Small But Powerful

I have a small but powerful family. I didn’t grow up with a large extended family. My mom was an only child and my father only has one brother and he and his family always lived on the other side of the country and we almost never saw them.

As I grew up my family consisted of my two parents and my older-by-17-months brother. When I was 12, my parents had another son. We have always been a close knit family and we have always enjoyed each others' company immensely.

About 10 years ago I had the good fortune to spend time with a friend whom I hadn’t seen for almost 15 years. One of the questions he asked while catching up was whether my family and I still played games together.

It seems that one of his strongest memories of me was that I was always playing games with my family -– Pinocle, Spades, Scrabble, Monopoly, Parcheesi – we played them all, all the time. I laughed and said, yes indeed, we still loved to play games together.

My parents only live 40 minutes away, so weekly Scrabble games are still the norm, but I only get to spend time with my brothers a handful of times a year.

Holidays are generally spent together, but time seems to speed up with all the festivities and we usually only get in one game of cards and a board game at best.

One week every summer, though, we converge on a house by the water (ocean or lake) and the games begin in earnest.

As I write this, everyone is playing poker, even the children. (And my 7-year-old nephew is winning!)


We only just arrived on Friday night, but already time has altered and we are adapting to the new, slower rhythms of sleeping late, going to the water, making and eating meals together, and, of course, playing games.

I’m sure I will have more pictures to share next week – I only thought to pull out the camera this afternoon, but these photos provide a happy testament to a wonderful, happy family.









This week I am rejoicing in my small, but powerful family.