Feeling together in a social distancing world

Wow, what a great weekend at Brite Lake! A few weekends ago, my dear friend, Robin, an accomplished author and local columnist had a family reunion at our picturesque local lake. Recently she published a book. A historical love story called, "Love and Legacy: The Beauty and the Miner," centering around her late grandparents. The wonderful thing was I had the honor of being invited to this family reunion of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of those grandparents.

I knew a couple of the people in attendance but not everyone there. The family made me feel so welcome that it didn't take very long before I felt right at home. The funny thing was, I had heard mention of many of their names from my friend and now I was able to put faces to those names.

This reunion was very special in that it also celebrated what would have been the 100th birthday of their grandmother, Fay Ray.

As a local musician, I brought my guitar along and we sang a few songs. Even in this pandemic, we were able to have some really great experiences together. There was camping, fishing and kayaking on the lake. We even had afternoon lightning and thunder with monsoonal downpours, and s'mores and ghost stories at night around the campfire!

The valuable thing for me was that it filled a space of belonging that I hadn't felt for a while. I know this pandemic has separated us all, and even though we kept our social distances, we all felt very close. I will cherish the honor and privilege of being a part of this event for the rest of my life!