You're going golfing with whom?

So I must admit that the past few posts have been heavy.  Over the last year, I've felt the need to reassess what I want, how I function, and what my values and beliefs are.  It's been a rough slog, and the last few months I've sorted through a wide range of feelings and thoughts in order to reach some semblance of clarity, with my posts being a primary source of reflection.  I can say I'm much farther along than when I started, though I still have a lifetime to go.

Luckily for me and you, I ain't getting heavy this time.  Well...maybe a tad.

So I've talked ad nauseum about my parents' divorce.  I won't rehash those details.  Nonetheless, for a long time, my parents' relationship afterwards could best be described as chilly.  They were perfectly civil, but they weren't particularly chummy.  A typical exchange usually revolved around what I was doing, how I was getting along in school, or how much one of my extracurriculars was going to cost.  The usual.

Fast forward fifteen years, to a scene I never would have expected even five years ago.  My father, now retired, at my kitchen counter.  In his hand, a bag full of homemade Thai desserts he had made that morning. (You find out some interesting things your parents are into when they have free time on their hands.  Maybe he should open a bakery?) My mother laughing at him because he never bothered to help her in the kitchen when they were married. In the midst of the laughter, she suddenly asked if she could join his weekly golf game the next weekend.  I chuckled; she had only recently become interested in golf.  But my father, the man for whom golf is hobby and religion, who has a longstanding date with the boys for a round or two, not only invited her to the weekly game, but to the upcoming yearly tournament AS WELL.

The moment was quick, but it gave me pause and made me smile.  That's my family.  Not necessarily the ideal, but nonetheless loving and humorous.  Time heals many things, and what a wonder to realize that it can repair, even make more beautiful, the deepest of wounds.