To be With Those I Like...

The smell of chocolate chip cookies permeates the air and I breathe in deep. There's just something about your Mama's kitchen that makes all right with the world. Family, home, memories... Caleb has talked Mamaw into baking cookies and he asks to crack the eggs... but is satisfied with stirring them in the dough and pinching off a piece before she puts the spoonfills out on the cookie sheets. Outside, the creak of the swing can be heard, back and forth, back and forth... even in these ice cold temperatures. The screen door slams and she smiles as she points for me to sit down. Mom is pulling more cookies out of the oven, and Kami comes back in with her laptop and sits down. She seems a little older, but maybe it's just that I've not been around her much. I stare over her shoulder as she shows me the laptop screen. Caleb comes and crowds in, muscles his way right next to her. We watch videos and before I know it my belly hurts and tears are flowing. Caleb has lost his breath and Kami giggles... and Caleb begs to watch another, then another. It's Christmas break for her and almost break for us and I realize how quickly time flies. It doesn't seem like so long ago she believed in the magic and she sang Santa Baby, and we put him in his carrier under Mom's Christmas tree with a bow on his head. Tonight, I'm pausing to look at them as they are, beautiful and young and full of life and hope and promise. Today, I'm unwrapping the here and now of family and laughter and love, and it feels good. Hope wherever you are, you're relishing the present as a gift... “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough” ― Walt Whitman And above all that... His grace is sufficient.