No Time for Drama

One thing I’m loving about being with my family this week is the lack of DRAMA.

There has been no walking on egg shells. No whispers behind someone’s back. We’re just there, looking at our feet and being present, loving and appreciating each other. Laughing, crying, hugging (my personal favorite), cooking, eating, cleaning, debating, sparring, eating, expressing, listening, reminiscing, more eating (what is it with the eating?) and most of all seeking to understand. I love it.

It hasn’t always been this way, and thankfully over the years, and through lots of pain, we’ve chipped away at the superfluous and been left with the gems of each other.

I’d say, it’s also been intentional. Believe me, there has been plenty of drama in my family and it still creeps up every now and then. But now it seems that we’re all intent on growing and changing and allowing each other to grow and change. We don’t “freeze-frame” each other any more, binding each other to some less-than-desirable stage of our past.

Yesterday, as my brother Karl was packing up to go back to Denver, he commented that he was now my biggest brother. I’ve lost two of my brothers and someday maybe I’ll write on the loss of my second. There’s some drama there. But I’m not ready to yet.

Karl is the third brother and Loren is the fourth. What a gift it’s been for me to be the little sister in a family of boys. I’ve always had a big brother to protect me and help me fly straight. Seriously, how cool is that? Hopefully, I will always have a big brother in my life because, Lord knows, I need all the help I can get.

Coming together as a family, when experiencing the loss of someone you love dearly, strips away all of the superfluous like nothing else can. God gives us a unique opportunity to zero in on what really matters, what really counts, what really lasts. Family matters. Brothers matter.

There is no place for drama at a time like this. Or … at anytime, for that matter. Just a time to be real and to be loved.

Question:
How much drama do you have in your family? What can you do it send it packing?