An Island of Laughter

In the crazy-busyness of my life right now
the kind of busyness that leaves me tossing and turning at night
because I'm thinking of all the things I need to do and sleep is an annoyance
(and yet I love my bed and can't wait to get back in it when I get out in the morning!),
the kind of busyness that has me making lists
and making lists for my lists,
the kind of busyness that has me thinking
that going to bed at 1:30 AM most nights
(if I go to bed at all)
is normal,
in this kind of busyness we had a semi-family-reunion
at my Mom's house on Friday evening that spilled over to Saturday.

My brother, Chris, flew out from D.C.
and my sister, Kathy, drove up from L.A.
and my brother Mark drove 15 minutes from his house
and we drove our 2-ish hours from our house.
Scott and his family didn't come from the southernmost part of AZ
and we missed them.

My sister, Kathy, spoke about our Dad
and his life and accomplishments and his greatness,
and the new "Pursuit of Excellence" award in his name

and we listened to and shared some of the stories

and Miss Madison was given the 2009 award
(a sweet cash prize)

and then we ate the yummy food Mom put together

and did what we do best:
ate-smiled-talked...

and laughed.

Oh my gosh
did-we-laugh.
I wish I had pictures of the laughter
but I was too busy laughing.

In all these pictures we look fairly normal,
as though we are adults in control of life.
But we aren't! Not really!

There is something that happens when we kids get together
(I'm talking about my Mom's kids)
and we start telling stories
or Mark (the Marine-Corps-baby of the family) starts doing something
or who knows what it is,
but we L-A-U-G-H
uncontrollably.

Gut-wrenching
tear-streaming
"I-can't-breathe-I'm-going-to-have-a-heart-attack-I'm-going-to-wet-my-pants"
(sorry)
laughter.

I still chuckle when I think about the laughter.
It is such great fun that I wish everyone could be a part of it.
It feels so good to laugh so hard and so much.
I must have added 15 years to my life this past weekend
from the laughter.
I haven't laughed that hard since our family reunion last summer.

We did have spots of clarity
and in one of those moments we celebrated Chris' birthday
a few days late.

In all my busyness right now
the laughter this weekend was a really good thing.
I have a great family.
I love it when we can get together as adults and have such a good time.

And now I'm home and the lists are waiting
and new lists are being written
and there is still-so-much-to-do
but I'm not kidding you,
EVERY time I think of all that laughing
I chuckle and my heart smiles
and it is all manageable.