And All is Well in Kate's World Today

Once upon a weekend, on the windswept prairies, the K clan gathered, as is their annual custom on President's Day weekend. To eat, and laugh and play a few hands of cards, to catch up on one another's lives and just enjoy being together. This year, however, there was a newcomer among them. The youngest brother of the clan had a new lady in his life. Oh, they had been hearing about her. Way more than she knew, fortunately for her, and were waiting to meet her. They were very warm and welcoming and a good time was had by all....

I took the advice in your comments and concentrated on learning names and having individual conversations. By the end of the weekend I had the names of all six of the siblings present, their five spouses, the five young adult children who were divided between the siblings and the three grandchildren they in turn produced pretty well nailed, and most of the time could match who went with whom. I teased and was teased in turn by Dad, and had a serious conversation about a family concern with some of the sisters. Not bad for the first time out of the chute, I'd say.

As expected, I liked them. They are fun to be around, they enjoy each other and it shows. It was a delight to watch R with them, to see him with his sisters and his brother and his Dad, who is 95 and deals with some memory issues. R is sweet and patient with his dad and it made me fall in love with him all over again to watch him. He and his sisters and brother pick on each other in that affectionate way of people who have known and loved each for a long time. Clearly he is closer to some than others. There is a large age span. As one of sisters noted, she could have easily been his mother, several of them were off and and gone when he was tiny. Unlike in my family, though, adult relationships have been built and there is caring and affection. There is, as he says, a safety net here. If you need, you call and the Clan rallies for you.

And it is a good thing that we all took to each other. I to them and they to me. As it is official that I shall be an "outlaw" member of said clan come May 2010. Yes, asked and answered on Valentine's Day. I'm guessing this comes as no surprise to you who read this post. It has been evolving for us and even though the ask and answer was a formalizing of something we both already knew to be true, I still find myself amazed. It's that time thing I wrote about a couple weeks ago. In some ways we are still so new, and yet we are so right with each other, that it seemed a foolish thing not to publicly state and confirm what we both are fairly certain to be true--we are each others' future. But we both agree that a year is a good time frame for an engagement. Time for us to settle...to be sure that what we think we know is really true and lasting. We picked May because it is Spring and lovely and, well, it just felt right. And it gives ample time to dream and plan for the one wedding I am going to have in my life. With good liturgy (of course!) and a wonderful party after with food and dancing to which all our friends, as well as the extended Clan will be invited.

So that was my big weekend. Far less stress and far more wonderful than ever imagined. God continues to shower my life with blessings. And I continue to remind myself that the correct response to blessing is gratitude and not guilt, that my more is not someone else's less, that there is great abundance in God's world and that it really is ok for me to fall into the net of love that surrounds me and just enjoy it. Grace does abound.