warm

My brain isn't quite as tired as it should be at 12:22 am.  I've tricked it with some caffeine (consumed a little too late at night) and now it is tricking me out of sleeping.  But a spontaneous and rare after-church evening spent around a table of friends sipping coffee was well worth my current caffeine 'buzz.'  I did switch to chamomile tea after only one cup of the strong stuff.  

But it's not just the drug, I feel deeply content and grateful...for friends and family, for people that love me, and people that let me love them.

I always relish being with my little Saturday-night church family and the larger Church (and church) family we belong to.  Tonight, looking around our table at church, and again around the other table (after church)... I just felt so 'lucky'.  To belong to so many loving people (the ones present and so many that weren't).  To share our laughter and happiness, our shared memories, our hopes, plans, ideas, frustrations, weaknesses, sorrows, disappointments...it seems a bit too wonderful.  Far more than I deserve. 

I get to share life with them. 

Their authenticity and courage through disapointment and loss and sorrow, as well as their steadiness and humility in success and times of blessing... teach me so much about love and life.  They listen to me and take my silly ramblings so seriously.   They genuinely celebrate my joys, and bear my burdens too.

Being 'grateful for friends' seems a little cliche, a bit too obvious for a blog post, maybe.  But I am. Grateful.  Warm and full.    

...............................................................

I am painting a slightly 'soft-focus' lens version of the evening.  There were, in actuality, seven small children wildly taking advantage of a few unstructured hours together in a big house (and all were desperately trying to enjoy a major bed-time extension without falling apart emotionally).  

Still.  It was delightful.  And, hey....maybe the kids will sleep-in a bit in the morning?