I honestly don’t remember much about the morning.
I think I slept in a good bit.
I think I spent a little while on the front porch talking to Maya about what all is going on in her life and what not.
I think I fed the chickens some of the rice cakes that I got from my dad and stepmom when I was in Nevada. 🙃
Most of the morning and early afternoon were spent in preparation for Michaelmas. Getting chairs set up, setting the table, finishing making the food (though I didn’t do any of the food making).
My brother Jared flew in the night before and stayed at a hotel a little ways away from where we were and then got picked up by my sister Leslie, and they arrived together.
I hadn’t seen Leslie in at least a few years. I think it was 2020 in the last time that I was in the Seattle area during Covid.
Anyway, it was good to chat a bit and catch up with her. And we all worked on the preparations for the party, I probably less than most.
I’m generally pretty uncomfortable in big party situations where I don’t know very many people. It’s just uncomfortable for me. There are many people in my life who think I’m a bit of a social butterfly because of how I am in groups like that, but I’m really not. I’m actually really shy and uncomfortable in those situations.
To be honest, most of my older siblings left home before I have many, if any, memories of them. So most of my relationships with my older siblings have been deliberate relationship creation (on my end), instead of natural relationship continuance. The fact that we live so far apart and only see each other after years of time has passed, generally, has kept that dynamic pretty much the same for my entire life with some of them.
With that generally means is that it’s good to be back together, but it’s also a little awkward… for me, at least.
Fortunately, and miraculously, this little party was much more comfortable than I ever would have expected. Tish and Craig’s new tiny-home tenant came up before most, and I chatted with him for a good little while. Super good guy. We ended up sitting at the same table during the official festivities.
Richard and Leslie and Jared and I all sat at the same table with him, along with a couple others of Tish & Craig’s friends.
Leslie made a beautiful toast, a couple of them, I think. One to My mom. One to Tisha and Craig, I think, and one to the empty chair in the room as a representation of the people we would want with us who couldn’t be there.
A handful of people at the party chose to share whom they would wish to be with them, including both living and deceased. It was actually a really neat part of the party with some tears and a deep sense of reverence. The ambiance was such that two people who were there who didn’t really know anyone else wanted to speak and extend their gratitude for how they had been welcomed and how comfortable it was.
It was a lovely gathering. 😊
I don’t remember much of the rest of the day, other than that there was some cleanup, and chatting, and all that jazz.
Good stuff.
Good day.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 