Baby I've Been Here Before - I Know this Room, I've Walked this Floor

This weekend was one of those that come and go, seemingly normal, but forever changing our perspective. Saturday was spent advising at a new student orientation - interacting with students on the brink of their lives. These sullen, misunderstood young adults arguing over AP credits will be our doctors, historians, therapists and teachers. This part of my job will never get old, and will always well up that slightly-misty sense of hope and purpose.

We continued on with dinner with our good friends Irene and Dave. Irene and I met when she became my boss...but she has become so very much more in the past 3 years. They have two phenomenal children, Conner and Meg, that are already such beautiful reflections of the strength of their parents. Upon entering the house I got the once-over by Meg (4) and we started a fascinating conversation about marriage. The highlights:
I think that we decided that Dom was nice and it was acceptable for me to be married to him like mommy was married to daddy
Meg concluded that the shiny ring on my toe was from when I got married and that my red toe nail polish was particularly fabulous
But Meg was VERY concerned about why I didn't live with my sister and who would be staying with her while Dom and I were at dinner? I assured her that my sister lives in far-far away in Spain where she has many friends, but this was unsatisfactory. "Yes, but who is WITH her?" I don't know who it disappointed more that I didn't have a good answer to that question....but it was a sort of beautiful insight into the love that she has for her brother and their connection to one another.

Today, we attended a wake for our friend Stephanie's father who passed away very unexpectedly. Our hearts ache for Stephanie, Mike and their family as they grieve and begin to contemplate life without their daddy. But in the love and life that was celebrated today in the stories, photos and tears - it was clear that the family will have mountains of treasured memories to sustain them through the especially trying times.

It was a strange juxtaposition of witnessing the beginnings and endings of life...and everything in between. And somewhere in the middle, we decided that it was time to find new perspective closer to home. In the philisophical sense, we have been realigning ourselves over the past month - and I find that this often finds very tangible and physical outlets and manifestations. Our most recent victim? The livingroom! Here's a before and after:

If you look really closely at the "after" photo, you can see Tugger sleeping in the music room. He is such a ham, manages to get into almost every photo! And don't worry - we didn't nix the television (my dad would never visit again), it is just off-camera on the left. My favorite Friends quote:

"You don't own a TV? What's all your furniture pointed at?"