hugs

My son-in-law asked me for a hug.  I’d just been hugged by his oldest son Campbell, and Ben wanted some of that action.  So, masked and standing in my family room, we hugged while Campbell looked on.  It was the first such hug in a year, I think.  “For everything there is a season…a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.”  (Ecclesiastes 3) This has been a year of refraining.

If we didn’t live right behind Meredith and Ben and see them almost daily, would they have felt freer in the time of COVID to spend more time with friends and to take advantage of loosening restrictions?  Were they constraining themselves for us, the old folks?  And without even a hug or two of gratitude along the way?  Our son Court and his wife Kimberly have lived a wider pandemic life.  Their home is an hour and a half away in Orange County, the next county south from our own.  It’s barely separated from LA if you look at the urban sprawl that spans all arbitrary divisions, but light years away in ongoing restrictions.  Yet maybe their freedom of movement has nothing to do with local administrative decisions, but simply the geography of distance from us.  And if that’s so, was our proximity to Meredith actually driving our daughter’s family into greater isolation? 

Not that there was much we could do about it.  Moving from Illinois to live right across our backyard involved much more than they bargained for, and a bit of isolation is one of the unintended consequences.  If that’s true, I am grateful for their self-donation.  We’ve synced our lives together in a long walk, through uncharted lands.  My life would be much lonelier if they had not made this pilgrimage with us. 

I must add that I also appreciate when Court and Kimberly have placed themselves in isolation for a while to come from the OC to spend time with us.  Another act of self-donation…every such act a reflection of the gospel.

Love, Liz

P.S.  On March 11, exactly one year from when California locked down, Dave and I passed our two-week wait after our second vaccine.  The payoff is careful and judicious hugging of our grandsons…and our son-in-law, and hopefully our other family members soon! 

Photo of our affectionate granddaughters, Chloe and Charlotte, by Jen Perez