my mind.
  
         And now, back home, filled to the brim with these two weeks. They were indeed days of celebration.

photo credit: Threads via photopin (license)