Anecdote for Melancholy

There was one last aspect of my family's visit this summer that I had not yet shared here, but which came to mind when I was feeling blue, and which gave me big old warm fuzzies to recall.  It was such a subtle thing, but one which made the visit so much more fun, and so much more special.  It was unexpected togetherness. 

So here's the deal:  you all know we live in an inky-dinky house--550 square feet total.  With no interior doors, even on the bathroom (sorry about that, visiting family--I tried to make it happen before you came!).  You know we had five guests coming to stay with us for a week: my parents, my elder sister, and her two daughters.  Her two teenage daughters.  You know my in-laws so graciously brought down their motorhome to park in the driveway as guest quarters (and an extra bathroom for emergencies).  What I never wrote about is how it all ended up working out. 

Beautifully.  Even better than I had hoped!

You see, I had expected that at some point every day my nieces would get tired of hanging around with us "boring" adults and want some space away from the little kids.  I figured they would retreat to the quiet, private sanctuary of the motorhome at least once a day, to escape for a while, and read or sent text messages to their friends or be on the web (we have wireless that reaches the motorhome) or whatever it is I imagined teenagers do these days.  What I did not imagine was that my nieces would be young adults instead of teenagers, and be so friendly and social and well-mannered that they chose to hang out in the house with the rest of us adults and kids, all the time.  Granted, we were pretty busy those days, and having adventures out and about most of the time, so there was little time to be bored, but there were many mornings or afternoons when we had down time here at the house, and it would have been quite reasonably expected that the teens would drift off and do their own thing by themselves for a while.  But instead, the girls chose to be on the computer here in the house, or laying with cousins on our bed/sofa reading, or just hanging out and chatting with the grown-ups.  The entire week.  Not ONCE did they go out to be by themselves (unless they were sleeping in or packing).

It was completely unexpected, and so cool!

In fact, I don't recall any of the grown-ups going out to have quiet time either--unless it was for a short nap or packing.  Everybody wanted to be together, and so they were.

So not only did we have ELEVEN people hanging out in our teeny house that week, but they were perfectly happy doing so, all day long! 
And here is the craziest part--at one point we had some friends come by, and at that point were FOURTEEN in the house.  We and our friends were sitting on the bench and chairs we pulled up in the "entry" part of the living room, my family were hanging out in the living room and kitchen, all eating pie and ice cream. . . and there was plenty of room for everyone.  It just seemed to prove that "close quarters" is a state of mind, and when people are comfortable with one another, they'll be comfortable in whatever meager setting they are in.  Or maybe it is not so much being comfortable with one another, but being comfortable with one's own self.  Maybe the trick is to be an easily comfortable person--and then you can be comfortable anywhere!

Even during the moments when the house did feel cramped--like when we were getting ready to sit down for dinner (yes, all of us squeezed in together!) and there was barely space to move around the kitchen table--everybody had such good attitudes and didn't fuss or complain.  (Or at least were also considerate/well-reared enough not do so within my earshot ; )

This whole big hearts in a small house thing was such a blessing to me that week, and is still a blessing now when I remember it.

Thank you for that, my family!