I used one of my personal days at work this past Friday to make this Easter weekend a 3 day weekend for me. So as I sit here on a Sunday night, I find myself reflecting on whether or not it was worth it. I did not really feel that I got many, if any of my felt needs met; but even at that, I believe that it was worth it.
So the questions are "how did I come to that conclusion" and "is it a valid one'. To answer those thoughts, I need to go back to Friday and go through the weekend. As we go through, I will point out the pros and cons as I currently see them.
For the past 30 some odd years, my parents have been having a group of people over on Easter afternoon for a get together. Back in the day, there were a lot more people who came, but deaths, divorces, spats, & people moving have caused the number to dwindle down to about 36 which is about how many we had today.
I made plans to take Friday off over a month ago when I learned that my parents were going to go ahead and have it again this year. I did this because their health is going down and I knew that they would not be able to get things ready on their own. Now my brother and sister also put in a lot of work on this also and I don't want to diminish what they did, because without them the event would not have happened.
I went out there Friday and basically just cleaned up the driveway and found out what needed to be done on Saturday. Even though that does not sound like much, that took up most of the day. By mid afternoon, my Dad wasn't feeling good and so we called it a day and I went home and did my weekly yard work around my house.
I was hoping to be able to spend that evening meeting and deepening a relationship with some new friends that I had just met the Saturday before, but that did not happen as my oldest son and his family came over and I stayed with my family and took my wife, kids, daughter in law,& grandchild out to get Mexican food that night. That meal did not close the gap between me and my immediate family, but the gap did not get any wider either.
So, Saturday came around and I went back out to my parents and spent the day over at my parents trimming trees so that people could drive, park, and walk under them. That took all day and I only got the trees in the side yard where people park and along the driveway. As I drove home, I realized that I only had 2 pairs of jeans that fit me and both of them were now dirty ( I did not have access to the washer/dryer to clean my clothes). I ended up going to Walmart to get a couple pair of Wranglers in the smaller size so I had something to wear.
Now we come to today, which is Sunday. I went over this morning to my parents house and helped my Dad clean out the carport and get it ready to be used as a covered picnic area. Also, I got a couple of ice chests cleaned out so they could be used to ice down drinks. I did this and came back to my house to change clothes knowing that my brother and sister would set everything up when they got there.
I came back and changed clothes, got my camera and headed back to my parents house. You would think that after 30 years of getting together, the people who came would be extremely close, but that is not the case. Oh, there is some mixing. We all greeted each other and would want to find out what was going on in each other lives since last Easter, but once that was done, people generally headed back to their own groups.
There are certain exceptions to this though. Two of the people who come are NMHS grads: Rob, who graduated in 78 and his wife Donna, who graduated in 81. Rob either is or should be a part of our alumni group. I am happy to have them both as friends. Donna's son (Rob's Step-son), Daniel is also the lead guitarist for the group, Dan McBride and the Drifters. I got with Jeff this evening and hopefully they can get a gig at Kickers, but more will be said about that later if and when they get it.
So although I did not feel like anyone reached out to me, I feel like this weekend was a good one. If I hadn't done the stuff around my Mom and Dad's, they would have gotten hurt trying to do it all. My Dad was having a hard time getting around today as it was. I do think that the people who came out did have a good time and I think that the pictures taken there and posted shows that. Also, I am hoping that the alumni and anyone else who will come, will have another get together at Kickers as a family member of a couple of alumni will (hopefully) be playing there.
Now comes the part about God. I believe that even though I did not attend any worship service on Easter, that God was with me, encouraging me to do what I did. You see this weekend was not about me. It was about others and now as I look back on the weekend and reflect on what I did, it was all about loving others and that is always a good thing.
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