Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the Tahiti pictures...it often takes me awhile to load them up and get them organized, so check them out if you didn't see them in my previous blog--same thing will apply to the family photos yet to come.
What a great time I've had with my family!
The amazing thing about people that are part of your life is that when you get together again, it's often as you have never left (Maybe this has something to do with a space/time warp that I watched on the plane from Tahiti to LAX airport.).
My time with family has truly been awesome; it was so the right decision to make to spend some quality time with them. To make this short and sweet, this has included 3 legs:
1) my parents in Sierra Vista, a high desert region in SE Arizona
2) my sister and her family in Westminster, Colorado, about 5 km (Yes, it's time to teach Americans metrics; scream and fight, see if I care!) from where I grew up, and,
3) my brother and his family in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
I could go on and on, but leave it to say I have had a fantastic time reconnecting and catching up on their lives and sharing mine. Great food, games, camping and comfortable time together made my visits about as good as it gets.
There have been some interesting things that have happened along the way. One is that BOTH my siblings and their families are buying veggies from CSAs (community supported agriculture), and both took me to the places that they buy from or know of in their communities to check these operations out. This provided a tremendous boost to me and our future direction at Cloudplay in Oregon, not only providing me some models of what is being done and working, but the reality that this is a movement that is obviously becoming more mainstream.
It was a confirmation that we are on the right path.
One other unfortunate event has been the burning up of thousands of acres of forestry land near Ft. Collins in a fire that appears to be getting only bigger and more out of control. It reminds me of the Biscuit Fire we experienced not far from our place in SW Oregon (and N California). This one has been exacerbated by so much bark beetle infestation.
Lastly, one of the richest aspects of this trip has been a kind of coming together in spite of our various beliefs as the Thiemann family is quite passionate in their lives and pursuits. I TRULY realize that being gay or straight (or whatever?) does not have to be an issue or divider unless I--or my family--puts energy into it being so. How this can and will play out in society at large is still being uncovered daily. I think we'll get there.
Everybody has views, beliefs, and ideas that differ, and that's because we are all relative---s of the whole. We all have our various life experiences and realities, and yet they are just takes on a truth that we are all connected. What a joy it will be when we can all come to that bigger realization.
