Relative Something

Leisure time with extended family, when it goes well, is absolutely priceless. In this case, I am with Cyndie’s family. Yesterday I got to watch two of her brother’s kids wrastlin’ and giggling and roughhousing on a couch, the youngest one in nothing but a diaper. They looked so much like a couple of little bear cubs battling away in those mock skirmishes that teach them all sorts of things about themselves. I bet these kids are ready to go out and hunt for their own food.

Later, kids were at the game table with aunts, uncles and grandparents, hootin’ and hollerin’ and guffawin’ up a storm, learning how to play a game so that winning isn’t everything and the fun is in just the celebration of the game. I had a thought about how different the environment an only child grows up in must be from those with siblings.

Recently, I saw photos of a family with 6 kids and I thought about how that seemed like such a drastically large number of children. When one of the photos of the kids was a pyramid of the six of them it struck me that my siblings and I did that very same pose for a picture. I grew up in a family of 6 kids! Siblings, cherish each other and everything that having brothers and sisters provided for your development (honestly, both the good and the bad!).

In the morning, after a late breakfast, we tested a couple of table games with dice or cards, out on the deck. It was an idyllic time, outside in the sun and shadows of the trees, overlooking the lake, with Cyndie and her parents, exploring new games and engaging in some good-natured competition.

I tagged along on a trip to town in the afternoon and picked up a new file for a sculpture I’m working on out of a branch from a pine tree that died in our yard at home. I can’t get myself to work with power tools to sculpt, because they remove material too fast. I want to work slow. I like using a finishing tool to shape things because of the smoothness it creates in the piece to enjoy while I handle it during the process. I like seeing the wood grains that get revealed and change as I file and sand.

In town I did some people-watching at the grocery store while Cyndie and her mom waged war inside. So many well-to-do vacationers in town for the holiday. We are an overweight population. If I may pass judgment, on vacation, folks dress in all manner of embarrassing looking outfits. I stayed in the car, out of sight.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!