Taking Care of Each Other

I've recently taking up swimming. It's my latest desperate attempt to do something that counts as exercise. Three times a week, for the past, oh two weeks (you've got to start somewhere) I've headed over to the Rec Centre and done the lane swim. 20 laps, I'm told, is close enough to 1 km that I've been using that as my goal.

Feels good.......when I'm done. Actually even during the swim, I find it soothing, calming, centering, over and over again, lifting my arms pulling myself forward through the water. A time to think, uninterrupted. A time to pray.

In the week before Zachary's birth, Kristyn and I were mapping out a few plans for after his arrival. Wait, did I say plans? What am I thinking? You can't plan anything once a newborn is in the house. I guess we were talking more about some priorities, things we were wanting to keep at the top of the list, even once the lovely random newborn chaos began.

At one point in the conversation I had said that I hoped I could still get over to the pool to do my laps. "Because," I said, "I still need to take care of myself."

Abby, who was playing nearby, picked up on that and corrected me.

"We will take care of you, Gramma."

I looked at her and realized how fundamentally right and true and good her statement was. We're a family. Our dynamics may be somewhat unusual but the bottom line is still the bottom line.

We're a family. We take care of each other. The giving and the taking flows back and forth and up and down and in and around in ways that, provided we all know who we are and Who's we are, happens in love and with grace.

And the very cool thing, especially for us right now, is that "family" goes a whole lot further than just those who live under this one roof. A whole lot further. We know it. We feel it. And the giving and taking flows back and forth and up and down and in and around in ways that, providing we all know who we are and Who's we are, happens in love and with grace.

And hopefully I can get in a swim soon.