Our “normal” plan for family togetherness time often includes visits with extended family… but we have nixed that as not responsible.
We almost always spend a day at the water park… but it’s closed.
Often we spend some time shopping… but the mall seems too risky.
We usually go to church with our mother… but there are no services.
So today, we start our time together with tea on the front porch, just three sisters chatting. Soon the cousins and uncle join us, including the cousin who was already out with the cows and the calves.
Then one sister stays home to continue her gardening projects, and the rest of us head off for the paved bike path. Three of us walk, one bikes and one uses her scooter. After a bit, we split again. The two youngest spend time at the playground, two continue walking, and two head into the pharmacy for a medicine someone needed picked up.
These are not the vacation plans that most would make, I realize. Somehow, this year has given us a newfound appreciation for the simplest, most basic thing: being together. And that, again, is my silver lining: we are together, even if we live far apart. We don’t take that for granted these days.