My husband and I don’t live anywhere near family. It’s the plight of so many of us now, isn’t it? Education and jobs take us far and wide.
When Bobby and I had kids, we dreamed of how we could still stay connected with the people we hold most dear…how grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles could still have deep relationships despite the distance.
We decided that I would travel back home to South Dakota with our boys every summer while Bobby’s golf season boiled and bubbled.
“Summer camp” at Nana and Poppy’s house with lots of dinners and hang out times with Auntie Leah, Uncle Kelsey, Ellie, and Levi…
For multiple reasons, sickness and floods included, our trip kept getting pushed this summer. But it finally happened this fall.
Shay (our au pair) and I flew with the boys and were in South Dakota for 2 weeks.
Seeing cousins together...the best. Everett LOVED getting to spend time with Ellie and vice versa.
It was particularly special timing because we were there for Leo’s birthday (October 10) and Leah’s birthday (October 11). We actually chose Leo’s name in honor of Auntie Leah – and this was the first time they got to officially meet!
Bobby even knocked my socks off and flew in last minute as a surprise for Leo’s first birthday. It was the quickest 36 hour trip as he's still in the midst of the golf season…but he said he woke up the morning before Leo’s birthday and knew he’d regret it if he weren’t with us to celebrate. He looked up plane tickets and they were surprisingly reasonable.
I cried, having all of us together to revel in our incredible 1 year-old.
PLUS, our brother Stephen flew in from New York and our brother Will drove up from college for the weekend.
It’s a rare thing to have all 4 siblings together now that we’re all grown up with families and jobs and college exams. This time we had together was SO SPECIAL.
PLUS our beloved Auntie Kathleen was with us from Canada. She even made Leo’s little smash cake, lemon poppyseed with whipped cream and raspberries on top. He properly devoured it.
It wasn’t all sunshine, though.
The boys and I all managed to get the flu. Baby Levi then spiked a fever. Many family dinners included runny noses and the cries of miserable kids. Dad/Poppy had a terrible cough that lasted our entire visit.
Just like so much of life, the good and the hard sit right next to each other.
Now we’re back in Milwaukee and I need to write some cards to all these people! Here’s the one I’m choosing from the My Firefly Gratitude and Encouragement Kit:
I’ve started by writing to our mom and dad who hosted us.
Mom did an endless number of grocery trips, medicine runs (thank God for infant Tylenol!), kept us all supplied with hot cups of tea. And amidst his sickness, Dad endured a large dose of craziness that only small children can bring.
Seeing our parents and being back at my childhood home healed a piece of my heart that was battered after an unexpectedly grueling 9 months.
It’s a lovely feeling to follow up an in-person visit with a card.
Whether someone hosted you for a week or whether you were able to meet a local friend at a coffee shop for an hour, this is a card to brighten days.
Author and podcaster Kelly Corrigan often references her friend Lisa Feldman Barrett, a brilliant neuroscientist, who has talked about how greatly we impact one another’s nervous systems.
She says that the absolute best thing for a human nervous system can be another human's nervous system (and it can also be the worst 😬).
When we’re with those people who are good for us, it can literally bring healing, health, and vitality.
If that’s not worthy of acknowledgement in a card, I don’t know what is!
So grab your pen and this card (or another cheery card that strikes you) and write to someone whom you’ve spent time with recently.
Reflect on the beauty of that in-person interaction; then pop it into the mail.
As poet Andrea Gibson wrote: “If the only thing we have is each other, that is so so much.”
YOU give us so much by being here. Thank you.
xo,
Snail aka Grace
P.S. We currently don't have this card design available as a single (constantly running into trouble with shelf space and accomodating all the designs we've created! 🤪) -- but it is available as part of the My Firefly Gratitude and Encouragement Kit.