"It's like deja-vu all over again" Yogi Berra

So after spending three nights with my parents back home, I thought it only fitting to start out this blog with that quote from a beloved baseball player (and from my favorite baseball team, the Yankees!) The difference here, is that the deja-vu was welcomed with open and enthusiastic arms! I realize each time that I am home how much I miss it. But I know that the Lord has plans for me here in Raleigh. It's funny how doing the past traditions from your childhood make you come back to life and feel refreshed, even though you go non-stop and never take a break.

My entire family finally made it home for a holiday, and I think it was one of the first times that we felt open, honest, and truly there in the moment. No one was focused on being anywhere else, or wishing another person was there with us. I kept my phone at the house most of the time while my mom, sis and I ran errands, shopped, and goofed off. Even though I work for a technology company it feels so great to be disconnected sometimes. There have been so many times that my cell phone has caused issues, and have hurt people, and I didn't want to have it ruin my time with my family this past weekend.

If I could have stepped outside of myself and watched as we hunted Easter eggs (and yes the 20, 25 and 27 year olds hunted Easter eggs, w/ money in them!) I would have seen us as the children that we were, laughing and playing and not having a care in the world. How simple our lives seemed at that moment. I think that's what my mom wanted for us for just that one hour. My grandmother Iuliucci always hid eggs with money in them and watched with excitement as the 12+ grandkids searched eagerly for small eggs and pushed and shoved for the biggest egg with the most money in it. She found the greatest excitement in watching us count the money that we found and seeing our faces as we realized that some of the monies were foreign, that my grandfather found in his military time overseas, or the Susan B Anthony coins that were mixed among the quarters and dimes. Mom had us all laughing until we were in tears at this display of an Easter egg hunt that we recreated, and yes we used the Susan B Anthony coins, and foreign ones as well!

We wrapped up the weekend with a wonderful Sunday service, and I realized that I missed my home church, but that my church here was more fitting for me and my time in my life right now. I miss seeing people I grew up with and the adults that were our family friends that now have grandchildren that are adorable, and that I barely know (which makes me sad and miss it) but I know that my home church is not meant for my age group. There doesn't seem to be a group that caters to that mid to late 20s, and especially not that single group. Why is that? There are so many young single people (I think-I haven't met a lot of them, but I know you're out there! :-) ) but there aren't a lot that caters to us within the church that isn't cheesy, and I use that term politely. Without getting on that tangent, I think I just realized, that even though I enjoyed being there with my family, I know that for me to grow, I need to be here with my church and the people that I'm meeting. At least until I'm called to do something else, and then I will follow.

So on the finals of the "deja-vu's" this past weekend was the cookie decorating. By this point, my sis had to go back to work (she's a nurse), and couldn't participate. But I watched a young 20-year old boy who is Mr. College Athlete decorate cookies with his older sister. It may have had something to do with the fact that I bugged him allll weekend about it. Or that it was just THAT MUCH FUN! :-) I think he just realized that with a big and intense week coming up, with a lot of "grown-up things" that he has to face, he wanted to enjoy the child-like moments of the weekend as well.

Even though the work takes us for a ride sometimes, I often let my prayer be that HE gives me the opportunity to take a moment to enjoy the "deja-vus" of my childhood. Those were the moments that I enjoyed then, and sometimes long for now. And as I learned from reading The Shack (and I'll reference this book a lot) we're allowed to go back to our past for a brief moment and grab that memory, but we have to come back to the present and make sure we bring God back to this present that we're living in. And when we look to the future and we make our plans, is God there too? Or did we make those plans without Him and try to rely on our own plans and control? So I'll take the moments from this past weekend and enjoy them for what they were, and know that I have a present to live in and know that one day, I will make my own memories in the future, but for right now I can enjoy what I have today, for that is all that I am promised.