Total Joy!

This past week has been one of TOTAL JOY for me. I visited family in Iowa and then brought back my cousin to stay with us for a few days. Yesterday we took my cousin back to Iowa and then came home. I am exhausted from the visit and travel but still basking in the glow of her visit. She is one of the most loving and down-to-earth people I know. Talk about unconditional love and acceptance — she radiates love. My grandkids were drawn to her like a magnet.

In childhood my cousin and I were in the same class in school, went to the same church and Sunday school class, and stayed at Grandma’s house together and at each other’s houses frequently. We were best friends and she was the sister of my heart. My cousin had two sisters and two younger brothers while I had four older brothers. At home on the farm my brothers and I only played games that I perceived as “boys’ games like cops and robbers, king-of-the-hill, and building pretend farms. Our games ranged all over the farmstead, into the pasture, down by the creek, up in the barn’s haymow and in the grove. I trailed along behind my brothers as often as I could but being the youngest and littlest, my brothers often managed to lose me. Sometimes they simply forbade me from joining them in their play.

“Friends are the siblings God never gave us.” – Mencius

As a child I had always longed for a sister of my own who would play “girls” games with me like dolls and house. I was jealous of my cousin because she had two sisters while I had none. The ultimate insult was that she and her sisters loved rough-housing with my brothers while I wanted to play girls’ games and bask in female pursuits. I often pouted when I didn’t get my cousin’s undivided attention. Apparently I told her once, “You’re here to play with me, not my brothers.” What a little dictator I was. Fortunately my cousin was good at ignoring me when I became unreasonable.

When I was nine years old my dad bought a farm near another town and our close companionship at school and church ended. I went to a new school and different church. Fortunately my cousin and I still had plenty of time together at family gatherings and when we could talk our parents into a several day sleepover at each other’s houses during the summertime.

Though our paths diverged in adulthood and we now rarely see one another, during our visit this week it was as if the years and distance dissolved. I was thinking last night after we returned home that I should be hoarse now, as much as we talked during the five days of her visit.

One of the things we did while she was here was visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. She loved it as much as I did.

We also spent time with friends and family. My grandkids have adopted her as Grandma Two (their name for her), showering her with hugs and cuddles. Gracie the cat was the only one in the family disturbed by her visit. Our Gracie doesn’t like change but I think even she was beginning to warm up to my cousin by the time she left.

“Everyone has a friend during each stage of life. But only lucky ones have the same friend in all stages of life.”

There is magic in having a friend who knew you when you were a child. It’s unusual to have the kind of connection that survives time and distance. I am grateful that my cousin is still the sister of my heart and that she and I have such a deep connection.

Is there someone in your life that you haven’t seen for awhile but feel deeply connected to? Life is short! Maybe it’s time to reconnect.

May you walk in beauty.

Note: photos in this post are from our visit to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.