Mary's coming home this evening. I have about an hour to go. I checked the BWI arrivals, and it says that her flight is about 25 minutes early, so I have to go to the airport soon.
I'm a bit excited to have her back in Maryland. I know the saying is that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I don't think I can grow fonder of Mary. I just miss her terribly when she is gone. And when she returns, it will be a few days before she gets back into the rhythm of things here.
She did a great job of helping Paul out in Hawaii, and helped him do a lot of things around the house that he couldn't have done. So I'm thinking that Mary thinks the trip was worth it.
I'm happy to be able to support Mary when she needs to go and take care of family. Mary is just as supportive of me when I do the same. Fortunately I haven't had to do that for quite some time.
So I made Mary some veggie soup, and have a lovely loaf of sourdough bread to go with the soup. Great eating for a winter's day. (The veggie soup has some homegrown green beans, so I count that as part of our local eating challenge.)
What is simple about all of this traveling? Not much, really. However, living a simple and frugal lifestyle gives us the time and financial freedom to be able to go on short notice to take care of family. And isn't family (and friends - i.e., community) what life is about? No? Not for you? It is for me.
This brings me to the question of how I define family. Is family just blood kin? Or is it really a mixture of blood kin, dear friends, and chosen people in our lives? Those people who are there to teach us about life, spirituality, or whatever, just as we are ready to learn? Family for me is all of those people and more. Those people who are a part of lives, our past, and our present who are there for us, even when we are difficult to be around, and even when times are tough.
So living simply gives me time to be able to find these things out.
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