Sunshine on a rainy day

It’s been raining today and I have taken a well-deserved day off. For a week or so I’ve been too busy to even consider posting anything but I have only myself to blame: I wanted to organize a family gathering to celebrate my aunt’s eight decades. She is the youngest of my mother’s siblings, the only one surviving and single so I invited everyone to a surprise party at our place.

The reunion itself would not have required such a lot of preparation. However, when you have dozens of projects ongoing indoors and outdoors completing some of them tends to cluster around one special occasion or another. So last week we were trying to clear out quite a number of things from the agenda inside the house and my daughter worked long hours in the garden.

The date of the party was last Saturday and we were rewarded with a very lovely day, in fact, the warmest this summer so far. My aunt was all sunshine, impressed by the Dutch treat or potluck dinner we ladies had arranged with delicious cakes and all as well as by the small presents she received, especially the purple pelargonium two of her great-nephews (my mother’s grandsons) gave her. She stayed with us for two more nights returning several times to the ‘wonder’ of the boys’ buying her the plant and took special care when wrapping it for the ride home. I drove her to the station on Monday and I believe I witnessed one happy aunt and great-aunt entering the train from a trip to remember.

This was a visit to cherish for me, too. After all, what is most precious in life are our human relationships. Very few people are such pioneers in science or technology or such unique talents in arts that their work would be invaluable and worth sacrificing one’s personal life for. We regular mortals are all replaceable in everything and to everyone, except to the ones who love us.

That is why I don’t mind the few short nights at all even though regaining the balance will no longer happen overnight. After a family gathering or a night with dear friends I am all sunshine even when exhausted, even on a rainy day.