The Lake Reunion

The Rickett Reunion does it again. All weekend I had this running thought process of how amazing it is to me that we do this year after year. All the schedules that have to get (re) arranged, all the planning and preparing Aunt Ann does, all the traveling that has to occur, and for all the married-ins, all they go through to come to the weekend and add as much as they do. Although it is really a Rickett Reunion, it's all the "non-Ricketts" that caught my attention this weekend. Every single one of them is a special addition to our group (even the ones who've been divorced out-as is evidenced through the kids they've raised or are raising, whether we like to admit it or not). We've managed to attract the cream of the crop and marry them, making our family that much more special. And they are loved as if they were raised right up along with the rest of us. And they love us all back, too.

The other conversation I had with myself was about the four siblings. How different and how similar they all are (as much as they like to think they aren't a bit like each other at times). They are all strong willed, teachers, talkers, observers and challengers. They are all sweet, stubborn, intense and patient in their own ways. But the thing that occurred to me this weekend was regarding my Uncle Bill, the oldest brother. In a way, he has raised us all. He has at one time or another counseled each of us with patience and love on everything from a silly spat we were having with our parent (usually in front of everyone), and I speak from experience to very very serious matters. I speak from experience there too. Despite the very small volume of conversations he and I have had, it's always full of wisdom, advice or support. He also appears to do all things with good humor and a good heart, too. He goes the extra mile and I've never heard him complain. I don't know if he has always been this way, or if he has grown into this person through the years, but he sets an example that I want to follow. I am a speak before I think type of person, riding my emotions and acting on them in the moment, selfish, and lot more volatile than I'd like to be. These characteristics don't apply to him at all. So, although I know he is human, he just didn't seem that way to me this weekend.

I also looked around at all us cousins and thought about how much we've grown and changed through the years. As a little-er cousin, I was less close to my cousin Rhonda and more close to the cousins my own age...now I talk to Rhonda as if I see her every weekend and our age difference seems to have melted right away. And how incredible it is for me to be forming bonds with her children. All in a maximum of twice-a-year visits. And the cousins I live right next to I am finding an integral part of my life more and more as the months pass. The sisters and brothers I never had. I never would have imagined this growing up. I wonder if all the kids (Savannah, Chelsea, Chandler, Bradlee) know what is in store for them.

So I guess it left me extra thoughtful this morning, extra thankful I have a family I can feel this way about...and extra sad I did not take my camera.