Grandma's legacy is home: generous meals, crafts, gifts wrapped in love. Games, puzzles, a special day remembered. Gentleness and a listening ear. Comfort. Warmth. Appreciation of blessings.
Their shared gifts to us are faith, storytelling and tradition.
Our generations are the reconstruction of their qualities, each iteration in different quantity and order. The gene sequences arranged like variations on a theme, a melody of kinship weaves through us all with such decided similarity.
This past weekend we stayed in Lake Tahoe to mark Grandpa's 80th birthday. The euphony of our chatter and game-playing spilled out of the large house. More than twenty strong we gathered, ate, teased, laughed and celebrated for four days. Ever-competitive, ever-creative, ever-glad to be together, we hiked and read and played and made new memories.
We ate and ate and ate and ate and ate.
I feel so lucky to come from a family of brave cooks--Grandma had her say in making each of us capable, creative, equal to the task of serving others. And just as amazing is Grandpa's green thumb, extending from each of our hands. Fresh produce and flowers are part and parcel to our nature. We've been taught by both to make and to nurture, to appreciate and to sacrifice for others. What a treat it was to eat amazing food and enjoy the beauty of Tahoe together.
I am blessed to come from a family of love, a functioning, caring symphony of talent. It was a weekend full of stories to be told again and again. I am so appreciative of the experience.
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