December 20, 2020

This is a post about nothing. (Wasn’t that the premise of Seinfeld?)

December 20 was a Sunday. We’d had a regular day; church, workouts, hanging out, video games, food, laughing, learning. All the regular.

Buds and I headed to bed at our regular 8:30’ish (Yup. I’m not ashamed.) And on this particular night, Mocha felt pretty sure that we had invited her to be on the bed with us. As we were laughing at her and assuring her that she wasn’t wanted on the bed, each of the children meandered their way back to see what the kerfuffle of laughter was about. Eventually all five humans and the dog were settled on the king size bed laughing and telling stories and just being together.

At one point Yessa said, “I’ll be right back,” popped off for a minute, then came back to snuggle back in.

It turns out she had gone to get her phone and started the video with the phone in her pocket. She knew this would be exactly the sort of memory I would cherish so very much.

We told stories for so long that MoonStar came to sit in the doorway of the bedroom and Waffles came wandering down the hallway carrying his chicken toy to see if anyone wanted to pay attention to him.

The video Yessa collected was a lot of rumble of voices, then shouts of laughter, then back to rumble of voices. I don’t remember the jokes or stories we told. They don’t matter overly much, but the joy of that moment; it chokes me up even now.

This is what I wish for all of us. People who love when you wander into the room, who welcome your stories and ideas, and who show you with their presence and attention how very much you matter.