Family

I remember being in college not so long ago. I was in a dorm room with four friends. Each of us were busy doing separate things in the room. One girl was working on a ridiculously large desk top computer amazed that she could "Chat" on the computer with another student on the campus. The other girl was doing some form of homework, the third person well I don't remember what he was doing but I looked up from the book I was reading, The Stand by Stevy Kings. In retrospect I probably should have been reading a college text book seeing as my college career was short lived and this is the only college story I care to repeat in polite company.

Anyway, I look up from my book and I am struck with the feeling of family, of closeness. Here we four are. All doing something separate and we don't having to acknowledge one another or converse but can still enjoy the time, the moment with each other.

Standing in my kitchen some 15 years later I have that same feeling, only better and more complete. At some point in time this past month or so we ceased being two people who loved one another to three people who love one another. I know the little M. has been around now for over a year but she was more something we cared for and loved but still we had to constantly watch and maintain the food/sleep/burp/comfort rotation. This thing has now taken on a mind, a personality of her own.

Trixie is preparing the meal we will eat after the Little M is in bed, I am looking through the never ending onslaught of bills and Mia is in the living room/playroom walking from toy to toy finding new ways of beating them until they submit to her will. She isn't looking for us to tend to her every need. At this moment she is a separate person in the room enjoying the moment. This closeness, our family.