It's all relative

Yesterday, I was divine relationship.
It couldn't have come on a more opportune day. Yesterday I had offered to go see my sister and give her a hand. Her daughter is 18 months, and she just had a new baby (a boy) 2 weeks ago. Her hands are a little full.
I had done this after my niece was born - taken a day off here and there to go help. I always envision my sister sitting with a cup of tea, just relaxing, or even grbbing a quick nap, while I do dishes, or fold laundry, or mop the floor. or what have you. What always winds up happening is that I play with the kid(s), while my sister does the aforementioned chores. I always feel like I am not doing anything useful while. My sister argues that taking care of the kids is a gift so she can clean without interruption. I get to play with my niece and hold my nephew, so I am not going to complain.
This blog is late. Holding the newborn I can handle. Playing with a toddler is new for me. I fell asleep before I could even think of writing last night.

We also went to visit my grandmother yesterday. My sister wanted to introduce the baby, but needed an extra set of hands for the operation. Aunt Ceci to the rescue. My grandmother is 92 (she will be 93 in June!), and had to move into a nursing home 3 years ago due to declining physical health. She lives about 2 hours away from me, so I don't go as often as I should, or as I would like to.
As yesterday was Thursday, my parents came to the home. Every Thursday my parents visit my grandmother (they live about an hour away). and bring dinner and stay with my grandma. They have a family dinner, and I think my dad enjoys coming up with different ideas. Everytime my grandmother mentions some sort of craving, even in passing, he tries to accomodate it. They've had full roast beef dinners, hamburgers and french fries (my dad even made extra small patties and found tiny buns, so the portions would be okay for grandma), even Tacos from Taco Bell! My mom spends every Thursday morning chopping up a green salad ( I never knew it was possible to chop lettuce, carrots, celery, tomatos, etc... into such tiny pieces) so grandma can eat it. and of course the hightlight of the evening is dessert. Grandma lights up like a little kid.
Dad also brings other things - extra bread, some ham sandwiches, some cheese, extra portions of desserts, so that Grandma can have treats for lunch the next day as well.
While my parents are only able to make it once a week (and a it wasn't that long ago that these weekly visits were maintained through my mom's chemo treatments and endless Dr's appointments), my aunts (who both live about 10 minutes from the nursing home), take turns going every night to help my grandma get ready for bed. It's sad to think that there are residents in that home who may not have had a visitor in weeks, months, or ever (and that isn't a judgement, not everyone has the time, or proximity) and my grandma has not had a single day without a visitor.
Grandma apologizes for taking everyone's time, but everyone wants to do this for her. From what I have seen, there is no sense of "I'm doing this because I owe it to the woman who gave me life". It is a genuine action out of love. May we all be so luck to generate such love in our relationships.

Being surrounded with all these people yesterday made it very easy to be in my relationships.

Exhausting, but easy!