Lost Weekend

Sometimes it takes being away from your family for a little while to be reminded of how much they mean to you.

As I write this, Jude and J.P. are flying home to Nashville from Jacksonville, Florida (Neptune Beach, actually), where they've been visiting our friends, Troy and Cyndi Baines, and their children, Scout and Finn (Wolf was out of town).  They left while I was at work Thursday afternoon.  I can't wait to see them, to hug them and for us all to be together again.  My family.

To be truthful, I was looking forward to a little down time, some "me time."  No rushing home from work, no limits on when I could go for a run, maybe a chance to go out and grab dinner and a drink with friends.  I did those things and it was kind of nice.  However, by Friday evening I was already missing Jude and J.P. terribly.  By Saturday afternoon and evening, I was restless, bored and tired of my empty, quiet house.  In church this morning, I felt lost, almost, sitting alone in a pew, listening to Tom, our deacon, give the homily.  I felt like a part of me was missing, like I wasn't complete.

At Bongo Java this morning, after a 6 mile run on the trails in Shelby Bottoms, three different people asked me why J.P. wasn't with me.  At church, one of the regulars asked about J.P.  It's amazing, it truly is, the positive impression he makes on people, must by being himself.  Somehow, effortlessly it seems, he brings joy to so many people.  Not just his family and our friends, but people who are on the periphery of our lives, people we see occasionally who work at Kroger, get coffee at Bongo Java or work there and people we see at church.

A lady - I don't know her name, but she's one of the morning regulars at Bongo Java - pulled me aside this morning and made a point of telling me how much she loves seeing J.P. there, how he always brightens up the place with his personality and how there is just something "special" about him.  As a parent, I feel that, too, but I'm incapable of being truly objective when it comes to my son.  It's nice to hear that type of thing from someone else.

Soon, very soon, Jude and J.P. will be home, and we'll all be together again.  I may not let them out of my sight for a while.