The speed of love

It's been a week since I've written anything here and in that time, I've hugged, cuddled, kissed, scolded, chased and bathed my two wiggly grandsons countless times. We also giggled, horsed around, cooked, cleaned, wrestled, ran, played games, baked cookies, drew pictures, colored masterpieces, rode bikes, splashed in the pool and made up stories. Needless to say, I'm sore and exhausted. And then, very early this morning, as Dustin and Hunter (along with their parents and little brother Cannon) left our house to return to their home in Kentucky, we hugged one another and cried.

We packed a lot of different activities into those two weeks--some of them fun, some of them drudgery (lots of laundry, for instance), and some of them nothing more than the ordinary events of day-to-day living. Mostly, though, we spent our time making memories.

Now that they're all home safely, I can look back on our visit with clearer (although puffy and red-rimmed) eyes, rather than through my emotional "grandma vision." I realized this afternoon, after drying my eyes and blowing my nose for the tenth time in as many minutes, that there's nothing to be sad about. The past two weeks comprised just one visit in a long string of happy times to come. I've tried hard to be a hands-on grandma since Dustin arrived six years ago and I think I've done a good job so far. Even though I feel a terrible emptiness whenever we say goodbye, I know it's only for a short time and that we'll be together again soon. Although Dustin, Hunter and Cannon have lived in Kentucky since birth, I've lived either in Michigan, Alaska or Mississippi during that time. It's always been a long haul to get to them (or vice-versa) and as a result, our visits are fewer than I would like. But we do the best we can with the circumstances under which we live and I think we're doing a pretty darned good job of maintaining a loving, close and vibrant relationship despite the distances we must travel to do so.

Now I have a fourth grandson and he lives back in Michigan. Once more, I'll find ways to be as close to him as I can possibly be. I'll visit and he'll visit and one way or another, there will always be a way to love one another, even if it's from many miles away.

Michigan, Mississippi or Kentucky--what difference does it make when hearts travel at the speed of love?