I hope your 4th of July was delicious in every way. We had our dear friends Eric and Kara and two of their girls in town for the weekend and a houseful of adults and kids on the 4th. Steve grilled carne asada and pollo asado and everyone brought a special something from their own kitchen to share. Audi’s white sauce had to be the hit of the party as we were all licking our plates by the end of the evening.
At one point in the afternoon, all the dads were in the pool with the kids—raucous and wild—while all the moms drank Nor Cal margaritas and huddled together to catch up. And then at another point in the afternoon all the dads were circled up under the big market umbrella, some reclining on lounge chairs, one rocking his baby girl in his arms, while the moms were all in the hot tub passing around the toddlers while we talked and laughed. And then, after everyone was thoroughly waterlogged, s’mores on the back patio around the fire pit.
We covered every inch of our house and our yard. I looked up at some point in the evening, and kids were perched on the boulders outside our kitchen windows talking and laughing and helping the little ones scramble up. Like kid-reptiles all over the rocks, sunning and scurrying.
I don’t have a single picture of the day to show you, which is evidence that I either had no idea where my phone was for most of the day or that I didn’t care.
For the last year and half, since returning from Bahrain, Steve and I have been in a season of recovery. In some ways, we still are, but in other ways, I can feel our capacity returning. We needed a season of reduction, where we turned inward and we rested and healed and took intentional care of ourselves. A season of slow and simple.
And on the 4th, I felt this deep satisfaction from opening wide the doors of our house and welcoming in a troupe of friends and their darlings. I actually felt moved and teary as I stood back and surveyed the whole scene.
It feels good to turn in and to insulate and to take care of ourselves and those we dearly love. It feels good to give ourselves the permission of time. And it also feels good to discover our capacity is returning, very slowly, for a bit more. Nothing crazy. We’re not going to become party central anytime soon. But it feels good to experiment with a bit of expansion when it’s time.
It feels good to open the doors. So good.
