Following the call of Family

There are times in life when my heart just finds its beat. I don't always like the beat it finds but I know it is right as surely as my next breath. Personally I believe that it is my faith and that God is certainly at the center of these findings.

Here are a few examples. My mother lives with me, she has for a few years. When I made the decision on a ride home from visiting her in her lonely apartment it came to me: Mom has to move in. I knew she would not be able to stay alone and that her next move would be to a nursing home. I had watched my father's journey into the nursing home and did not want that for my mother, not yet. But the weird thing was that for months I had contemplated this, spoken with my husband about it and yet it was as if I was knocked on the head on that ride through North Hampton back to Maine. She moved in and lives with me now. It has not been easy but then raising me was never easy. Living with me now is not easy. There have been some really rough patches but in the end it was the right thing to do and in my heart I know that I have followed the call. The moments I have with her when she peels carrots next to me or shares a view on the front porch or when the grandchildren run to her room to wake her up each morning, that is when I feel right in my heart.

My daughter and her children are another example. Most recently they have lived with us while she finishes her last year of law school. They have been in and out of our house for years. We vacationed with them this year, it was glorious. The children, my daughter Bob and I spent a week in Florida with my sister and her husband at our beloved Pine Island. As we drove home, somewhere in North Carolina during the horrible rain storm I looked at Bob and said we cannot desert this family, ever. He looked back and said "I know". Committing to this family, the grandchildren and my daughter, will not always be easy just as living together for the last year has not always been simple. But in that moment at 2am while they slept in the back of the van it was clear: we are in this with them: Bob, me, mom and the rest of our family. It felt good.

Family is the most important part of life. I believe that God is love and he gives us family so that we might know love intimately. It is such a gift and when family calls it is as if, in my world, God is calling. So I follow.