Nothing...and everything.

   As a child, my favorite place to be was on a swing...I could swing for what seemed like hours at a time. My favorite Childhood poem? The Swing by Robert Lewis Stevenson...."How do you like to go up in a swing, up in the air so blue. Oh I do think it's the pleasantest thing, ever a child can do...."
   I never outgrew my love for a swing, and if I see one, you better believe I will be on it, and you will be hard pressed to get me to leave it. I passed that love of swing on to my children. When we moved to our current house, the kids had mostly outgrown our big play set, but they requested we build a frame for a couple of swings. In a fortuitous turn, the only flat place suitable for a swing in our back yard lined up perfectly with the window over the sink in the kitchen. I can't count the times that I have looked up from that sink over the years and spied one of my children swinging..or wished that they were.....
   Tonight, as I was doing the dishes after supper, I looked out the window, and there, swinging, was my Grown up Boy, talking to one of his friends on the phone. The feet were bigger, the legs longer, but he still pumps those legs with the same form from his childhood. My breath strangled in my throat, and gratitude filled me up. This time we find ourselves in, this season of our lives - is uncharted, frightening...horrible in most every way. But dear Lord, I give thanks that we are all together. John, Baby girl, Babiest girl, Grown up boy and me. Our house buzzes with life, and even in these dark times, celebration. Today we found out that Grown up Boy (also formerly known as College Boy, Peace Corps Boy and most recently Mongolia Man) will become, in August, Ivy League Boy - as he pursues his Masters in International Agriculture and Rural Development at Cornell. Also in August, Baby Girl will graduate from College, followed by Babiest Girl in December. Kennedy paths will diverge exponentially. These weeks that have and will continue to take so much from us, have given me the greatest gift. Time. Time with my family. Time to laugh around a table. Time to swing. Time to plant a garden. Time to try new recipes and tell old stories.Time to do nothing....together. Which is everything.