Irreverent Eloquence

     We had a family dinner last night, multigenerational even. My grandparents and parents and my sister and all our kids. It was 4 generations of chaos and calm for a few brief minutes at one table. Dinner conversation was certainly polite. It started with poop. I swear there is not a meal that goes by in my immediate family that doesn't include some potty talk. Maybe it's because we have young children....or maybe it's because I'm a nurse. Regardless, we moved from the bottom of the bum as we filled our stomachs to chatting about matters of the heart. We speculated about a recent family member's untimely death and pondered mortality for some odd seconds then got to the nitty gritty mid-garlic bread. It was deliciously covered in mozzerella and spice and butter and salt. Cut to the asparagus, bathed in olive oil and parmesan and garlic, and of course...salt. My grandma clucked at her husband and chided a bit about the sodium, I guess he loves it a little. And don

     It's been so long since I've posted. My fingers are slipping to all the wrong keys and I can't quite get my posture correct sitting at this little desk tonight. I feel quite like a square peg in a round hole here. I've arched my shoulders and stretched my neck, adjusted the lighting and shifted my hands back to home-row. I'm trying, that's the best I can say.      Aksel and I have returned to our hometown after ten years living away. We'd only moved three hours north but it was a lifetime apart from this place, it was our own space. We built a marriage, a family, renovated a house and moved ourselves, settled into a routine that was comfortable if not fully functional. Funny thing about that original move, we'd done it when we were young. We had such stars in our eyes and such big plans. Of course when we began it was a simpler life, a lot less baggage in the way of boxes and emotions and obviously fewer little people in tow.      Since our exten