VACATION!

On Friday, less than a week after we all got under one roof again, it was time to leave for the family vacation.

It’s been a discouraging summer for family solidarity. Dan’s been at work. Miss G’s been out of town. Miss L’s kept herself isolated in her room. We’ve taken respective trips to respective places to distance ourselves; when home, we’ve kept our lives carefully parallel. No crossed lines here, no sirree.

I don’t want us to fade out. I’ve beat my fists bloody against this wall; it remains unconcerned. I had little hope our vacation would help. I braced myself for spending a week in the car together driving to Minnesota, then spending another week up there, all of it under this fog of continued disconnect.

Then I took the girls out shopping the day before we left town, and the cloud ditched us. Turns out it’s a homebody. None of the weird tensions or invisible barriers existed outside the house.

Funny thing, how the sun shines so much better through clear skies.

Road tripping for a week, hauling the dogs, camping along the way... cooler temperatures, beach walks, hiking up rivers... If there is enough magic anywhere to combine into the glue we desperately need, it lies in these things. I believe in the healing power of skipping stones and summer thunderstorms.