Thursday, June 14, 2012

here's looking at you, kid


That adorable little squirt above is my niece, Geneva. That gorgeous woman holding her is my sister Jenna. My sister and her husband live and work on an air force base in sunny California, between Sacramento and San Francisco. Jenna posts new photos and videos of Geneva weekly on facebook and shoots me texts of little G smiling with captions like "Good morning, Aunt Janell!" and as much as I fawn over these images, they break my heart at the same time. Its one of the hardest things in the world.. to live what feels like an entire world away from the people you love.

The last time I held Geneva, she was only a couple of days old. Now she's teething, and giggling, and pushing herself up on all fours and rocking back and forth as she attempts crawling. Everything I know about her little life has been viewed on the screen of an Apple product, whether it be our desktop computer or my iPhone, when I get lucky enough to be able to FaceTime with her and her mommy. And that's just sad. The last time I spoke with Jenna I told her that Chris & I might try to make it out to California before the end of June. Its now the 14th, and "life" seems like it has gotten in the way of a trip out west, yet again. Sometimes I feel like the stuff I like to refer to as "life" really isn't what life is at all.. Aren't the relationships we have with the ones we love supposed to be what life is all about? And if so, how can we fight to prioritize these relationships when everything else in life, all of the filler and fluff, seems to expand and engulf any time you have been saving for these relationships?

 Sorry to be such a debbie downer today.. Maybe I've been listening to too much Iron & Wine this morning, but its just so hard to see how much of such a sweet little life we are missing out on. Here's to hoping that some calendar dates get cleared and we can make the trek out west to see our lovely family much sooner than later.

6 comments:

  1. This is so true. The worst thing in the world is not being close to the people you love, and I loved your point on fluff and stuff getting in the way of what actually life should be about. Such true words today. My sister and I dream of living in the same state and silly obstacles always get in the way. There is never enough time or money to see all the ones we love and that's ruff. I guess that's what makes them so special. I'm joining in on the downerness, so sorry :)But I am so glad I found your blog :)

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  2. What a cute little girl! Congrats!!!!

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  3. I completely agree with you. I want to slow everything down. Sometimes I feel like I focus more on the things setting me up for life than life itself.

    Great blog :)

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  4. Aw. :( So sorry you're away from family. My husband and I moved away from our family (just a four hour drive), but it's enough to really miss them along with our friends from college. It's definitely taking me time to adjust. I hope you get to see them soon also. It sounds like you deserve that much needed break!

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  5. It is really hard when family lives so far away. I'm in the same boat as you, my sis and her husband live on the other side of the country so I see my niece and nephew once a year. Thank goodness for skype!

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