Love

I have been thinking about families and love.  As I have been at home with the Influenza A virus, I have had the chance to look over lots of family pictures and organize them.  I have been putting Dave's scrapbooks back together.  And I have found some pictures I haven't seen before of my own grandparents.  Maybe I have seen them, but my eyes are more focused now?  I have seen a grandpa who died before I was born, and I had usually had my mind made up that he was a serious and respected man.  And that he was.  But I found a fun picture from his mission to Germany and he and his companions were all in their full length underwear being silly guys.  I really enjoyed that photo and it made me see him a little differently!  I also looked at some photos of Dave's mission friends he made and there was such love between he and Julio, who isn't a family member.  I also have really longed to see my son, who came over and stayed for a nice long visit which was so wonderful!  He actually went shooting with Dave and they had a great time.  I have a dear friend who checked in on me with my illness and was so kind and loving to me.  And Diana has been continuing infertility treatments which are so emotional and I have so much love for her and Dan going through this.  I love Dave so much for all he is.  And I love my grandsons dearly.  Families provide so much opportunity to love and be loved, to forgive and be patient, to let go and dive in.  Friends can also provide these same lessons.  I wonder if in the next life, we will find that we are all family really and that our love for everyone grows exponentially through that realization.  Love requires some pain and work to grow.  And families aren't always neat little packages of people who get along all the time and see eye to eye.  And friends are similar.  Even strangers can help us love.  I really enjoy that all of us are different, even though it requires some work to understand each other.  What a beautiful world this is to provide us all the opportunity to love each other.