Some Good Reasons Times A Bazillion

I'll begin this post with the acknowledgement that, at the time of this writing, one grandson, Harvest, is still outside my own 'social circle' due to living circumstances that need to be honoured.  My Gramma heart is eager for the day my whole family can be together in one space.  Believe me, in our story, that kind of togetherness is not something we take for granted.

Harvest, I miss you and hope we can all be at the cottage together this summer.
Deep sigh.
We'll see.

Harvest age 3, getting ready for the St. Jacob's train ride!

______________

Probably, we all have our own reasons.
To stay 6 feet apart.
To wear a mask.
To stay within our social circle.
To respect the restrictions in the stores.
To wash our hands while we sing Happy Birthday.
And to use hand sanitizer when we can't.
To stay away from a crowded beach.
To refrain from even some of what's now allowed,
just to give that added layer of protection.

We have our reasons.

Here are some of mine.

Abby, long and lanky, still willing to swing a little with Gramma and lay her head on my shoulder while we talk about nail polish colours and plan our spa treatments once we get to the cottage.

Abby, 14, grade 8 graduation

Zachary, tall and talkative, telling me every detail about his newest Lego creation or the wild and wacky dream he had last night, which remarkably can happen in one run on sentence that lasts a full 10 minutes or so.

Zachary, 6, just before Gramma went to Thailand for three months.

Jayden, cute and confident, quick to unlearn the dreadful-but-necessary-rule-for-a-while not to run wildly up to Gramma for a hug, and who competes now to be the first.

Jayden, 3, first time back at Gramma's house

And Harvest, now 9-going-on-10, pictured above, who, by the way, when we're all together and I call out that it's lunch time and we need to wash our hands, is the first to respond, every time!

Of course there's this new one, hoped for and prayed over like perhaps no other baby, due to arrive in August and already fiercely loved.

Baby Boy, can't wait to meet in August

These are my reasons.
Some of the more important ones.

There's nothing I'm so eager to 'get back to' that is worth jeopardizing the delicate, newly-won privilege of wild-running-up hugs, or little moments in the swing, or up close and personal dream-stories, or the hello-Gramma of an unborn baby's kick.  Nothing I want so much that I would risk bringing infection to my daughter at this point in the game (or ever).  Nothing so important that I would risk pushing Harvest's return to our circle any further out.

This is a gift. 
One gift of so many, actually, brought to us, courtesy of Covid-19:
The distillation of what we already knew was precious,
but now is that times a bazillion.