Remember courtship?
Remember endless summer nights sitting out on patios, feeling the warm summer air slowly transition into the cool breeze of evening?
Remember sharing six packs and rum and cokes and bottles of wine with friends, all gathered around, all free as they will ever be again?
Remember the promise of a new evening and all of the unknowns it was bound to reveal? Promises of adventure and new love and new friends and memories that would last into old age?
Remember the excitement of… well, life? When everything was new? When everything was worth cheering for? When ordinary moments sometimes made you leap into the air with unbridled joy and enthusiasm?
We took the girls to one of our favorite Mexican restarants tonight. We sat out on the patio, all huddled together as it turned out to be much cooler than we anticipated. And sitting next to us were three young women. And then two gentlemen came and joined them. They sauntered in wearing their khaki pants, polo shirts, and leather sandals and joined the ladies. Soon their talk turned to bars and drink specials and mutual friends. It was all so easy and carefree and so… familiar.
It brought me back to summer days in Milwaukee, going to festivals with friends and staying out until the wee hours. Heading to the lake. Taking a walk outside. Coming home to our favorite nightspot. And for the briefest of moments, I felt the twinge of nostalgia turn to one of longing.
And then I looked over at Goosie, sitting on TJ’s lap with his shirt wrapped over her shoulders. And then I saw Magoo next to me wrapped in my sweater and Mae in her high chair playing with a little wooden alligator. TJ and his ladies. All warm and cozy and together.
And I became thankful for those old days. The ones I can look back on with fondness. And I became excited for my girls, knowing that years down the road, they will share endless summer nights with those they hold dear.
But for now, we were in the present. The glorious, tiresome, wonderful, priceless present when we all belong exclusively to one another. And my longing became contentment.
And peace.
I very recently had a similar experience…I gotta say, its a good one to have 🙂 Lovely words as always, thanks for the smile-inducing read.
We just had our 11th anniversary yesterday, and people kept asking me where we were going together, just the two of us. We didn’t have anybody to watch the girls, so we decided to go on a family day trip to Harpers Ferry, WV to check out all the Civil War-era buildings. It was an amazingly wonderful anniversary, and this post reminds me of that experience–when everybody expected us to want to be alone, but we were with the whole family, and it was nice, and comfortable, and togetherness. Ya know? Things are just how they’re supposed to be.