I spent the last week with my family and oldest friends celebrating Easter. It was the first time I’d seen them in 3 years. I come from a large, loud Polish-American family, and we are all highly opinionated. This can sometimes lead to friction. But this time it didn’t.

Time and distance and Covid have changed how we all relate to each other. No, not with how we still kiss and hug when we see each other. Instead, we all chose to focus on the joy we had at all being together again instead of the long-running disagreements highly opinionated people will always have.

One of the best things was that the nieces and nephews have grown into interesting and funny young people. Almost all of them got to sit at the “adults table” on Easter with me, my husband, and my mom and dad. The kids loved being with their grandparents, and I loved being able to talk with them about all sorts of things.

These are the gatherings that feed your soul in hard times.

I also had dinner with a bunch of my oldest friends, and that was a freewheeling conversation at a table that was much too long in a restaurant that was much too loud. But we still managed to catch up. And I had a long, wonderful lunch with my best friend of 45 years after which my husband said he really enjoyed being part of it because “you both really like each other, and it shows”.

The true marker for what an extraordinary gathering it was was the Good Friday assembly line to make about 100 pierogis. Ten of us worked for hours on the project, and the time flew by. Bonus:  here are some photos of the process.

We’re still making our way home (we like to break up the driving trip so it’s more enjoyable), but these memories will stay with me for a long time. Joy be with you all.

This is the obvious closing musical interlude, no?