connections and phone lines

there's been 'stuff' happening around here.
again, not my stuff, so i'll just keep it general.

but here's the part i want to talk about -

the phone.

yeah.
the phone.

the phone rang.
i answered.
it was josh.
i walked it over to hand it to noah.
and then i walked away with a smile on my face
and a huge appreciation of the invention of the telephone.

the back and forths between my family with the phone were
just what all back and forths are when something's goin' on with
a group of people that love each other and are there for each other.
there were a LOT of phone calls.

and the phone seemed like such a symbol to me.
a symbol of connection.

i swear, i could just about write a telephone commercial at this point,
i am so taken with the symbol.

i was mopping the floor when zakk walked in and started talking to me.
i stopped mopping, sat on the coffee table while he sat on the top of the
couch, wet floor all around us, and we got into a great conversation about
what was going on. noah was - you guessed it - on the phone.

there was talking of perspectives, of needs, of choices, of how to handle things -
it was by far the best conversation i ever had while mopping.

and let's face it, if we wanted to go for symbols, the mop would make a great
one as well!

this is a busy group over here. every single one of us has a really full life.
my guy was tryin' hard to get some work done he'd taken special time to do,
the rest of us are all jugglin' our own businesses, all of us feeling overloaded
right now....and yet the phones kept ringing, the conversations kept happening.

i watched - not just the one day....but for awhile now while this stuff has been happening.

sometimes needs would get mixed in it all and the focus would get too intense,
creating some sorta weird imbalance.
and then it'd all balance out again.
things would swing this way and that.
moods and self awareness fluctuated up and down and all around.

but you know what never changed?
the caring, the being there for each other, the drop anything at any time for the
other person - that was steady thru out.

and each time the phone rang, that's what i thought about.
the connections. the love. the being there.

we've created this together.
all of us.
it hasn't been something that 'just happened' -
every one of us has put in the effort to bring it into life.
every single one of us.
and maybe that's why every single one of us values it so much.
and what's cool is every single one of us really does value it.

i've worked really hard at it.
and i value it with everything i have.

and today, i'm bowing down to the love that surrounds me.
to the connections of my family.
and yes, to the invention of the telephone.