Recognizing the Moment

We gathered around the table at my mom’s last Thursday, a throwback to old times.

Kim, Oliver, Lauren and I were there from Wisconsin, visiting my mom. We’d been there for almost a week by that point, and we were headed back to the midwest the next morning. My brother and his family came down from New York, in part because they were delivering my niece and nephew for us to take back to Wisconsin for some “cousin time” and in part because it’s been a year and a half since we all saw each other and we’re all vaccinated now so we can do such things without too much worry.

They got there late – New York City traffic can be phenomenally gridlocked even on a Thursday in May – but once we were all together it was as if we’d never been apart. It is one of the many things I love about my family, that we can gather together as a group and enjoy each other’s company comfortably no matter how much time has gone by since the last time we did that.

For a while there were two groups, one at the table and one on the couch, but eventually the two groups merged as they inevitably must.

There were stories. A few memes got passed around on various phones. There were snacks.

It’s been a long time since we gathered like that, and time and tide suggest that these opportunities are getting more finite as children grow into adults and adults age into elders. It is a gift to be able to recognize the good old days when you’re living through them, to try to fix the moment into your mind so you can recall it at some later date when the world is changed.

And so I will leave us at that table, sharing food and stories, a moment in time preserved in memory.