What an interesting day. My friend brought several members of his family, two of whom were Camron's age, and they all spent the afternoon catching fish and just watching the pond flow of life. I'm surprised, but I enjoyed the event. It is the closest I have ever been to celebrating a national holiday, and may have been an actual holiday celebration. The kids had fun and laughed, played, and even fished. The adults laughed, joked, talked and (most of them) fished. Cashmere grilled hot dogs and when everyone had eaten we went right back to work on relaxing until it was time for them to leave. This is all very new and strange. We adopted Ron just over 2 years and he has somehow drug two birthday parties (my sister calls them our fake family reunions) and now this out of us. What a silver-tongued devil. One day we were the mean people down the road that everyone tried to stay away from and the next he had us out hanging up party balloons.
Well, some of us. My family is very reclusive, even regarding each other, and we have never celebrated anything either in or as a group. We aren't anti-holiday, or anti-group, we were just never exposed to groups or holiday rituals as children, and then didn't live lives that brought them up later on, so we feel no connection to them now. I feel patriotic on Independence Day, but the idea of wanting to go to a park to have a picnic is so alien to me that I can't even contemplate it. That seems to have changed at least a little. I may never have the appropriate holiday feelings, but I did enjoy today. I also feel a little embarrassed because I remember that the last time he brought his family over we all left. Not to consciously be mean or make them feel uncomfortable, but out of reflex - we disappear at the sight of a group (more than one person). It's an autonomic response on our part but I now see how it could be regarded as fairly rude from a group's perspective.
They took a lot of photos of the pond and the fish and I'll post any that they don't mind sharing. Thanks Kenneth, James, Johnny, Holly, Riley, Chelsey, and Dustin.
And thank you Ron, for graciously opening one more door and patiently waiting for us to enter.