Family.

I live with my mom and step-dad in Riverside, ca. Like every family we have our days of fighting and most days our schedules allow us to see each other in 5 minute segments. However, there are moments that make you remember what family is all about. Of course days like baby showers and weddings and funerals draw us together, but I value the unexpected moments above all.

Tonight after dinner we were all standing in the kitchen while my mom did the dishes. My step-dad, Bob, a lawyer, casually pulled out a handful of snap-peas from his pocket. In a weird western twang he said "Oh! I almost forgot my magic beans!" My mom and I almost peed our pants we were laughing so hard.
 "Make sure you put them in the refrigerator Jack, because last time you forgot magic beans in your pocket I found them in the wash. I used to find money and now I find magic beans," my mom said. Bob now happily spends most of his time tending a vegetable garden in our backyard instead of at the office. He is much more the farmer, builder type. We were all giggling again and somehow I started doing slavic dance moves, which prompted my mom to ask if I had eaten the magic shrooms instead of the magic beans.

Bob whispered to me not so slyly, "They aren't even really magic beaaans!"
"They only give you the gas? They make you do the slavic dances?" I asked in my slavic accent.
"That reminds me...I was going to let the dogs in," Bob said.
"I could see how our dogs would remind you of slavic dancing and gas," my mom said.

And the laughter rolled again.

This probably sounds completely ridiculous to everyone else on the planet. But the point to my posting this silly moment in my life is to ask you to look at your family. I don't mean just your parents and siblings, although if you have them you should. But look at your church family, your friends, the people you live life with. And with a new appreciation for them, remember to have fun, let loose every once in awhile, and enjoy those people you love.