There is Always Enough
How a trip to Booster Juice became a world class family vacation
Penned Aug 5, 2024 by Penny Sue Denim
I keep wondering why I don't just delete the entry in our family calendar that says:
"Block for travel."
Or the one that says:
"(Tentative) Travel to South Africa."
Or
“(Tentative) Cruise Vacation."
I see them every time I open my calendar.
Sort of how I see the stark stats on esophageal cancer every time I open an academic journal article.
Last week, for the first time in days, my husband ventured out of bed and out of the house for a medical appointment. Afterward, we scrambled to get the girls together, bringing Grandma along. Taking full advantage of these moments, we turned a visit to Booster Juice into a world-class family vacation.
On the way down Main Street, I had a split-second flashback of life before the illness: carefree liberty, sitting in an air-conditioned car, popping in for a bubble tea and taking a window-shopping stroll in the beautiful historic downtown.
But that image quickly faded into our reality.
Truth is, the enjoyment and sense of gratitude for those thumb wars while awaiting snack-size smoothies was enough.
There is always enough.
~ ps denim
Oh Kevin, thanks for taking a moment to offer your affirming words. There’s no way to do grief wrong—so it makes it very hard to know how to do it “right”. Lol.
Is there any “right” way to do something you should never have to do?
This morning I tried to help my upset 9-year old daughter reframe her approach to something arbitrary but maddening to her: “I hate it. I hate it, I hate it!” she said.
“I hate it. I hate it. I’m learning to accept it,” I offered.
The way it actually is.
Big griefs and small
There’s something here that feels quietly sacred.
You didn’t try to make the moment bigger than it was…you simply stayed with it. And somehow, that made it immense.
The way you hold both realities—the life that was planned and the life that is—without forcing a resolution…that’s rare.
“Thumb wars while awaiting snack-size smoothies” shouldn’t carry that kind of weight…and yet it does.
There is always enough.
Not as an idea…as something lived.
Thank you for letting us see this the way it actually is.