Home Again and Travel Thoughts

How to write about this past weekend? Do I write about the long journey to northern Virginia, the evening with family? or the large group of us who walked to the cemetery? Do I write about Jon's military honors ceremony at his grave, about the tears and laughter of the people who were there? Do I tell you about the winery and Deb's welcoming comfort, or about how the younger girls got together with a sort-of cousin to sing and play music? Do I describe the graveyard, the flowers, the fact that the gravestone didn't arrive?

Should I tell you about going antiquing with my sisters, or about Liz's beautiful smart daughters and pretty house? or how my brother-in-law made dinner while we were out shopping, or about the trip Larry took to visit the Civil War battle site in Bristow and the Prince William county courthouse? Would you like to know about the delicious breakfast Theresa made, or about the new addition on her house?

And what about the trip home, the lights moving up and down Seneca Rocks in the dark, a truly eerie sight? Or how we stopped on top of Cheat Mountain where it was so dark that thousands of stars crowded into a milky stream across the sky? or the family huddled by the road, renewing the flowers on a roadside marker noting the death of someone they loved?

Then there was the message on my phone from a woman who lost her only son a year ago, calling to let me know she was thinking of me? And the birthday messages on Jon's Facebook wall and the messages to me from my caring friends and family. And the applesauce I made today and the cider mill being ready to go tomorrow, and the oregano packed into jars and all the laundry put away after our trip, and the good job our neighbor did with caring for our animals while we were away...

There is much to tell you. Some of it I will get to, some of it may never be told, but it happened, and it was all good--all of it.