I dropped my parents off at the airport this morning.
Over the past 6 days we walked about a million miles – up through Zilker Park, all along Lady Bird Lake, in and out of the shops on South Congress, and the bars on Rainey Street. We had some laughs (but no beers) at the Pitch & Putt, and killed a couple of hours at Top Golf. We celebrated Thanksgiving with family I’ve seen maybe twenty times in my entire life, and had a surprisingly lovely time. We listened to live music, ate BBQ and way too much Mexican food. We two-stepped at the Broken Spoke, had a few drinks, played some dominoes, saw parade and a Christmas tree lighting. It was a pretty jam-packed 6 days. And I even though I’m exhausted today, I loved every second of it.
I know everyone is already onto Christmas, but I never put up a Thanksgiving Day post so here it is:
While there are a lot of things I’m grateful for this year, one thing I’m most grateful for is that both of my parents are still alive and healthy enough to do all of the stuff I listed above.
Over the past year several people very close to me, people who are my family even though we don’t share any of the same DNA, have lost loved ones – mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. As someone who has always been close with my family, I honestly can’t imagine what it would be like to lose an immediate family member. I imagine it would feel something like losing a limb: you find a way to go on living, but an integral piece of you is missing.
The closest I ever came to losing a parent was in college. My mom was sick and the doctor came out after her surgery and told my father and me to get her affairs in order because the prognosis wasn’t good. Then, about a year later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and even though chemo is a bitch, it saved her life.
You would think those experiences would make me appreciate every single second I spend with my parents. That perhaps knowing how quickly it can all change would have prevented me from moving 1,700 miles away because I wanted a lifestyle change and hated snow.
It didn’t.
More than a decade removed from the battle with cancer, I have come to take my parents’ presence in my life for granted.
That’s the funny – or perhaps cruel – thing about the stuff that’s always available to you – you take it for granted. It’s not intentional. It’s just that you become so distracted with the bullshit minutiae of daily life that you forget to focus on the things that really matter. At least I do.
Because I was given some perspective over the past year, I really tried to appreciate every moment I had with them throughout the past week. I wasn’t on my phone. I didn’t check work emails every hour. I didn’t feel bad about not climbing – the wall is still there now that they’re gone. I wasn’t annoyed about not being able to take a bike ride. My bike works just as well today as it did last week.
So while I will probably go back to taking them for granted at some point in the future, I’m super grateful we had 6 days of awesomeness where we created some new memories, I was able to appreciate our time together, and their presence in my life.