All in the Family
So much has happened in the past month and a half. Some things I can write about. Others, I can't write about now, but hopefully will be able to reflect upon soon via prose.
We are in recovery right now from a brief family visit from my sister and my mother. I've never had an extraordinarily close relationship with my family. I've always kept in touch with my mother, but siblings are another story. Three of the five children in my family left the confines of western Massachusetts to pursue other life opportunities and typically never look back. Sister has remained in Massachusetts for her entire life and in the past few years has become a traveler. During this visit, sister basically drove me nuts. She's never wrong. She knows everything. She is a veritable expert. She mothers my mother. It's so strange. One night I was venting to husband in exasperation, and fortunately he grounded me with my own words. "She's compensating," he said.
Whether we realize it or not, we're all searching for that happy medium. Life is indeed all about excess and deficiency. Though my sister never graduated from high school and had children at painfully young age, she's an intelligent woman. She probably feels the need to prove that she is indeed intelligent despite taking the road less traveled in life. I suspect she takes opportunities to deride occasionally to make herself feel better ("this neighborhood is kind of cookie cutter," "you're not one of those chauvinists, are you?"). However, in my consideration of my sister, I need to remember not to judge (lest ye be judged). Rather, I need to attempt to understand.
On the flip side, my mother seemed relatively happy, which is a beautiful thing. I think she's content that her daughter and her husband are in good place in life. Hopefully she's sees that her daughter has a strong friendship and relationship with her husband. Maybe she even sees what friends see about us: that we actually enjoy doing things together. It's amazing how family can be so simultaneously vexing and warming at the same time.
In running life, I continue to muddle along. No races in sight. My goal is to hit 1,000 miles this year. That's it. It may end up being more difficult than it sounds....
We are in recovery right now from a brief family visit from my sister and my mother. I've never had an extraordinarily close relationship with my family. I've always kept in touch with my mother, but siblings are another story. Three of the five children in my family left the confines of western Massachusetts to pursue other life opportunities and typically never look back. Sister has remained in Massachusetts for her entire life and in the past few years has become a traveler. During this visit, sister basically drove me nuts. She's never wrong. She knows everything. She is a veritable expert. She mothers my mother. It's so strange. One night I was venting to husband in exasperation, and fortunately he grounded me with my own words. "She's compensating," he said.
Whether we realize it or not, we're all searching for that happy medium. Life is indeed all about excess and deficiency. Though my sister never graduated from high school and had children at painfully young age, she's an intelligent woman. She probably feels the need to prove that she is indeed intelligent despite taking the road less traveled in life. I suspect she takes opportunities to deride occasionally to make herself feel better ("this neighborhood is kind of cookie cutter," "you're not one of those chauvinists, are you?"). However, in my consideration of my sister, I need to remember not to judge (lest ye be judged). Rather, I need to attempt to understand.
On the flip side, my mother seemed relatively happy, which is a beautiful thing. I think she's content that her daughter and her husband are in good place in life. Hopefully she's sees that her daughter has a strong friendship and relationship with her husband. Maybe she even sees what friends see about us: that we actually enjoy doing things together. It's amazing how family can be so simultaneously vexing and warming at the same time.
In running life, I continue to muddle along. No races in sight. My goal is to hit 1,000 miles this year. That's it. It may end up being more difficult than it sounds....
posted by runninchick at 4:24 PM
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