Love the Skin You're In

I made a trip home to Chicago which became the speed dating version of visiting my family. With only four days and four households to visit the kids and I spent one night at each family members home. Wheew were we tired when we made it back to Minnesota. Families are complicated, everyone knows that, but they get logistically more complicated when they are spread far and wide across the Chicagoland area. My parents divorced shortly after my ex-husband and I did in 2007 after some 30 years of marriage. I knew, unfortunately, from early on they most likely would not be married forever. Sometimes though this is for the better. Both of my parents now seem happy in their new lives and still have respect for each other and there hasn't been any family drama to emerge out of their separation. The only real challenge for me has been trying to find a way to spend any amount of quality time with them and their new spouses now that I live 400 miles away!

From left to right: My sister, my son, me, my daughter, and my magnificent Grandmother.

The kids and I and my wonderful sister spent a few hours with my fraternal Grandmother on Saturday afternoon. She is completely amazing to me. Into her 80's now she is one of the most intelligent, compassionate, articulate, and motivated women I have ever met. All of my life and all of hers she has been passionate about the environment, working tirelessly to support any cause she thought could make a difference. She is an animal lover to the extreme and was an avid hiker and horseback rider. A gourmet cook and health nut, Dr. Decker is what we lovingly and mockingly call her because of her knowledge and passion for all things health related. Oh and the art oh the art! Her home is filled with her masterpieces and I have been lucky enough to inherit several of her works which proudly hang in my home. She is and always will be a legacy to which I am sure I will never live up to. Visiting my Gram was one of the highlights of this trip.

It dawned on me after my visit home that one of two things generally happens as we age, either our mind goes before our body gives out or our body gives out before our mind is ready to give up. We have little control or choice in the matter of aging. The way I see it we should take full advantage of our mind and body while they both get along. The world is far to big and exciting, colorful and wonderful to allow ourselves to be unhappy or bored. Maybe I'm feeling a bit sentimental with it being Valentine's Day and all but the truth of the matter is our time with our loved one's is limited and the legacy we choose to leave or the one that happens by accident is in fact important. I want my Grandchildren to look at me some day and think the same things and be inspired by the same wonderful motivations my Grandmother has represented to me.

Happy Valentine's Day today and everyday!