Being Together

[Angebor]

It is said that if you could only have 5 teeth in your mouth...it would be best if they were all together.  All together...

In recent months my husband and I have talked considerably about what our priorities are in this life.  We have discussed a scenario in which we lose our home and much of our material means.  We have looked at how blessed we are and challenged ourselves to look further than the Sequoia, timeshare and the house in which we live.  As a couple and family, our priority is staying together.  If we lost it all today, we would be blessed to be able to stay together.

Being together is a condition that so many families yearn for as foreclosures, job losses and severe circumstances have forced many into making choices for survival they'd never before entertained.  The terrible torment of having to send one's kids to another home for their benefit is scarcely a situation that many of us would think we could bare.  But many do have to bare it.  And in the face of the division of their family, many moms and dads our working relentlessly to unite their household.  And these would tell us without reservation that being together is so very important and a consolation to great material loss.

Together.

Maybe this is more of a thing for me than you.  maybe you are conscious of your blessings and ever mindful of the benefit of having your family all together.  I think about the daily grind of school, meals, sports practices, recitals, open houses, doctors' appointments, grocery buying, PTA meetings, school site councils, kids' homework and special projects, church services, meal preparation and whatever else.  When I consider an alternative life where I am not able to do those things I am absolutely awed at the grace of God to be able to busy myself with family.  And to have my family together with me is...well, joy beyond words.

Sitting here at the edge of the world with my bare feet dangling over the edge, I survey the stars and distant worlds and think to myself...which of my 5 teeth would I want to have...