Showing Up

Last weekend I defied forecasts of record snowfall and headed south to Philadelphia. A good friend was finally graduating from college (after nine years and raising a child on her own while working full time). Thirteen years ago I had promised her I would be there at her college graduation, so the date was non-negotiable. The storm hit as I was bidding her goodbye after the celebratory feast, and arriving at my godsister's home. I had never been to her house and never spent time alone with her and her husband and 22 month old baby girl. As the snow came down and piled up, we talked, ate, played video games (which I never do), watched the newscasters go ballistic about all the snow, shoveled, played, hung out. My first flight home on Saturday had been canceled before I even left New Hampshire, well before the storm had hit the east coast. I rebooked for Sunday morning. That flight was canceled by Saturday morning. I rebooked for Sunday night. That flight was canceled by Saturday evening. There were no planes north until midday on Monday, by which time I would have missed a day's work, unpaid, and driven my husband nuts with solo-parenting. So I rented a car and headed home on Sunday morning, a quick and easy seven hour trip north in a PR Cruiser.

It was expensive and exhausting getting home, but I am thankful that I went. The pain of the car trip is nearly behind me, and the hours of conversations with loved ones will not be forgotten. Graduations, weddings, funerals. You just show up. You make it happen. It is always, inevitably, more than worth it.